Pecola’s Dissociation

For my Critical Research Paper, I chose to write about Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”, and the character of Pecola. In the image, we see who is presumed to be Pecola in front of the mirror, staring at her reflection. However the actual Pecola does not have blue eyes, she in fact has brown eyes. This image is an illustration of Pecola’s dissociation. Freud defined dissociation as the “splitting of the mind and the dissociation of the personality as the centre of our position.” (Freud 2220) This is shown in the image because Pecola is detaching herself from her surroundings and begins to convince herself that she does in fact, have blue eyes, and that she is finally beautiful.