(Morrison 127) Pretending to do something good in all his anger he gives “the love to his ugly daughter, that she has never experienced” (Suranyi 15). The hauntedness would irritate him – the love would move him to fury”. If he looked into her face he would see those haunted, loving eyes. “The clear statement of her misery was an accusation. Cholly cannot stand his daughter’s sadness and weariness they hurt and enrage him at the same time. This confusion leads to the violent act of rape in their own house, a place that actually stands for the concept of ‚home‘ and ’safety‘. Although Cholly loves Pecola, he cannot control his rage and lust and does not understand her ways. He rapes his own daughter and even gets her pregnant. For Pecola it is devastating to realize that “ black mother hates her own child as a reminder of her hopeless situation and adores the young child of the white family she works for”.
The little daughter is even allowed to call her by her first name while her own daughter addresses her as ‚Mrs. In her work family Pecola’s mother suddenly is capable of being sensitive and loving. They are probably much closer to the family in Dick and Jane than her own one is. Breedlove is only truly happy when she is with the white family she is working for. Pecola, however, has a childhood experience that is slightly different. “Jane is a lucky girl, with nothing to cry or sulk about” (Grey, Sharp 1). Jane grows up in a perfect home, she has everything she needs and more and is a happy little girl. Hardly could the lives of Jane and Pecola be any more different. What Jane takes for granted, an intact childhood with nothing to worry about, is an utopian ideal for Pecola, who suffers from racism and hardship everywhere she goes. They will make her pretty, give her a beauty that she does not see in herself for she has never learned to love and respect herself. Being told that she was ugly throughout her whole life she puts all her hopes and dreams in the wish for blue eyes. “Every night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes” (Morrison 35). It is especially the eyes that leave a deep impression on Pecola, she desperately longs for eyes like Jane. She grows up in a world were Jane matches the current beauty standards. Pecola deeply admires the little girl from the stories. For Pecola there is only one aim in life: to get the blue eyes of a Jane someday. For Pecola Jane is the perfect little girl that has no problems and that she deeply wishes to be one day. The story of Dick and Jane is cleverly interwoven into the plot and setting of Morrison’s novel. She adores Jane, the famous figure from the children’s book, who grows up in an entirely different way.
She is an innocent young child that is constantly confronted with fear, insults and deep sadness. As the protagonist she has chosen Pecola Breedlove, a little black girl living a life of misery and disappointment. Other issues the author touches upon are racism, sexual abuse and incest. In her novel The Bluest Eye Morison draws another, a contradictory picture by looking at hardship of black working-class families around 1941. She gets along with her brother, has loving parents who take good care of her and is a natural beauty. Jane is depicted as the prototype of the middle-class daughter.
The educational guide works with an utopian picture of the family always happy, everything how it is supposed to be. The Bluest Eye is filled with passages of Dick and Jane, a book that represents the perfect, white family from the suburbs.
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