A Postcolonial Reading Of Pecola Breedlove’s Tragic Life In The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison is a celebrated African American writer and professor, and her explicit language, unconventional narrative styles and the fancy imagination have presented the diverse situations of the black’s living environment and psychology for readers. In 1970, Toni Morrison published her maiden novel The Bluest Eye, which portrayed the black, especially the vulnerable black girl’s tragic life.In this thesis, Fanon’s psychological theory is applied to exploring the external and internal causes of Pecola Breedlove’s tragic life. The thesis contains five parts: Chapter One is a general introduction to Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye, writing purpose, writing significance and the thesis’ s structure. Chapter Two is the international and domestic studies of the causes of Pecola Breedlove’s tragedy. Chapter Three interprets the definition of postcolonialism and describes the black special psychological symptoms in Fanon’s theory, like the black’s loss of subjectivity, the self-loathing, etc. Chapter Four, combined with Fanon’s psychological theory, is divided into five parts to discuss the external and internal causes leading to Pecola Breedlove’s tragic life. Of the external causes, the white ideologies are the main cause resulting in the tragedy of Pecola Breedlove and her alienation of aesthetics, while the ruthless parents and the indifferent black community have been the minor causes accelerating Pecola Breedlove’s madness. Then Pecola Breedlove’s loss of self-awareness and self-loathing should not be neglected in the analysis of the internal cause of her tragedy. Chapter Five comes to a conclusion that the white ideologies are the main external cause for the tragedy of Pecola Breedlove, and the indifferent parents and the black community become the white ideologies’ propagandists who force Pecola Breedlove into madness.Finally, in view of the avoidable tragedy of Pecola Breedlove and seeking for an effective living method for the black, this thesis points out three survival strategies: the construction of the black identity, the importance of the black blues and the acceptance of the multicultural fusion’ perception will contribute to the black’s existence and their cultural development.