Love can hold us captive, chain us and enslave us to its cruel ways, blinding us from all judgment. The human condition of love can be expressed as a strong affection for another arising from kinship, enthusiasm, or devotion to another human being. Love is universal and can exist in relationships such as parent and child, husband and wife, and various other forms. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison exemplifies the fact that love is too complex to be considered positive or negative. Like all things in life, this too can have a dark side, even if on the surface it is normally associated with joy, happiness, fulfillment. For some, love can fade away while for others it is the unbreakable bond that holds people together. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The human condition of love finds its way into our lives the moment we take our first breath. Children are exposed to it from the beginning and that love forms a bond between child and parent. As we grow older and form a new relationship, one between siblings, friends, that eventually works its way to finding a spouse and our children, love is what forms these bonds. If it is present in a positive way, this is what children absorb, but on the other hand if it conveys feelings of hatred and anger, this is what becomes the child's perception of love. Self-love goes hand in hand with self-perception. If you cannot have love for yourself, it is difficult to even think about love associated with other people. According to Bluest Eye, analyzing love in the Breedlove family is very complicated. Mr. and Mrs. Breedlove are two people who carry baggage from the past that has not been buried, which does not allow them to be mature adults with an understanding of how their decisions affect their children. People often forget that love must start with the most important person; You. Morrison shows through the Breedlove family that self-love is an unknown concept. Pecola Breedlove comes from a family where poverty shrouds them in shame, and being called "ugly" forced them to accept their flaw. The Breedloves find the confinement of their poverty distressing, frustrating, and often exasperating. Pecola is described as the "ugliest" of all. Pecola's self-perceived ugliness and lack of self-love allow her to identify with the broken sidewalk and dandelions, which are things considered ugly by others. "Why, he wonders if people call them weeds" he thought they were pretty." (Morrison pg. 47) Pecola does not see dandelions as ugly, which introduces the idea that beauty might be a matter of perception , not something inherent to the object looked at. Pecola can find beauty in everything except herself. As an innocent child, Pecola begins to believing that having blue eyes would be the solution to all the evil that surrounds her. Unfortunately, Pecola's obsession with beauty standards prevents her from realizing this. Another bond created by love in society is that between husband and wife , built on the foundations of loyalty, honesty, care and support. The Bluest Eye Morrison shows the side of love that is not usually talked about Pauline and Cholly Breedlove, a couple who had once been struck by Cupid's arrow. but that she would soon fall from the love spell they were under. “She was confident and grateful; he was kind and lively. He didn't know there was so much laughter in the world."(Morrison pg. 116). Morrison paints a vivid picture of how Cholly was Pauline's savior. Pauline's self-perceived sense of ugliness begins with her disabled foot, which leads to a sense of separation from her family and a feeling of worthlessness. As a black woman, Ms. Breedlove desperately sought a sense of self-worth and meaning in her life. It is only through her relationship with Mr. Breedlove that she achieves these things. Pauline fantasized about a figure, a (Prince Charming) who would heal her disabled foot and allow her to escape her ugliness and uselessness. This indicates his innocence at the time and lack of self-love. The love between child and parent is very complicated in The Bluest Eye. The Macteer family represents a middle-class slave family, who had to work very hard, but maintained family roles. An idealistic image of a perfect family consisting of a protective father, a caring mother who showed tough love, and sisters who stuck together especially when punches had to be rolled. “My mother's anger humiliates me; his words irritate my cheeks and I'm crying. I don't know that she doesn't know, she's not angry with me, but with my illness." (Morrison pg. 11) During her illness, Claudia was treated with a mixture of worry and anger. Even though Claudia is scolded and her mother complains about cleaning up her vomit, at the same time her mother breastfeeds her, gives her medicine and monitors her throughout the night. Claudia later discovers that her mother's anger is not directed at her, but at the world, as she must raise her black family in a world governed by white culture. He protects his children and prepares them for survival in a hostile environment. The mother/daughter relationship between Mrs. MacTeer and her two daughters, Claudia and Frieda, was strong and loving. They have been taught self-esteem through their mother's strength and is an example of love from their parents. Morrison spoke about the Macteer family to show that even though they didn't have much, they had values that kept the family strong. For the Macteer family it meant unity, no matter how hard the struggle. Pecola was able to find love in their home rather than hers. In Breedlove the whole idea of love behind family is blurred. "That old Dog Breedlove had burned down his house, gone to his wife's head, and consequently everyone was out in the open." (Morrison pg. 16). the Breedlove family supported everything a family shouldn't be. Eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove grew up in such a family and found all things evil, especially in the form of her father. How can there be love from a father who can commit such a heinous act as rape? Cholly's parents abandoned him when he was born. Cholly has never had a sense of home and family, which sheds light on his inability to be a father. Even after Aunt Jimmy saves him, he lives in a dysfunctional situation, where he lacks a father figure. Aunt Jimmy genuinely cared for him, but he still had difficulty identifying with her as a real parent. As a child he thought that "when she made him sleep with her to keep warm in the winter and he could see her wrinkled old breasts sagging in her nightgown...then he wondered if it would be better to die" (Morrison pg.132). If Cholly truly saw her as a legitimate parent, then he would love to share a bed with her in the winter. Aunt Jimmy attempts to change Cholly's future by naming him after her brother (a moral man) and severing his bond with his father. Aunt Jimmy died when he was still young and he desperately wanted a sense of home and family, which sparked his desire to know.
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