Claudia narrates parts of The Bluest Eye, sometimes from a child’s perspective and sometimes from the perspective of an adult looking back. She suffers from racist beauty standards and material insecurity, but she has a loving and stable family which makes all the difference for her. Claudia is a fighter. When Claudia is given a white doll she does not want, she dissects and destroys it; she does not see it as a role model. When she finds a group of boys harassing Pecola, she attacks them. When she learns that Pecola is pregnant, she and her sister come up with a plan to save Pecola’s baby from the community’s rejection. Claudia explains that she is brave because she has not yet learned her limitations most important, she has not learned the self hatred that plagues so many adults in the community.
Professor Laura Westengard
Email: lwestengard@citytech.cuny.edu
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:30-11:30 am and by appointment
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yes, i agree with you savitri that really describe Claudia . she so as a fighter that she implies that those same thing she did to the dolls she would like to do, to see what is the perfections, what the secret for beauty, yet she gets mad with her christsma gift “the doll” because no body ask her what you want, they assume she want a beautiful doll like every girl.
I would have to disagree with you about the doll incident. I dont think Claudia destroyed it because she didnt see it as a role model. I believe she did it because she wanted the gift to be something she had actually wanted. She may have not liked the idea of white dolls being the standard in toys for girls, but i believe she was more upset that no one bothered to really find out what she really wanted.
Yeah what clema said, no one really took the time to found out what she really wanted and she hated that. She also just did not like dolls, she had no interest in babies or the concept of motherhood.
@Carlos and Brandon: I’m not sure we really know whether or not Claudia has an interest in motherhood. However, we do know that Claudia transfers her dislike for the white dolls to an aggression toward little white girls that she encounters. If she were simply angry that no one considered what type of gift she wanted for Christmas, why would she have such a strong dislike for the little white girls she encounters? What is the connection between the dolls and the girls in Claudia’s mind?