The Narrator as Hero

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye seems an odd place to find a stereotypical hero. Usually the hero in a story is the protagonist, but as we discussed in class last week, Pecola’s status as a hero is questionable. So we turn our attention outside of the story’s immediate events into the minds of those recalling them. The book is told from four perspectives other than Pecola’s: Pauline’s, Cholly’s, Claudia’s, and Soaphead Church’s. Might any of these carry a glimpse of heroism? As I considered each case, I found that my answer to 75% of them would be no. I was left with Claudia. Could this young, oblivious black child, with all her naivety, be the hero Morrison’s novel thrusts out at the reader? Perhaps Claudia’s naivety, or innocence, was her heroic characteristic. In the atmosphere Morrison creates of Lorain, Ohio, innocence does seem to be the only clean thing. Pecola is described as dirt, and the Breedloves are described as animals. The MacTeers’ living conditions were hardly pristine, either; Claudia was always afraid of the “somethings” running around on the floor. However, Claudia might give the reader the best glimpse into the truths Morrison conveys. Similar to Scout Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Claudia’s lack of worldly knowledge provides the reader with a much needed glimpse of light.

The little things Claudia does display the higher meanings that Morrison intricately wove into her novel. In an atmosphere with so much hate, Morrison uses Claudia dismembering dolls to pass on a more important message. Though only ten years old, Claudia can sense her various emotions. “When I learned how repulsive this disinterested violence was, that it was repulsive because it was disinterested, my shame floundered about for refuge. The best hiding place was love. Thus the conversion from pristine sadism to fabricated hatred, to fraudulent love” (23). Big words for such a little girl. Obviously Morrison meant Claudia to be more than the reader might expect. At the end of the novel, Claudia has deep insight into the situations of the novel’s characters. In reference to Pecola and the Breedlove’s downward spiral, Claudia says, “And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressve; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved” (205). The little girl is capable of recognizing all of this. That nothing about that summer was great or above average, only up to par. I see a lot of Scout Finch in Claudia MacTeer. I also see a lot of Morrison in her, too.