Domestic Violence towards Women Characters as Seen in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

Abstract

This paper aims to unfold the forms of domestic violence towards women main character in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. It employs subaltern theory by Gayatri Spivak and domestic violence theory by Ganely, to investigate and answer the problem. The analysis discovers that Pecola Breadlove, the woman main character in this novel, suffers from domestic violence in the form of sexual, physical and psychological. She is firstly abused sexually by his father when she is in a very young age. This incestuous behavior remain deeply traumatic in her psychology. Moreover, Pecola who craves for blue eyes believes that by those eyes, her life will be changed since she will be well accepted by her community. Her existence in her community is hated because they consider her as an ugly girl. Moreover, she receives violence not only in sexual, verbal, but also in physical. Finally, this paper concludes that domestic violence is as the manifestation of dominating behavior from someone over other. The superiority leads someone to discriminate and abuse to others. In order to be well accepted in both black and white community and to overcome her sorrow life, thus she prays and craves for blue eyes.