What do dandelions symbolize in the bluest eye

The marigolds are a symbol of hope and dreams that died before they could ever be realized. The flowers did not bloom, Pecolas child died and Pecola lost her sanity. Toni Morrison's main theme is that perfection is not always what it appears to be. In conclusion, Morrison uses the blue eyes, the cat, and the green and white house to symbolize the fact that such symbols used effectively influence people. Morrison wants the reader to know that the people may develop corrupt concepts so that the idea of beauty in any form is lost.

In the end of the novel, Pecola loses her sanity. She is talking to others and she keeps asking questions such as, "Are my eyes blue enough? In the end, society and its accepted views are the controlling factor in what people perceive as beautiful. In The Bluest Eye , Morrison uses the blue eyes to symbolize perfection; anyone without them is unworthy to be thought of as beautiful.

Morrison implies that people have more value than their appearance and should not be misled into thinking otherwise by society. Throughout history, society has standardized the image of beauty.

People who believe that they do not fit this image given to them by society feel that they are not beautiful. In the novel The Bluest Eye , the author, Toni Morrison, through her usage of symbolism, shows that society controls the image of beauty.

Morrison demonstrates her thematic idea, the symbol of beauty and the perfect life, by her use of blue eyes. She uses them to convey that image of beauty and the perfect life. Another idea she uses is that dandelions, considered an unattractive weed, symbolize the internal observations of the character Pecola, who believes that she is not attractive.

In The Bluest Eye , the character Pecola wishes for blue eyes, believing that if she receives them, her life will be better and she will be attractive to others. Morrison uses Shirley Temple to demonstrate Pecola's fondness for beauty. She was fond of the Shirley Temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet Shirley's face With the image that Pecola sees of Shirley Temple, Pecola believes that having blue eyes will make her life like Shirley's, and that Pecola will be attractive to others.

From a thematic view, Morrison implies that society creates the accepted image of that which is beautiful. Pecola has brown eyes and being in a society which values blue eyes more intensifies her desire for blue eyes.

Each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes. Fervently for a year she had prayed With those ideas of beauty planted into her mind, her image of what represents beauty does not change. Believing that having blue eyes is the key to attractiveness and having a better life, Pecola sees herself as unattractive. Morrison uses the dandelions as symbols as to how Pecola views herself or subconsciously as a dandelion with people thinking she is as ugly and worthless as a weed.

When Cholly threatens to "split her open" and Mrs. Breed threatens to harm him if she sneezes even once because of the cold, it shows the violent nature of the relationship, and foreshadows the events to follow.

The narrator explains that even though Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove constantly fight, they depend on each other to maintain their individual identities. For Mrs.

Breedlove , these quarrels bring a sense of relief to the tedium of her poverty, and bring the dull rooms of the storefront to life. She perceives her marriage with Cholly as a burden she must bear as a good Christian woman.

She depends on Cholly's continued immorality, as it allows her to maintain her role as a righteous Christian woman. Cholly likewise needs Mrs. She is one of the few things in his life upon which he is able to unload his "inarticulate fury" and "aborted desires". The narrator explains that Cholly's hatred for women was instilled in him during his first sexual experience.

Two white men stumbled upon him and the girl, named Darlene, whom he was having sex with and shone a flashlight on his behind. When he halted the sexual act, the white men forced him to continue. Unable to direct his hatred toward the white men, he turns the hatred to the girl, which develops into a hatred of women that continues with him into adulthood. Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove's relationship shows the damaging effects of racism, sexism, and violence in the characters' lives.

As a black woman, Mrs. Breedlove searches desperately for a sense of self-worth and meaning for her life. It is only through her relationship with Cholly—a man—that she gains these things. Their fights break up the tedium of her life and spark her imagination, but this way of creating meaning for her life is at the expense of her physical and emotional wellbeing. Cholly's immorality allows her to feel superior and self-righteous, and those are the feeling on which she props herself up, on which she survives.

Likewise, Cholly stays with Mrs. Breedlove because he needs someone to unload the hatred instilled in him as a boy by two racist men. The narrator then explains that Pecola and her brother Sammy respond to the violence in different ways.

Sammy curses, and often throws himself into the middle of his parents' arguments. He is known to run away, having left more than twenty-seven times before he was fourteen. Pecola on the other hand, being younger than Sammy and also a girl, tries different methods of endurance. These methods vary, but each is just as painful as the last.

When they fight, she disassociates from her body and wishes one of her parents would kill the other, or that she herself would die. The children's different ways of responding to the violence demonstrate different realities individuals face based on genders.

Samuel, a young boy, actively engages with his parents while they argue, and escapes the situation by running away. Pecola, however, as a young girl, remains passive and turns inward. These coping methods reflect the realities of the men and woman in The Bluest Eye. As Pecola waits for the storefront apartment to erupt in violence, she whispers to herself, "Don't, Mrs. Breedlove, don't. Breedlove inevitably sneezes, and as she promised, she starts the fight with Cholly by throwing a glass of cold water in his face.

Cholly rises from bed naked and attacks Mrs. A brutal fight ensues, Cholly using his hands and feet, and Mrs. Breedlove using a dishpan. They struggle until Sammy jumps in and begins hitting Cholly in the head.

Seizing the opportunity, Mrs. Breedlove grabs the stove lid and hits Cholly over the head twice with it, knocking him unconscious. Once Cholly is unconscious, Mrs. Breedlove covers him with a blanket. Sammy begins yelling at his mother to kill Cholly. She tells him to be quiet, and as she walks back into the kitchen, commands him to get up and go get some coal. Talking to herself and quietly begging her mother not to start the fight demonstrates Pecola's powerlessness, both as a child and as a girl.

Sammy, to the contrary, jumps in and aids his mother. Samuel begging his mother to kill his father reveals his hatred for Cholly, but his request mirrors his father's violence toward the family. Breedlove tells him to shut up, and tells him to go get coal, a gesture that demonstrates her authority over him, and again links him to Cholly, who she originally asked to get the coal.

Sammy is being nurtured to have the same sort of hate that Cholly feels—the cycle is continuing. When the fight is over, Pecola experiences "the sick feeling" she gets in her stomach whenever her parents fight.

She asks God if he will make her disappear, and closing her eyes, feels her body begin to fade away, starting with her arms and moving toward her stomach. With some struggle, she imagines her stomach and face disappear, but her tightly closed eyes remain. The narrator explains that Pecola believes possessing blue eyes would make her beautiful, and things would change at home and school.

She has prayed for blue eyes for a year, but in clinging to the idea that only a miracle could save her, she is never able to recognize her own inner beauty because she is only ever looking at other people's eyes. For Pecola, attaining blue eyes means two things: that people will see her as beautiful, and that the way she sees the world with change, so that she will no longer have to witness the violence and hatred in her home.

Beauty to the characters of The Bluest Beauty means empowerment, and Pecola believes that if she can attain blue eyes, a signifier of whiteness and beauty, she will have the power to escape her horrible situation. Holding on to this unreachable standard of beauty, however, means that Pecola remains unable to realize her worth and own beauty, inner or outer.

Pecola walks to Yacobowski's Fresh Veg. Meat and Sundries, a store in the neighborhood that sells penny candy. As she walks, she feels comforted by the familiar images she sees—the cracked sidewalk and dandelions in the fields beside her. She feels a sense of ownership over these things, and they connect her to the world.

She ponders a patch of dandelions at the base of a telephone pole, wondering why everyone detests the dandelions, and calls them weeds. She can't understand why black women pick them, but throw away the yellow heads, keeping only the leaves and stems for dandelion wine and soup.

Unlike those around her, Pecola is fond of the dandelions. Pecola's self-perceived ugliness allows her to identify with the cracked sidewalk and the dandelions, which are things considered ugly by others. Pecola does not see the dandelions as ugly, which introduces the idea that beauty might be a matter of one's perception, not something inherent in the object being looked at.

Unfortunately, Pecola's obsession with external beauty standards keeps her from realizing this about herself. The "yellow heads" of the dandelions also connect symbolically to the blond haired girls, who represent the white beauty standard, and explains Pecola's confusion as to why the black women throw them away.

Yacobowski, the store owner, who seems to look right through her. He does not understand what she is pointing at and speaks harshly to her. He does not want to touch her hand when she passes over her money. Walking home, Pecola is angry but most of all ashamed. She decides dandelions are ugly, whereas blonde, blue-eyed Mary Jane, pictured on the candy wrapper, is beautiful.

Pecola goes to visit the whores who live in the apartment above hers, China, Poland, and Miss Marie. Miss Marie tells stories about turning one of her boyfriends over to the FBI and about Dewey Prince, the one man she truly loved.

The narrator tells us that these are not hookers with hearts of gold or women whose innocence has been betrayed. Quite simply, these women cheerfully and unsentimentally hate men. They feel neither ashamed of nor victimized by their profession. Pecola wonders what love is like. This chapter portrays victimhood as a complex phenomenon rather than a simple, direct relationship between oppressor and oppressed.

Instead, the narrator suggests, it seems. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Themes Motifs Symbols. Mini Essays Suggested Essay Topics. Summary Autumn: Chapter 3. Page 1 Page 2.