Mapping Directions of Aggressions in

The Bluest Eye

Denis Drescher
July 27, 2014
e present paper analyzes directions and qualities of aggressions in Toni
Morrisons e Bluest Eye. To this end it establishes purview and method-
ology before presenting the visualized graph that results from an annotated
adjacency list of the aggressions.
1 Introduction
A number of structural paerns in nature and direction of the interactions that Toni Mor-
rison portrays in e Bluest Eye stood out to me upon my rst reading of the novel. Many
of these interactions related to aggressive behaviors in more or less apparent ways. ese
individual aggressions, however, may have just aracted my aention due to a possi-
ble predisposition on my part for the corresponding paerns, in which case conrmation
bias would have lead me to involuntarily ignore other aggressive behaviors contradicting
them.
In particular it seemed that it was oen an older generation that acted aggressively
toward a younger generation along the cascade of the at least three generations that the
book traces upstream, as it were, into the past. What rendered this hypothesis consciously
plausible to me was the relative impressionability and vulnerability of children, and their
parents position of authority (Vissing et al.; Huntsman).
To minimize the inuence of personal biases and thus solidify the empirical basis of
further inferences, this term paper aempts to record aggressions in e Bluest Eye as
comprehensively as possible and visualize them algorithmically to make any such ows
of aggressions apparent, if they exist.
One hurdle in this respect is that aggressions can vary widely in their intensity, from
Chinas teasing of Marie (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 39, 41), an adult, over the microag-
gression by Claudias parents on their daughters when Frieda and [Claudia] were not
A process the novel comments on (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 134).
1
introduced to [Henry]merely pointed out (10), over Charles Breedloves traumatic ex-
perience when white hunters forced Darlene and him to have sex in front of them (116), to
the two times that Charles Breedlove rapes his daughter Pecola (128, 158). Unfortunately,
there are only few pairs of cases that can be ordered with respect to their intensity so
that enough observers would agree with the order to call it objective. What is helpful in
this case is that there are several established systems of classication of aggressions (see
section 3) that allow us to assign categories to the aggressions, categories that are more
readily distinguishable.
Another hurdle is that the representation of aggressions in the literary text is sometimes
not straightforward. Action or dialogue may convey aggressions very directly, but it is also
possible that an aggression, while very explicit for the victim, is only implied for the reader.
One example is the scene at the big white house with the wheelbarrow full of owers
where Paulina Breedlove works as domestic aid. At the end of the scene, Pecola (together
with Claudia and Frieda) is leaving while the familys child asks who they were. Mrs.
Breedlove evades the question, eectively denying her daughter in front of her (Morrison,
e Bluest Eye 85).
Interior emotion or monologue may also be straightforward in its descriptions of ag-
gressions, but in other cases, the victims themselves may not be aware of the aggressive
nature of an interaction they experienced. Pecolas encounter with Mr. Yacobowski, the
owner of a candy shop, during which Pecola is the point-of-view character, is told in a
quick alternation between action, dialogue, interior emotion, and a lile interior mono-
logue. She is unable to speak in his presence and sentences such as His nails graze her
damp palm reveal her fear, or more precisely shame, as it is made explicit in the following
sentence. en she does feel a sense of vague anger, but only momentarily before it is re-
placed again by shame. Underneath lies Mr. Yacobowskis aggression in his disrespectful
and contemptuous behavior toward her. is is amplied by her identication with dan-
delions. She initially liked them, but aer the experience acquiesces to popular opinion
and decides that theyand by implication she herselfare weeds and ugly, whereby she
blames herself for Mr. Yacobowskis show of contempt (e Bluest Eye 4750).
Similarly, in the wide eld of description and narrative summary, some aggressions are
not themselves described or summarized but strongly implied as premise for the described.
On page ve already, Claudia describes rst the travail she and her family put themselves
Another factor to consider is Claudia MacTeers possible unreliability as narrator. However, the implica-
tions, if any, are not clear to me. e chapters that are narrated from a rst person perspective, moreover,
are set in ragged right in the two editions I have at my disposal, possibly to indicate the inchoate nature
of a childs worldview. In these chapters, Claudia assumes an internal focalization on her younger self,
while she, or the narrator, seems greatly more perspicacious and self-aware in the chapters set in regular
ush le and right.
Just possibly, the act of consuming the Mary Janesa brand of sweets with the smiling white face of a
girl named Mary Jane on them, with blue eyes looking at [Pecola] out of a world of clean comfort
may be akin to a vorarephilic sexual experience for Pecola, which would turn the act of buying them
into an intensely intimate endeavor to begin with. (Her milk binge from the Shirley Temple cup might
be interpreted in a similar vein.) is interpretation is reinforced by the description of Pecolas eating
them as nine lovely orgasms with Mary Jane (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 50).
2
through to collect the tiny pieces of coal lying about near the railroad tracks that lead
to a steel mill. In the following paragraph, she describes their home as cold. Only a few
pages later, she explains the concept of outdoors in more detail and mentions that to be
put outdoors by a landlord was one thingunfortunate, but an aspect of life over which
you had no control, since you could not control your income, which highlights the dis-
crimination of people of color on the job market. Taken together, these scraps of summary
and description portray clearly the intersectional, multifaceted forms of aggression that
Claudias family and community, and by extension people of color throughout the US,
were (or are) exposed to, the aggression of racial oppression from whites and capitalist
oppression from the owning class.
In the following, section 2 will rst establish a reasonably precise denition of aggres-
sion as the term is used in this paper. en, section 3 will introduce the three classication
systems that will serve as guide for a qualitative analysis of the aggressions in e Bluest
Eye. e distinctions in the textual representation of aggressions that I will observe will
be explained in section 4. On this basis, section 5 will turn to observations on the process
of applying these typologies to the text. e nal section, section 6, will present the result,
the graph, which will also answer my opening hypothesis.
e full annotated classication table that forms the basis for the graph is aached as
appendix to the paper.
2 Definitions of Aggression
Polysemy, the greedy habit some words have of taking more than one meaning for them-
selves, (McKean) is a core feature of natural languages. e term aggression is certainly
not an epitome of polysemy, like set or run, but in dierent contexts the intended mean-
ing will also be subtlely dierent. Hence, what this section seeks to establish is not an
encompassing denition of aggression but one that will help describe the purview of this
survey.
Requirements for such a denition are that it be specic enough to allow the reader to
decide in most of the cases found in e Bluest Eye whether they constitute an aggression
according to the denition; that it be inclusive enough to capture most of the aggressions
that have signicant eects on the characters; and that it be unencumbered by the dif-
culties associated with passing moral judgment on aggressors, since such an endeavor
would go far beyond the scope of this paper.
Dictionary denitions such as (1) An unprovoked aack; the rst aack in a dispute
or conict; an assault, an inroad, (2) e practice of aacking another or others; the
making of an aack or assault, (3) Feeling or energy displayed in asserting oneself, or
in showing drive or initiative; aggressiveness, assertiveness, forcefulness. (Usu. as a posi-
tive quality.), or (4) Behaviour intended to injure another person or animal; an instance
of this (Oxford English Dictionary) are unfortunately alternately limited to aggressions
between countries, too broad to be useful in this context, or entirely reliant on synonyms.
3
Within the academic literature, one popular denition appears to be the following: Ag-
gression is any form of behavior directed toward the goal of harming or injuring another
living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment. (Baron and Richardson 7)
is denition makes ve important choices: (1) that aggression is a behavior rather
than an emotion, aitude, or motive; (2) that the aggressor intends the aggression; (3)
that it aims to harm or injure the victim; (4) that the victim needs to be a living being;
and (5) that the victim is motivated to avoid the aggression.
ese observations are valuable, but one of them critically limits the scope of the term.
Although Baron and Richardson observe that the notion of intend is a problematic one
to include since it is not externally observable, they argue that to exclude it would make
it necessary to describe the actions of surgeons, dentists, and even parents when disci-
plining their children as aggressive. (Baron and Richardson 9) As such, however, the def-
inition would exclude a range of microaggressionsspecically many microinsults and
microinvalidations, a distinction that will be explained in the corresponding subsection
from the denition, as they are oen inicted negligently rather than intentionally. ese
microaggressions have critical eects on many characters in the novel as well as in reality
(Sue et al. 278).
To resolve this conict, it should be observed that, rstly, in the cases of surgeons and
dentists, the h criterion does not apply; evidently, their patients are more strongly
motivated to undergo treatment than to avoid it. Optionally, changing the denition to
say predominantly motivated would make this clearer, but introduce another poten-
tially vague term. Secondly, categorizing the action of parents disciplining their children,
whether verbally or physically, as aggressive does not seem to conict with the notion of
aggression when removed from its morally judgmental overtones, as I intend to do here.
A verbal chastisement may oen be legitimate despite its aggressive nature.
Importantly, they also point out that omission of any mention of intent would remove
from the scope of the denition any (intuitively) aggressive actions that were foiled. An
imperfect example of this might be Claudias blow against Maureen, which missed. She
instead, accidentally, hit Pecola (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 56). None of this would intu-
itively strip the aggressiveness from the behavior. is argument, however, should not be
read as an argument against the exclusion of intent from the denition in any form but
merely against the exclusion of intent as sucient condition for an aggression.
Consequently, I will describe as aggression in this text any form of behavior negligently
or intentionally harming or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such
treatment, or the aempt thereof.
On the diagetic level, I will later introduce the hypothetical aggression, which is merely imagined or
discussed, not actualized.
Luckily, the edge cases of who can be considered living will be of limited importance for this paper.
Cases where a guardian decides in favor of a surgical procedure against the will of a child or a senile elderly
person may constitute an edge case but may also be covered by the vague reference to motivated to
avoid.
To avoid the connotational baggage in cases like this, one might opt for alternatives like assertive or
forthright.
4
It should also be noted that the denition does not make mention of the precise nature
of the perpetrator, so that it encompasses aggressions that are inicted by groups rather
than individuals that could clearly be pinpointed. Aggressions that will later be described
as systemic or societal count into this category.
What the denition excludes, however, are aggressions toward or by inanimate objects.
When Claudia dismantles her dolls, the aggression is not one against the doll but one
that bifurcates into, on the one hand, a symbolic or at that point hypothetical rebellion
against the societally dictated ideal of beauty that the doll represents and, on the other
hand, a more concrete aggression against her parents, who may be irked by her lacking
appreciation of their gi. Conversely, the perceived aggression of the doll against Claudia
(It was a most uncomfortable, patently aggressive sleeping companion (Morrison, e
Bluest Eye 14)) does not count by itself constitute an aggression of this sort by is rather
another indication of the systemic oppression that she perceives more subconsciously at
her young age and that causes her heightened state of irritability and vexation with the
doll.
3 Classifications of Aggressions
Aggressions can have a physical and an emotional impact on the victim, though it is hard
to imagine a physical aggression that does not also have an emotional dimension. When
an aggression is eective purely on an emotional level, it can oen be described as mi-
croaggression (Pierce et al. 65), some of which are ambiguous and nebulous as Sue et al.
(272) described them, and thus dicult to identify and acknowledge.
Categorizations of aggressions that I have encountered in the literature have oen been
dichotomous, and Ramirez also observed that they can usually be divided into systems fo-
cused to distinguish the form or mode of aggression [and] others interested in its function
or goal, whereby his own study is one of the laer kind (Ramirez 86). e description of
the function or goal is one that scrutinizes the aggressor, while those focused on form
or mode (the next subsection will introduce Busss system) concentrate on the aggression
itself. What is missing is a typology of its impact on the victim. At least in the realm of
microaggressions, Sue et al.s system lls this void.
3.1 Buss
One taxonomy that is interested in the form or mode of the aggression and that is also
referenced by Baron and Richardson in their book was proposed by Buss. Grin, OLeary-
Kelly, and Pritchard 65 calls it the most widely recognized typology of aggressions, and
Google Scholar lists more than 1,400 articles that cite Busss book. e typology distin-
is lack of appreciation, of course, was owed to their own role in perpetuating this societal ideal that
ran counter to Claudias and, moreover, through the microaggression of never asking her for her own
wishes.
5
guishes three pairs of mutually exclusive modes of aggression, and thus captures eight
types in total.
Physical vs. verbal Physical aggression involves physical action on part of the actor,
whereas verbal aggression inicts harm through words. (Grin, OLeary-Kelly, and
Pritchard 65)
Active vs. passive Active aggression requires the actor to do something to harm the
target, whereas passive aggression involves withholding something that the target
needs or values. (65)
Direct vs. indirect Direct aggression has the actor harming the target directly, whereas
indirect aggression is proximate. (Baron and Richardson 10)
3.2 Ramirez
Following from his observation about the dierent foci of taxonomies, Ramirez was able
to integrate the systems he surveyed and strip redundancies until his new system again
distinguished three pairs of alternative motivations or causes for aggressions. e terms
are fairly intuitive: hostile vs. instrumental, Impulsive vs. premeditate, and proactive vs.
reactive.
Hostile vs. instrumental Hostile aggression is an angry, unplanned act intended to
harm another person, whereas instrumental aggression is conceived as a premed-
itated technique for obtaining a variety of objectives, such as some reward, prot,
or advantage for the aggressor.
Impulsive vs. premeditate Impulsive aggression tends to pursue immediate gratica-
tion, without thinking or concern about consequences, delaying long-run costs,
whereas premeditate aggression is planned, purposeful, intentional and goal-
directed.
Proactive vs. reactive Proactive aggression enacts aggression as an eective means for
obtaining external rewards and social goals, such as possession of objects (i.e., in-
strumental) or dominating people (i.e., person-oriented or bullying), whereas re-
active aggression is a hostile reaction or response to any perceived harm, threat or
provocation. (Ramirez 8793)
Examplesborrowed from Baron and Richardsonfor the indirect case are hiring an assassin to kill an
enemy (physical, active, and indirect) or failing to speak up in another persons defense when he or
she is unfairly criticized (verbal, passive, and indirect). e other modes are fairly self-explanatory.
Premeditate as adjective seems to be a neologism along the lines of such words as aggregate or separate,
possibly coined to avoid having to break the parallelism with premeditated as the only participial
adjective. Premeditative seems to apply more to the agent than to the act.
e distinction into hostile and instrumental aggression is a controversial one, albeit widely adopted.
Bushman and Anderson (275) make a strong case for its limited applicability, and I will refrain from
applying it in cases that appear ambiguous.
6
Unfortunatelyand one can already recognize this in the denitionsthe pairs are not
entirely independent. Ramirez observes that the combination of instrumental, premedi-
tate, and proactive and the combination of hostile, impulsive, and reactive are dispropor-
tionately common, based centrally on Polman et al.s meta-analysis of empirical studies
and corroborated by three more studies cited in the paper (Ramirez 9394).
3.3 Sue et al.
A more specic category is that of microaggressions. Sue et al., who developed a trichoto-
mous taxonomy of microaggressions, describe racial microaggressions as brief and com-
monplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or
unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults
toward people of color. is concept can easily be extended to encompass any nonvi-
olent slights that oppressed groups are exposed to. ey distinguish three subgroups of
microaggressions.
Microassault Explicit racial derogations characterized primarily by a violent verbal or
nonverbal aack meant to hurt the intended victim through name-calling, avoidant
behavior or purposeful discriminatory actions.
Microinsult Behavioral/verbal remarks or comments that convey rudeness, insensitiv-
ity and demean a persons racial heritage or identity.
Microinvalidation Verbal comments or behaviors that exclude, negate, or nullify the
psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person of color. (Sue
et al. 278)
ese taxonomies by Buss, Ramirez, and Sue et al. are complementary, with the rst
one focusing on form or mode (Ramirez 86) of the aggression, the second on their func-
tion or goal (86) for the aggressor, and and the last on their impact on the victim. Apart
from these dierences, the rst system appears to be the most broadly applicable one.
I will explain some of the limitations of Ramirezs taxonomy in section 5, as they are
not immediately obvious. What is explicitly obvious, however, is that Sue et al.s system
only describes microaggressions, and many aggressions in e Bluest Eye are anything but
micro-. While they may have ancillary aspects that t one of the denitions, applying the
category to the whole of such an aggression would be tantamount to a microinvalidation
against the reader.
To reconcile these dierent systems, the applicable categories, and only these, will be
listed for each aggression.
4 Types of Textual Representations of Aggressions
Just as aggressions can be taxonomically qualied, so can their representations in a literary
text. e section on motivation already touched on some of the dierent contexts of ag-
gressions in e Bluest Eyein action and dialogue, in inner emotion or inner monologue,
7
and in description or summarybut what they all have in common is that they either de-
note actual aggressions (within the partially ctional realm) or hypothetical aggressions
that take place on an embedded diagetic tier as characters, including the narrator, merely
imagine them.
What they also have in common is that they are either exacted at or in the presence of
their victim, or expressed in absentia, the laer mode making their eect and their actual
victims more dicult to determine.
e rst chapter, for example, sees a number of unnamed characters engaging in gossip
and animadverting upon a woman named Peggy, who they describe as triing and a
heifer (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 8). One of them avers that Henry le another woman,
Della, because of a perfume she wore. Factuality of that assertion aside, they conclude that
Henry was a nasty old dog not for leaving someone over such a triing reason but for
preferring someones natural over articial odors. is, of course, creates an adverse social
climate for Peggy or reinforces the existing one.
e eects are even more insidious, however. At the conclusion of the dialogue se-
quence, Claudia reects on the way she and Frieda perceived the conversation as children:
We do not, cannot, know the meanings of all their words, for we are nine and ten years
old (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 10). e prosodic qualities of the dialogue were primary to
them, so she described it as a gently wicked dance. us Morrison shows how impres-
sionable they are, bare of many of the conscious safeguards adults develop, when they
are subjected to the normative inuences that inform them that their body odors are nox-
ious and need to be drowned in violet water (8), a readily homemade perfume, lest they
earn the denigration of their community. is tendency of a societal ideal to imbue the
community with self-loathing, here olfactorically, is reminiscent of the inimical ideal of
visual beauty, whose deconstruction is very central to the novel. Many of the aggressions
throughout the book are its product, just as the title alludes to it.
Another distinction that I would have found interesting but ultimately dismissed is
that between the concrete and the abstract description of an aggression. Concrete would
have been the aggressions portrayed in action and dialogue with eshed-out individuals
involved, while abstract would have been description that considers forms of aggression,
and other narrative modes where forms of aggression are described in terms of groups or
archetypes of people.
is distinction was of particular interest to me as it is a strong determinant in how peo-
ple react emotionally to information. Many studies have shown that people care more
about identiable than statistical victims (Kogut and Ritov; Small and Loewenstein),
which is a central problem in the organization of philanthropy to combat wide-spread
hunger and desolation abroad. Potential donors concentrate their generosity on helping
out a single, well-publicized individuals when the same donations could have saved scores
or hundreds of lives of statistical victims. Moreover, not even further education about
Henry, seemingly, has remained unscathed by this, possibly by dint of his gender, so that Claudias mother
was still all ease and satisfaction in discussing his coming. (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 7)
8
these victims situation helps; it merely reduces peoples readiness to donate to the indi-
vidual cases (Small, Loewenstein, and Slovic).
Toni Morrison surely found herself faced with the same problem as these altruistic or-
ganizations, on the one hand wanting to emotionally captivate and move the audience,
and on the other show that the conicts she portrays were and are not individual cases
but examples of all-pervasive scourges of society. Claudia even reects on their compar-
ative ease handing their plights so long as they remained abstract (Morrison, e Bluest
Eye 11).
Examples of concrete aggressions would have been Claudias parents neglecting to in-
troduce their children to Henry; the white hunters forcing Darlene and Charles at gun-
point to have sex in front of them; and Claudia imagining herself and Frieda beat up
Rosemary. Examples of abstract aggressions would have been the mention of mothers
[who] put their sons outdoors (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 11); the description of Charless
dangerously free state that enabled him to commit various kinds of abuse on people un-
der his authority, whether hypothetical or not; and the statement that the white-collar
occupations available to black people were few (135).
While these aggressions seemed to t rather neatly into the category, many more were
greatly more ambivalent and elusive when viewed through its lens. One one level, by merit
of its being a work of ction, all aggressions in the novel could be said to be abstract, made
more concrete in countless dierent ways only in the minds of readers. On another level,
the narration oen intentionally equivocates here. When Claudia introduces the reader to
her intersectional positionality, namely, to the ways their parents treated Frieda and her,
to how the community treated them and their parents, and how society treated their com-
munity, all very succinctly on the rst three pages before Mr. Washington arrives, she uses
the present tense to aggregate ash backs that alternate between possible concrete exam-
ples, sometimes even direct speech, (e.g., Frieda and I lag behind, staring at the patch of
color surrounded by black (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 5)) and clearly abstract descriptions
(e.g., When, on a day aer a trip to collect coal, I cough once (6)), intermingled to an
extend that the distinction becomes blurred. is mode of narration reminds the readers
not to dismiss what they read as isolated incidents, but to extrapolate from them to the
anguish and later trauma of Claudias whole ethnic group, class, and generation.
5 Observations
5.1 Applicability
ere are four reasons that I have encountered that precluded the applicability of a cate-
gory to an instance of aggression in the novel: (1) the aggression was outside its purview,
(2) the (single) aggression included several aspects contradictory in category, (3) insuf-
cient information was given to make the decision, and (4) the aggression kept in such
abstract terms that it could describe multiple concrete aggressions of contradictory types.
9
While the laer two are results of the diegetic interpretation of the events, the rst two
are (at least partially intentional) limitations of the taxonomies.
Types of microaggressions are typically inapplicable to physical aggressions, which are
not micro-. is is the most straightforward case of inapplicability.
ere were also cases where the categories of microinsult and microinvalidation seemed
to overlap. e abovementioned microaggression of Claudias parents against her when
they neglect to introduce their children to Henry Washington could be seen simply as
microinsult for its rudeness and insensitivity toward their identity (quoting the def-
inition). is very identity, however, is that of individuals whose experiential reality is
that of conscious and feeling beings rather than xtures, an experience that their parents
treatment negates. Since the concept of the microinsult appears to be the more inclusive
one, I would tend to categorize these aggressions as microinvalidations. Apart from this
issue, the dierent types of microaggressions, according to Sue et al.s system, were for
the most part clearly discernible.
Busss typology performed similarly well. ere was only one problem that I encoun-
tered occasionally. e system only distinguishes physical and verbal aggressions, so be-
havioral aggressions would have to be counted as physical even though, to me, they ap-
pear more similar to verbal aggressions or possibly constituting a category of their own.
I decided not to categorize them as either.
Finally, the classication according to Ramirezs system was the most challenging and
its results should be viewed with the greatest caution. One reason for this was surely that
the assessment of the motives of aggressorscentral on for this systemis oen le to the
reader. Although the narrator makes many of these motives explicit, she introduces the
story with the words But since why is dicult to handle, one must take refuge in how.
(Emphasis in original.) is refuge in how is certainly frequent as well, so that the why is
sometimes open for debate.
Furthermore, the categories are, as mentioned above, interrelated, so that some cate-
gories already imply or preclude categories other than their counterpart. In particular the
following three combinations are impossible according to the denition, although the in-
tuitive meaning of the terms would in some cases leave room for some such aggressions.
One aggression where I decided to make an exception to this rule was the scene where young Charles
Breedlove and Jake throwgrapes at Suky and Darlene (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 114) because the physical
aspect of these small, light objects pelting their clothes seemed negligible compared to the humiliation
of being treated in such a way, especially in view of the one-sided nature of the playful ght.
In addition, it was a very interesting experience to apply the three categories, which have previously been
used to describe racial (Sue et al.; Solorzano, Ceja, and Yosso; Pierce et al.) and LGB microaggressions
(Burn, Kadlec, and Rexer; Silverschanz et al.; urlow; Nadal et al.), to microaggressions by parents
who use their authority irresponsibly at times, a phenomenon that Toni Morrison may well have used
as extensively as she did in order to build an empathetic bridge for readers who themselves suer few
oppressions and are not conscious of the oppressions their class or ethnic group exacts. Most of them
will remember situations fromtheir childhood where they have been wronged and felt powerless against
the aggressor.
Another problem was that hostile aggression has to be angry according to the denition, while in the
book aggressions that would intuitively t that classication are oen motivated by hate or disgust
10
1. An aggression cannot be hostile and premeditate, because hostile aggression has
to be unplanned. By implication, premeditate aggression would have to be instru-
mental, but Claudias various actual or hypothetical, planned aacks on Maureen
Peal (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 4850) did not serve the goal of obtaining any re-
ward, prot, or advantage.
2. An aggression cannot be instrumental and impulsive, because instrumental aggres-
sion has to be a premeditated technique. is seems intuitive, but only because
it implies that any amount of premeditation, however short, satises the criterion.
When Rosemary Villanucci spots Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola in the bushes around
their house and immediately calls for Mrs. MacTeer (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 21),
she probably has no clear conscious idea of what she is doing and why, but the
denition would force us to assume premeditation.
3. An aggression cannot be instrumental and reactive, because reactive aggression has
to be hostile. However, anyone can readily imagine aggressions that are reactive
in that they are a response to any perceived harm, threat or provocation and are
yet not unplanned. When the woman of the family of slender means terminated
Mrs. Breedlove employment and denied her the last outstanding salary as a form of
inverse incentive to leave Mr. Breedlove, she surely planned this decision, yet it was
clearly her reaction to Mr. Breedloves threatening impression on her.
Finally, there were also many aggressions that each have distinct manifestations for
dierent victims. One example of this are the aggressions in absentia that were discussed
in section 4, as they can easily be microaggressive to mere bystanders why creating a
hostile environment for the intended victim. Another example are the ghts between Mrs.
and Mr. Breedlove (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 29, 96, ), which not only constitute violent
aggression between the two of them but also le their children, who observed the ghts,
deeply traumatized. If the dierent aspects of an aggression appeared similarly important
or likely, I oen decided to split them up and classify them separately.
5.2 Composite Aggressions
Composite aggressions is my term for aggressions that can be broken up into multiple
or countless separate aggressions, limitations on the available data notwithstanding.
e typical case are societal or systemic aggressions. ese types of aggressions are
more or oen less consciously perceived by the victims; pinpointing any original perpe-
trator, however, is greatly more dicult: Couple the vulnerability of youth with indif-
ferent parents, dismissive adults, and a world, which, in its language, laws, and images,
re-enforces despair, and the journey to destruction is sealed (Morrison, e Bluest Eye x).
rather than anger. Since this may well be just due to imprecise wording in the denition, I chose to
ignore this distinction.
e reason may be that she derives personal satisfaction from seeing the two of them beaten by their
mother or that ostensible conrmation of their dirty (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 21) nature accords with
the values her parents instill in her.
11
is world that in its language, laws, and images, re-enforces despair, as Toni Morrison
put it in the foreword of a 2007 print of her book, is introduced right from the start when
the MacTeers have to collect tiny pieces of coal that have fallen o the coal trains
tedious work in the cold of winteronly to turn around and see the steel mill where the
trains transport their never ending abundances of coal.
Other sections specically indicate racial discrimination on the job market, in educa-
tion, and centrally in the accepted ideal of physical beauty: To be put outdoors by a
landlord was one thingunfortunate, but an aspect of life over which you had no con-
trol, since you could not control your income (Morrison, e Bluest Eye 11) or ey go
to land-grant colleges, normal schools, and learn how to do the white mans work with
renement: home economics to prepare his food; teacher education to instruct black chil-
dren in obedience; music to soothe the weary master and entertain his blunted soul (64)
or Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to anotherphysical beauty.
Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in
envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion (95) or e men studied medicine,
law, theology, and emerged repeatedly in the powerless government oces available to
the native population (133) or among all the waste and beauty of the worldwhich is
what she herself was. All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed
(163).
Especially the imposed ideal of beauty, for which you rst had to be white and blue eyed,
takes center stage and is viewed there fromat least two perspectives, that of the Breedloves
who accept it and are devastated by it, and Claudia, who from her early childhood onward
wages war against it and tries to dismantle iteven literally at rst and out of a motivation
to nd and understand it.
6 The Graph
In the graph below, individuals are indicated by oval vertices, groups of people or abstract
entities by boxes. Every solid directed edge represents an aggression, while dashed edges
represent hypothetical aggressions, which, of course, do not count as actual aggressions.
e graph is arranged using the dot algorithm, which has the property that it arranges
the vertices in distinct ranks and minimizes edge lengths, which implicitly leads to vertices
with more incoming edges tending toward the right and those with fewer tending toward
the le: An optimal rank assignment assigns integer ranks to nodes such that the sum of
the costs of edges is minimized. e cost of an edge is the product of its weight and its
ere is no beauty to this physical beauty for her, she merely went from pristine sadism to fabricated
hatred, to fraudulent love, which were adjustment[s] without improvement (Morrison, e Bluest Eye
16). Ergo her assessmentdisillusioned itselfthat all romantic love and physical beauty originated in
envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion, because such was the modus operandi of all she
ever got presented as beauty by society. On the nal pages, however, she acknowledges a new kind of
beauty, reminiscing about who Pecola was: And all of our beauty, which was hers rst and which she
gave to us (163).
12
length, where the length is the rank of its head minus the rank of its tail (Gansner, North,
and Vo 4).
is property is useful for assessing the overall ow of aggressions. In view of my hy-
pothesis that aggressions are oen handed down fromthe older generation to the younger,
for example, the graph structure makes clear that I could not nd a single aggression of a
member of a younger generation on a member of an older one. Neither could I nd any
of a person of color on an individual white person. Furthermore, we can see that Pecola
Breedlove has only incoming edges.
ese observations are in line with the strategy of the author as explained in her 2007
foreword: e project, then, for this, my rst book, was to enter the life of the one
least likely to withstand such damaging forces because of youth, gender, and race and
e main character could not stand alone since her passivity made her a narrative void
(Morrison, e Bluest Eye x).
However, to establish that there is at least in many cases a cause-eect relationship
between the aggressions of the oldest on the younger and the aggressions of the younger
on the youngest, the novel proper needs to be scrutinized again.
Firstly, there are two sentences that describe the process very succinctly: When white
men beat their men, they cleaned up the blood and went home to receive abuse from
the victim. ey beat their children with one hand and stole for them with the other
(Morrison, e Bluest Eye 108).
Secondly, Toni Morrison also explains in her foreword that she mounted a series of
rejections, some routine, some exceptional, some monstrous, all the while trying hard
to avoid complicity in the demonization process Pecola was subjected to. at is, [she]
did not want to dehumanize the characters who trashed Pecola and contributed to her
collapse. To this end she did not just create Pecolas parents as mere plot devicesa victim
of delusions of a religious calling and an alcohol addictbut gave themextensive backstory
that showed much of the how, and thereby some of the why, behind their callous and
atrocious aggressions, especially against their children.
We are lead through both their childhoods and the early years of their relationship.
We experience, proximately, the traumatic turning points of their lives. We even hear
Paulina Breedloves voice and Charles Breedloves thoughts. is intimacy builds rapport
and lets us empathize with them, so while we will still condemn their deeds, we can no
longer demonize them, as Toni Morrison put it, and hence can no longer indulge in the
complacent belief of having isolated the root cause of Pecolas descent into madness.
What happened, then, is that we got a glimpse of the why behind their aggressive be-
haviors, a why that itself is born of aggressions and their resulting traumata. Hence, it be-
comes clear that the destructive force that caused Pecola to literally fall apart (Morrison,
e Bluest Eye xii), exacerbated by many of the same aggressions that already beleaguered
her parents, was yet the aggregate of generations of oppression.
e section frompage 86 onward contains several blocks set in italics and narrated by Paulina Breedlove in
the rst person. e section frompage 103 frequently reveals thoughts and feelings of Charles Breedlove,
a clear internal focalization.
13
Rosemary Villanucci
Frieda McTeer
Claudia McTeer
Frieda MacTeer
Claudia MacTeer
Pecol a Breedl ove
Soci et y
Mrs. MacTeer
Mr. MacTeer
Women
Charl es Breedl ove
Sammy Br eedl ove
Paul i na Breedl ove
Claudia MacTeers community
Women l i ke Geral di ne
Blacks
Nat i ve Ameri cans
Maureen Peal
Woodrow Wi l son
All Shirley Temples
Whi t e gi rl s
Bay Boy
Henr y Washi ngt on
Adults
Unnamed per son
Peggy
Aunt Julia
Bellas sister
Dar l ene
Anyone under hi s aut hor i t y
Abst r act mot her Abst ract son
Peopl e
Marie
Myman Narrat or of song
Whi t e hunt er s
Dar l een
Any school girl Bobby
Mr. Yacobowski
Chi na
Men
John Dillinger Unnamed peopl e Pecola Breedloves child
Pol and
Woodrow Cai n
Buddy Wilson
Juni e Bug
Husbands of women l i ke Geral di ne
Geral di ne Junior
Geraldines cat
Elihue Micah Whitcomb Young girls
Bob
Bet t y Reese
Paulina Breedloves community
Paulina Breedloves new community
Family of slender means
Doct or
Charles Breedloves mother
Aunt Jimmy
Charles Breedloves father
Oppr essor s
Bl ack women Bl ack men
Mol est ers
Jake Suky
Conduct or
Samson Ful l er
Whi t combs
Whi t ecombs
Elihue Micah Whitcombs father
14
Appendix: Table of Aggressions
Below the table of the aggressions in e Bluest Eye. For typographic reasons, I had to
resort of abbreviating the types of aggressions and their forms of representation in the
text. e abbreviations are unique per column.
Representation
hyp. Hypothetical
i.a. In absentia
Buss
phy., ver. Physical, verbal
act., pas. Active, passive
dir., ind. Direct, indirect
Ramirez
hos., ins. Hostile, instrumental
imp., pre. Impulsive, premeditate
pro., rea. Proactive, reactive
Sue
ass. Microassault
ins. Microinsult
inv. Microinvalidation
Furthermore I chose to abbreviate composite as com. and see above as v.s. (vide
supra).
15
Page Perpetrator Victim Repr. Buss Ramirez Sue Comment
5 Rosemary Villanucci Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
ver.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
pro.
ass. Rosemary Villanucci initiates a conversation with
Claudia and Frieda MacTeer to tell them that they
cannot enter her familys car.
5 Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
Rosemary Villanucci hyp. phy.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
pre.,
rea.
Claudia and Frieda MacTeer fantasize about physical
retribution on Rosemary Villanucci.
5 Society MacTeer family com. com. com. e MacTeer family has to collect coal scraps in view
of abundance.
5 Adults Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
ver.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
rea.
ins. Parents blame children for accidents and illnesses.
6 Mrs. and Mr. MacTeer Claudia MacTeer v.s. v.s. v.s. Examples of the above.
7 Mrs. MacTeer Claudia MacTeer v.s. v.s. v.s. e above explained in terms of synechdochical
blame.
8 Unnamed person Peggy i.a. ver.,
act.
imp.,
pro.
ass. e conversation reveals a deep-seated disdain of
someone called Peggy.
8 Society Women com. com. com. e conversation reveals a societal pressure to wear
perfume, a possible indication of self-loathing.
8 Unnamed person Aunt Julia i.a. ver.,
act.
hos.,
imp.,
rea.
ass. One of the interlocutors pretends that someone
oating by harmed them.
9 Unnamed person Bellas sister i.a. ver.,
act.
rea. ass. An interlocutor raises a suspicion of self-serving
motives merely due to someones prolonged absence
from family members.
10 Mrs. and Mr. MacTeer Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
ver.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
pro.
ins. Claudia MacTeers parents treat their children like
inventory.
11 Charles Breedlove Wife and children phy.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
imp.
Description of Charles Breedloves violence toward
his family.
11 Abstract mother Abstract son com. com. com. Aggression by mother on son used as abstract
example.
11 Society Claudia MacTeers
community
com. com. com. A comment that indicates discrimination on the job
market.
12 Society Claudia MacTeers
community
com. com. com. reat of homelessness.
14 Society Claudia MacTeer com. com. com. e doll, symbolic of the oppressive ideals of beauty,
is described as patently aggressive sleeping
companion.
14 Adults Claudia MacTeer pas.,
dir.
ins. No adult ever asked her what she wanted for
Christmas but were content to guess for her.
15 Claudia MacTeer White girls hyp. phy.,
act.,
dir.
pre.,
rea.
Claudia MacTeer imagines cruelty toward lile
white girls.
15 People Claudia MacTeer ver.,
pas.,
dir.
ins. Claudia MacTeer resents never being regarded as,
maybe, adorable.
16 Mrs. MacTeer Pecola Breedlove et al. ver.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
rea.
ass. Mrs. MacTeer engages in an extensive tirade against
Pecola over her consumption of great amounts of
milk.
18 My man Narrator phy.,
pas.,
dir.
A blues song provides a lyrical description of the
abandonment of a woman by her boyfriend or
husband.
21 Frieda MacTeer Claudia MacTeer ver.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
imp.
ass. Frieda MacTeer insults her sister.
21 Rosemary Villanucci Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer, Pecola
Breedlove
ver.,
act.,
ind.
ins. Rosemary Villanucci exploits a situation possibly to
gain recognition from the adults, to harm Claudia
and Frieda MacTeer, or to feel conrmed in her
possibly unfavorable opinion about blacks generally.
22 Mrs. MacTeer Frieda MacTeer phy.,
act.,
dir.
imp. Mrs. MacTeer beats Frieda.
23 Frieda MacTeer Claudia MacTeer ver.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
imp.
ass. Another slight slight by Frieda against her sister.
28 Society Breedloves com. com. com. e white-dominated culture conrms the
Breedloves in their belief in their own ugliness.
29 Paulina and Charles
Breedlove
Paulina and Charles
Breedlove
phy.,
act.,
dir.
rea. A ght between the Breedlove parents.
29 Paulina and Charles
Breedlove
Pecola and Sammy
Breedlove
act.,
dir.
e ght is also aggressive towards their children.
31 White hunters Charles Breedlove,
Darlene
phy.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
imp.,
pro.
A description of Charles Breedloves trauma.
34 Any girl at school Bobby, Pecola
Breedlove
ver.,
act.,
dir.
Teasing of Bobby (or anyone) as an example of
mean-spirited behavior between children other than
Pecola that is yet abusive toward her.
36 Mr. Yacobowski Pecola Breedlove dir. hos.,
imp.
ins. A complex experience reveals a very hostile kind of
disrespect that Pecola is exposed to.
39 China Marie ver.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
pro.
ass. China fat-shaming Marie without hurtful intent.
16
40 John Dillinger Random people hyp. phy.,
act.,
dir.
ins.,
pre.
A description of a violent bank robbery.
41 China Marie ver.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
pro.
ass. Another sizeist comment from China in conjunction
with a probably jokular racist aspect.
43 China, Marie, and
Poland
Men com. hos. Several descriptions of aggressions against men, at
one point referred to as vengence.
48 Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
Maureen Peal ver.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
rea.
ass. e sisters tease Maureen Peal.
49 Claudia MacTeer Maureen Peal ver.,
dir.
hos.,
imp.,
rea.
ins. Claudia MacTeer counters an invitation from
Maureen Peal discourteously while not turning it
down.
49 Claudia MacTeer Maureen Peal hyp. phy.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
pre.,
rea.
Claudia MacTeer fantasizes about damaging
Maureens fur mu.
50 Bunch of boys Pecola Breedlove ver.,
act.,
dir.
pro. ass. Several boys mob and insult Pecola Breedlove.
50 Frieda MacTeer Woodrow phy.,
act.,
dir.
pre.,
rea.
Frieda MacTeer hits Woodrow with a book.
51 Claudia MacTeer, Bay
Boy
Bay Boy, Claudia
MacTeer
ver.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
rea.
Claudia and Bay Boy insult each other.
53 Maureen Peal Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
ver.,
pas.,
dir.
ins. Claudia and Frieda MacTeer are disappointed over
not geing to eat ice cream.
53 Society Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
com. com. com. At a movie theater they see a picture of a white
actress smiling down at them.
55 Claudia MacTeer Maureen Peal ver.,
act.,
dir.
imp. ass. Claudia MacTeer employs one of her stock insults
against Maureen Peal.
56 Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer, Maureen
Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer, Maureen,
Pecola Breedlove
ver.
and
phy.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
imp.,
rea.
A wild, nonsensical quarrel ensues, and they again
use black as insult.
57 Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
Pecola Breedlove ver.,
pas.,
dir.
Yet the sisters are irritated by Pecolas self-loathing
and fail to comfort her.
59 Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
Rosemary Villanucci hyp. pas.,
dir.
hos.,
pre.,
rea.
ins. Claudia and Frieda MacTeer plan on making
Rosemary Villanucci jealous.
60 People Marie ver.,
act.
ass. A description of the slander the three prostitutes are
exposed to.
61 Henry Washington Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
ver.,
act.,
dir.
ins. Henry Washington lies to the sisters.
64 Society Certain type of
women
com. com. com. A description of the established educational
obedience brainwashing Geraldine and others
went through.
65 Certain type of
women
Husbands pas.,
dir.
pro. Denial of love for their husbands.
67 Geraldine Blacks, Junior ver.,
act.,
dir./ind.
pro.,
pre.
ass. Geraldine distinguishes between colored people and
niggers.
70 Junior Pecola Breedlove, cat phy./ver.,
act.,
dir./ind.
hos.,
pre.
Junior devises a complex stratagem for hurting
Pecola and his mothers cat at the same time,
possibly killing the laer.
72 Geraldine Pecola Breedlove ver.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
rea.
ass. Geraldine insults Pecola and leaves her thinking she
believed Junior.
75 Parents Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
phy.,
act.,
dir.
rea. An abstract description of the beating of children.
76 Elihue Micah
Whitcomb
Young girls phy.,
act.,
dir.
pre.,
pro.
e narrator apparently already knew of Elihue
Micah Whitcombs crimes
76 Henry Washington Frieda MacTeer phy.,
act.,
dir.
pro. Henry Washingtons transgression on Frieda
77 Parents Henry Washington phy.,
act.,
dir.
rea. e MacTeer parents retaliation against Henry
Washington
77 Frieda MacTeer Rosemary Villanucci phy.,
act.,
dir.
rea. A description of Friedas actions against Rosemary
Villanucci.
80 Marie Claudia and Frieda
MacTeer
phy.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
imp.,
rea.
Marie throws a bole more or less at the sisters.
82 Society Blacks com. com. com. An explicit mention of segregation.
83 Frieda MacTeer Pecola Breedlove ver.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
rea.
inv. Frieda expresses lacking trust in Pecola.
17
84 Paulina Breedlove Pecola Breedlove (et
al.)
ver.,
pas.,
ind.
ins. A girl calls Mrs. Breedlove Polly in front of Pecola.
84 Paulina Breedlove Pecola Breedlove (et
al.)
ver.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
imp.,
rea.
ass. Mrs. Breedlove insults Pecola.
85 Paulina Breedlove Pecola Breedlove (et
al.)
ver.,
pas.,
dir.
ins. ins. Mrs. Breedlove fails to claim motherhood of Pecola.
86 Her family Paulina Breedlove ver.,
pas.,
dir.
ins. Mrs. Breedloves foot injury is met with indierence.
86 Her community Paulina Breedlove pas.,
com.
ins. Mrs. Breedlove was le out of social activities.
87 Her community Paulina Breedlove pas.,
com.
ins. Creative outlets were not oered to her as a child.
92 Her new community Paulina Breedlove ver.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
rea.
ins. Heckling between black women.
93 Family of slender
means
Paulina Breedlove pas.,
dir.
pro. ins. Mrs. Breedlove has to work for a family that takes
their own problems too seriously.
93 Family of slender
means
Paulina and Charles
Breedlove
ver.,
act.,
dir.
ins.,
pre.,
rea.
A conict ensues over Charles Breedlove turning up
at their house.
95 Society Paulina Breedlove com. com. com. Mrs. Breedlove is confronted with what is regarded
as physical beauty.
96 Paulina and Charles
Breedlove
Paulina and Charles
Breedlove
phy.,
act.,
dir.
Fights between Paulina and Charles Breedlove
97 Doctor Paulina Breedlove ver.,
act.,
ind.
ins. Insulting comments from a racist doctor.
98 Paulina Breedlove Pecola Breedlove act.,
dir.
com. Paulina Breedlove has perceived Pecola as ugly from
birth, which Pecola surely picked up on.
98 Paulina Breedlove Charles Breedlove act.,
ind.
Mrs. Breedlove engages in vengence through subtle
force on Charles Breedlove.
99 Paulina Breedlove Rest of the family pas.,
dir.
Mrs. Breedlove neglects her family.
100 Paulina Breedlove Children phy.,
act.,
dir.
Mrs. Breedlove resorts to beating and
disproportionate punishment.
100 Paulina Breedlove Charles Breedlove ver.,
act.,
ind.
Mrs. Breedlove points out her husbands faults, but
not to help him but to use him as negative example
for her children.
102 Charles Breedlove Paulina Breedlove phy.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
pro.
Practice by Charles Breedlove that may constitute
rape depending on Paulinas perception of it.
103 Mother Charles Breedlove phy.,
act.,
dir.
ins.,
pre.
Charles Breedloves mother places him on junk heap
as baby.
103 Aunt Jimmy Mother phy.,
act.,
dir.
rea. Mr. Breedloves aunt beats his mother.
103 Aunt Jimmy Charles Breedlove phy.,
pas.,
dir.
Mr. Breedloves aunt exposes him to noxious odors.
103 Aunt Jimmy Charles Breedlove ver.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
rea.
ass. Mr. Breedloves aunt calls him foolish.
104 Aunt Jimmy Charles Breedlove
(mother and father
i.a.)
ver.,
act.,
ind.
rea. ass.,
ins.
Mr. Breedloves aunt shames his heritage by
constantly insulting his mother and father.
108 Everyone except Black
women and children
Black women com. com. com. An abstract description of women being commanded
around.
108 Black men Black women act.,
dir.
An explicit description of aggressions being handed
on.
108 Men, probably Black women act.,
dir.
Implication of molestation.
113 Girls Girls ver.,
act.,
dir.
ass. Girls engage in a serious kind of making fun.
114 Charles Breedlove,
Jake
Darlene, Suky act.,
dir.
imp.,
pro.
ass. ey two boys throw grapes at the girls.
116 White hunters Charles Breedlove,
Darlene
phy.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
pro.
Charles Breedlove and Darlene are forced at
gunpoint to have sex in front of white hunters.
120 Conductor Charles Breedlove ver.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
imp.,
pro.
Insults from a conductor are used as exmaple for a
descrition of them similar to forces of nature.
122 Aunt Jimmy Charles Breedlove
(mother i.a.)
ver.,
pas.,
dir.
ins.,
pre.,
rea.
Mr. Breedloves aunt further shames his mother and
heritage by never telling him her name.
123 Samson Fuller Charles Breedlove ver.,
act.,
dir.
hos.,
imp.,
rea.
ass. Mr. Breedloves father behaves rude and insultingly
toward him.
125 Charles Breedlove Anyone under his
authority
hyp. com. com. com. Abstract description making mention of various
aggressions.
18
128 Charles Breedlove Pecola Breedlove phy.,
act.,
dir.
imp.,
pro.
Mr. Breedlove rapes his daughter.
132 Whitcombs emselves, each
other
act.,
dir.
com. e Whitcombs are aicted with some sort of
partial self-loathing of their native roots.
133 Society Natives com. com. com. It is stated that only powerless government oces
are available to the native population.
133 Whitcombs Anyone com. com. com. ose of the family in government oces are
described as corrupt and lecherous.
134 Elihue Micah
Whitcombs father
Elihue Micah
Whitcomb
phy.,
act.,
dir.
ins. Elihue Micah Whitcombs father uses violence for
education and discipline.
135 Society Blacks com. com. com. Few white-collar occupations are available to blacks.
136 Elihue Micah
Whitcomb
Young girls phy.,
act.,
dir.
pre.,
pro.
A description of molestation, possibly rape, of young
girls.
138 Elihue Micah
Whitcomb
Bob phy.,
act.,
ind.
ins.,
pre.,
rea.
Elihue Micah Whitcomb has Bob, the dog, poisoned.
138 Elihue Micah
Whitcomb
Pecola Breedlove act.,
dir.
ins.,
pre.,
rea.
Elihue Micah Whitcomb tricks Pecola into
performing the poisoning.
149 Random people Pecola Breedlove i.a. ver.,
act.
pro. ass. An example of victim blaming.
149 Random people Pecola Breedlove i.a. ver.,
act.
hos.,
pro.
ass. People insult the Breedloves and the unborn child as
ugly.
149 Random people Pecola Breedlove pas.,
dir.
e community shows a complete lack of empathy.
154 Paulina Breedlove Pecola Breedlove pas.,
dir.
ins. Mrs. Breedlove is said to avoid looking at Pecola.
158 Charles Breedlove Pecola Breedlove phy.,
act.,
dir.
pro. Mr. Breedloves second rape of his daughter is
revealed.
162 Random people Pecola Breedlove com. com. com. People avoid Pecola or laugh at her.
163 Society Pecola Breedlove com. com. com. A description of gurative waste having been
dumped on Pecola Breedlove.
164 Society Pecola Breedlove i.a. ver.,
act.
ass. An abstract form or victim blaming is exposed.
19
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