“'How do you do it? I mean, how do you get someone to love you?' But Frieda was asleep. And I didn't know it” (Morrison 32). The innocent question asked by Pecola in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is representative of a recurring theme in the novel: love. However, while Pecola feels anxious about finding someone to love her, she doesn't even realize how many horrible things have already happened to her and how many more will happen. Each heinous and brutal event takes away a little more of Pecola's sanity, transforming her into the empty shell of a long-lost girl who has lost everything, especially her only shred of original "beauty" that is innocence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Pecola's main victimization is the constant reproach that she is ugly according to the white definition of beauty. The prime example of Pecola's feeble attempt to gain knowledge on how to become beautiful is the unnatural amount of milk she drinks only to see the bottom of Shirley Temple's glass. Mrs. MacTeer's “agitated soliloquies were always irritated and depressed… they were interminable, offensive, and, though indirect (Mother never named anyone, she only talked about people and some people), extremely painful in their thrust” (24). Mrs. MacTeer believes that Pecola drank all the milk because she was selfish, although Pecola obviously learns nothing about beauty. The second person who hurt Pecola's sense of beauty was Mr. Yacobowski who, by refusing to even touch her, reinforced her belief that white people hated her ugliness. On page 48 a quote succinctly summarizes Pecola's thoughts: “She looks at him and sees the void where curiosity should reside. And something more. The total absence of human recognition, the glass separation... It has an advantage; somewhere in the lower lid there is disgust… the disgust must be for her, her darkness” (48). While these passive situations negatively affected Pecola's self-image, they did not directly harm her in the way that some characters harm her. One character who has openly hurt Pecola is her father, Cholly Breedlove. Cholly's drunken stupors destroy the family from the inside, resulting in the fire that ruined their home and his lack of care for Pauline and his own children. These bouts of drunkenness also result in the rape of Pecola's body, heart, and mind. Cholly even believes that she is ugly, but drunkenly believes that this rape is an act of demonstration of love, her tangled mass of emotions shown in a quote from page 161, "The sequence of her emotions was revulsion, guilt, pity and then love". . Her revulsion was a reaction to her young, helpless, hopeless presence... Why did she have to look so frustrated? She was a child, without burdens, why wasn't she happy? The feelings of guilt and pity stemmed from his feeling that he couldn't give her anything and she needed to feel a lot of love. The feelings of love she displayed in her acts of rape irreversibly damage Pecola's mind such that she is never able to regain sanity. Cholly's act of love, while perverted, is the only example of someone actually attempting to love Pecola. In comparison to Cholly's action, Maureen Peal tries to befriend Pecola to dig into Pecola's brain. Maureen is described as "A bright yellow dream girl with long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes hanging down her back...the black girls stepped aside when she wanted to use the sink in the girls' bathroom."girls, and their eyes knelt under sliding lids. "(62). This description of Maureen exemplifies the reverence that black girls had to offer her just because she was supremely beautiful, even though she wasn't even white, just "very yellow." Maureen even has the immorality to pretend to be the friend of Pecola only to question her about her naked father. A confrontation then follows between Claudia and Frieda and Maureen where “Pecola hid her head in a funny, sad, helpless movement cover their ears” (72). This evokes the image of a turtle that instinctively inserts its head into its shell to protect itself. This episode shows the contrast between Pecola's helplessness and the hardened appearance of Frieda and Claudia who defend themselves with vehemence from Maureen's barrage of insults is also violated by many other characters, although in a different way as they do not directly imply insults to Pecola's already low amount of self-respect. Although she is physically and emotionally distraught from her experience on the playground with Bay Boy, Woodrow Cain, and Junie Bug, this event is insignificant compared to the trauma associated with Pecola's mother. Pauline works hard at the Fisher house, but when Pecola visits her and knocks over the berry cobbler, Pauline becomes so violently angry that she beats Pecola severely even after being burned by the cobbler. The sharp irony of the situation is that after beating Pecola, Pauline or "Polly" as she is cheekily called, calmed and mothered the crying Fisher girl. As Claudia and Frieda witness this, they realize that Pecola needs her mother's attention. Claudia and Frieda were at the Fishermen's house for selfish reasons. They wanted to find some liquor because they thought it would make Frieda, who had been “ruined” by Mr. Henry, thin. Claudia believes they need whiskey for Frieda because "mother says the whiskey ate them [the prostitutes]" (101). They took their mother's words literally and thought that the whiskey would eat away the fat from Frieda's ruined appearance. They thought the only place they could get whiskey was in Pecola because Cholly was a drunk. For these selfish reasons, Claudia and Frieda were also not truly friends with Pecola. The selfishness of the MacTeer sisters is paralleled only in the Soaphead Church agenda. Elihue Micah Whitcomb exploits Pecola's innocent request to have blue eyes. From his request, Soaphead Church wishes he could actually help her and is angry because he can't. So he makes an effort to try to be as sincere as possible and allow the Lord to take charge of the decision of his desire to have blue eyes. Then Elihue tells her that she must sacrifice the dog Bob so that “some simple creature… may be the vehicle through which He will speak” (175). Although Soaphead seems genuinely sorry for his lack of power, he does not acknowledge that he lied about his exploitative occupation. He also doesn't mind that Pecola thinks she's ugly, but pities her because he truly believes she's ugly and will stay that way. This reinforces Pecola's thinking that she is ugly. Louis Junior also took advantage of Pecola by inviting her home to play with the kittens. Geraldine loves the cat and for this reason Junior is jealous of the attention he receives. Since his black, middle-class mother does not allow him to play with other black children, and he is not white, he expels his anger by abusing the cat. When Pecola enters the house, Louis Junior throws the cat at her and then throws it through the window. Then Geraldine comes home, which prompted Junior to blame Pecola, to which Geraldine says “Go away… you ugly little black bitch. Get out of my house." This causes Pecola to see “Jesus looking at her.