Similarities Between The Bluest Eye And Catcher In The Rye
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Throughout the "coming of age" novels, a major similarity between the works is the impact of adulthood on the main characters, who are all children. The adults in the books dispose of their own anger and sadness on the children counterparts. In the Catcher in the Rye, we are told Holden's brother recently died, instead of his parents consoling their living child, he is sent to a boarding school. Holden needs comfort and involvement of his parents, but he gets none. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola is the victim of her father's own troubled and hatred past. His numbness to sex, woman and life has left his unaware of raping his daughter. It has impacted Pecola as she goes crazy at the end of the novel. Both novels contain a story of being a victims…show more content… Even the author of the novel, Toni Morrison, sees that the parents are hurting their own children because they have been hurt themselves. In saying this, can we really blame the parents for the wrong they have done their children. Are they to blame for their actions? The chapter of the parent’s lives allows to feel sympathy for the parents as we do for the children. Pecola’s parents have been subjugated to racism, have been sexually traumatized and brainwashed as to what beauty looks like. Their jaded interpretation of life due to their sad circumstances have been put on their children. We see this through when Pecola’s mom says she ugly, from the first time she laid eye on her, because she was darker skinned. This can show the insecurities Pecola’s mother has for herself because Pecola is a reflection of her. As she does say in her backstory, she "settled down to just being ugly" (Morrison 123). Also, after being raped by her father, Pecola’s mother beats her. What a strange thing to do but in her defense? But, that’s how Pecola’s mother knew how to deal with the situation; the one emotion she knows well is anger, after having a horrible life. On the other hand, her mother could have felt angry because she sees her own husband had betrayed her by finding their daughter attractive and not her. In defense to Holden’s parents, they are trying to deal with the loss of one son;…show more content… In The Bluest Eye we have two different kind of parents, the parents of Claudia, Frieda and Pecola’s. Claudia and Frieda’s parents are very hands-on. For example, when the parents found out that Henry was touching Frieda, they ran him out of town and started shooting at him. However, Pecola’s parents do nothing but traumatize her more. Claudia and Frieda seem to have a happier life then Pecola. They aren’t subjugated to the hurtful actions and words said by their parents like Pecola. Claudia a very smart 9-year-old girl is strong. I believe it is because of the strong mother figure she has to emulate. Pecola has a violent, insecure and hateful mother; that is what Pecola has to look up to. Claudia has her own thoughts and ideas, she doesn’t fall into the white standards of beauty the society has. She is free to make her own thoughts because she doesn't have parents, such as Pecola’s, draining there sad life onto her. Pecola’s parents, mainly her mother, make her suffer from white beauty standards; she isn’t beautiful to own her mother. At a time of need, when Pecola spilled a hot pie on her, her mother makes sure she reassured the white child she takes care of and not her own daughter. In this scene, we see Pecola’s mother is capable of love just isn’t capable of loving something she created because she sees her as ugly. This influences Pecola because she was lighter skin and blue eyes