Theme Of Love In The Bluest Eye Book Analysis

The student feels the theme of the story is love prevails. In the 1940s, discrimination against colored people was more prevalent and due to this Pecola and Claudia suffered from beauty standards and being insecure about how they look. However, as the book progresses we see how love or lack of love had a lasting effect on Pecola and Claudia. Pecola has a toxic family and feels insecure about herself. After one of her family’s fights, she wishes to God... “ "Please, God," she whispered into the palm of her hand. "Please make me disappear." She squeezed her eyes shut.”...”Each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes. Fervently, for a year she had prayed. Although somewhat discouraged, she was not without hope. To have something as wonderful as that happen would take a long, long time.” 

Claudia is faced with discrimination but she is strong enough to fight back. “Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs—all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured.”... “Break off the tiny fingers, bend the flat feet, loosen the hair, twist the head around, and the thing made one sound—a sound they said was the sweet and plaintive cry "Mama," but which sounded to me like the bleat of a dying lamb, or, more precisely, our icebox door opening on rusty hinges in July.” 

Due to Claudia having a loving family, she was able to stand up to the torment that black people were going through. By the end of the book, she was relatively unscathed despite the prejudice she went through at school. However, Pecola’s mental health was at an all time low by the end of the book. She was unable to see past her insecurity. Pecola’s mental health was affected by her toxic family household and the bullying she had to face while she was at school.She ends up being mentally broken at the end of the book, having deluded herself into believing that she had gotten blue eyes. While Pecola is passive due to her ugliness and seemingly every one confirming it, Claudia is innocent and brave. Claudia was raised with tough circumstances but she was young and innocent and willing to fight back. Claudia has a loving sister.