White equals Beauty?

As I continued reading the rest of the novel, I noticed some things that were out of line or abnormal to what usual happens in literature and/or life. Each of Morrison's character's lives in The Bluest Eye, full of hardships which they must deal with in their own ways. The young black women were the ones who seemed to suffer the most at the time due to bad upbringing and/or abuse. Some aspects of the novel seemed odd and did not follow their usual symbolism.

The first was the color white. In the small amount of literature I have studied, white means clean, innocent, or pale/ lifeless (with a bad connotation.) The characters in the novel such as Geraldine make it seem as if colors of any type were bad. They made it seem as if it made one look unclean and unworthy of the privileges of the life of the "whitemen". The white women were subject to abuse, rape, and many other terrible things, but they didn't exactly help themselves either. The African American society could have revolted to the white people, but because it was drummed into them and they saw themselves as inferior, they did not have the spirit to fight and win a battle against the whites. Morrison then shows how the colors represent happiness (when Pauline makes love to Cholly) rather than white which lacks any color and/or life.

The seasons also seemed to have opposite meanings in the book than they do in most literature. The book begins with Autumn, which is when Pecola's child dies. Autumn is seen as the time of the crops, of harvesting; therefore, one would assume that it would be a time in which children would be born, but in the book, it has the opposite effect. Spring, a time of joy and rebirth, is of the worst times in the novel. In this time Pecola is raped and there is much fear in the village due to the abuses occurring at the time. The moodiness of the earth during these changes can be seen as symbolism for the moodiness and misery of the African American girls at the time who suffered constantly, yet still went on with their lives as if nothing were wrong.