Toni Morrison's Bluest Eye - Pecola's Mother is to Blame , this same child asks: “How do you get someone to like you?” The answer cannot be found in Mrs. MacTeer's songs nor in the Maginot line's description of eating fish together, and even Claudia doesn't know because the question has never occurred to her. If Claudia had thought about it, she could have explained to Pecola that even though she didn't know exactly how you made someone love you, somehow, she knew she was loved. . This love was expressed on those cold autumn nights when Claudia was sick and loving hands gently touched her forehead and readjusted her quilt. They were the same loving hands that told Claudia they didn't want her to die, and they were the loving hands of her mother, Mrs. MacTeer. Unfortunately, Pecola had no loving hands to comfort her. In America in the 1940s, white supremacy reigned and the values ​​of the white dominant group were internalized by the black community in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. These images were reinforced in children's literature, on billboards and even on giant theater screens. Although the effects of this propaganda spread throughout the black community, its most devastating consequences were inflicted by Pauline Williams. It is perhaps because she has always been a dreamer and had to fantasize to escape her daily life that the big screen was able to captivate her. Once her education is complete and indoctrinated by the standards of this medium, she will never be able to look at the world the same way again. Everything was now categorized; there was good and evil, white and black, beauty and ugliness, a...... middle of paper......, she became Mrs. Breedlove in name only. She did not engender love; instead, it bred shame, guilt and ugliness. While it is true that Cholly's behavior was ugly and he was dangerously free to binge, I believe it was Pauline who forced the family to bear their ugliness. Pauline cultivated her child, Pecola, with ridicule and shame, and so she matured and felt unworthy. Pauline, more than anyone, knew Cholly's character, but she refused to believe him and protect her child from his lustful advances. As a result, Pecola turned to Soaphead Church for protection, and her path led her into madness. However, Soaphead Church was only her guide, Pecola's path to madness had already been paved the day she was born, by her mother! Works Cited: Morrison, Toni. The bluest eye. Then by Toni Morrison. New York: Penguin, 1994.