Topic > Absolutely Nothing: The Problem with Cholly Breedlove

Human beings sometimes become infatuated with certain emotions, to the point of letting these emotions control them: a single force like anger drives their motivations and controls who they become. Anger, in particular, is a belligerent and dangerous emotion because it opens the way to many hostile acts. In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, we are introduced to the epitome of a dangerously angry man. Cholly Breedlove was a character created through pain and hardship, from a boy abandoned by his mother to a grown man who never learned to love or be loved. Morrison sculpts the perfect statue of a man, cold as stone and with only one emotion: anger. Through Cholly's anger; contempt, resentment and hatred flowed; a lethal combination of feelings. Through the pages of the story, Cholly transforms from a young, innocent boy, to a teenager scorned by embarrassment and rejection, to a grown man who ultimately feels nothing. It's insensitive. Morrison brilliantly exploits Cholly's character to inflict themes of anger and numbness; emotions that ultimately transform Cholly from a sad boy to an angry teenager to a callous man. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Childhood experiences may fade with time, but the effects can last a lifetime. Subconsciously a person's childhood experiences serve as the foundation for what they will be. In Cholly Breedlove's case, his first life-changing childhood experience occurred as early as four days old, when his mother wrapped him in a blanket and threw him away. Although he was too young to remember or even understand what had happened to him, the act of abandonment would somehow remain imprinted on his being. It would become a part of who he is. The boy whose mother threw him away. Rescued and raised by his great-aunt Jimmy, Cholly was constantly reminded of the horrendous and selfish act of the woman who was supposed to care for him. A child should never have to endure a parent's sadness and rejection, it is soul crushing and degrading. As a result, the belief that there is something wrong with them and sudden feelings of worthlessness and abandonment weigh on the heart and mind of someone so innocent. Cholly was saved by his aunt but she didn't save him from the pain of rejection, only from death. He grew up but was never healed and sometimes the burden was too heavy to bear, as can be demonstrated through the quote, “then he wondered if it would be better to die there. Down in the tire rim, under the soft black Georgia sky.” (133.) Young Cholly's pain is abundant in this quote. The quote expresses his sadness through his consideration of death. Innocent or not, Cholly suffered the pangs of a broken heart at an early age. Purity, innocence and cleanliness are all factors associated with virginity. It is a quality that every person will lose sooner or later. It is purely natural but when such a beautiful act is hindered by mortification and shame the result is never good. In the spring chapters of The Bluest Eye, Cholly loses his virtue to a young girl named Darlene. This experience swept away the innocence of Cholly's youth and replaced it with hatred and anger. Devils in Disguise: Two white men allegedly forced the two young children to fornicate while they watched, forcing Cholly and Darlene to finish in front of them. With each blow the anger grew in the young, innocent boy that once was Cholly. His emotions are perfectly portrayed in the quote: “Cholly, moving faster,he looked at Darlene. He hated her. He almost wished he could do it: hard, long and painful, he hated it so much. (Morrison, 148.) The tone of the quote alone revealed a certain sense of anger. It described Cholly's desire to punish someone, to hurt them the way they had hurt him. This quote described the anger and anger he felt at the white men who had so willfully mortified him but subconsciously Cholly projected his hatred of men onto Darlene. He couldn't hate those men, they were strong and scary and the fact that this story was set in a time of racism made it even more impossible. His subconscious knowledge is demonstrated in the quote: "His subconscious knew what his conscious mind did not imagine: that hating them would consume him, burn him like a lump of soft coal, leaving only flakes of ash and a question mark of smoke." .” (151.) This quote explained Cholly's desperation as he allowed himself to face enemies he could never defeat. If they showed hatred for white men, the untouchable men would only destroy Cholly and no one else. He could never take revenge on white men, so he hated the only person he could. Darlene not only black just like him but also a woman, she was easier to hate. She was weaker, less threatening, and the only other person to witness his humiliation. Insecurities are created through bad experiences, embarrassing moments and painful memories; it is precisely this process that forms (or rather deforms) Cholly. As Cholly grew up, her mother's abandonment and the mortification of losing her virginity never seemed to subside. With nothing to lose, Cholly set out to find his father. Young and alone he went in search of the only person he perhaps had left. He didn't know his father but his aunt had told him something about him when he was younger. The young man left home in search of a man who perhaps he will never find in an act of desperation. He was alone and scared, but little did he know that his father would not help his current situation. Cholly found his father, but his search ended with the horrifying image of him crawling in a fetal position beside a riverbank with dirty trousers, like a child waiting for his mother to come and change him. But no one would come and no one would change him, he was alone. He was free. Yet there is a dark side to such apparent freedom. Cholly is a free man now, able to do what he wants, to be who he wants, but when Morrison refers to him as "free" it's not as literal as you might think. Cholly's freedom came not from being reckless or adventurous, but from relief. The word freedom symbolized Cholly's emotional state. After many difficulties and much anger Cholly had finally become numb. He could no longer feel the pain he felt as a kid or the anger he felt as a teenager. He was liberated, he was free, he was numb. His daughter's reckless behavior, drinking, and even rape were the result of a man who no longer cared. Not because he had no reason to stop, but because he couldn't feel the weight of his actions or the pain they caused. Cholly was free to burn down his home to start a family and destroy each member, one by one, and yet he felt nothing. His messed up way of loving was perfectly portrayed in the quote: “Love is never better than the lover. The wicked love wickedly, the violent love violently, the weak love weakly, the stupid love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe." (206.) This quote from the last chapter of the novel explained that love can only be as good as the person who gives it. In Cholly's case his love was as painful as the love that.