The Role of Names in Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”: Part II

Last post I started exploring the role of names in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Specifically, I looked at Soaphead Church’s letter to God and his questions, “What makes one name more a person than another? Is the name the real thing, then? And the person only what his name says?” By looking at Claudia and Frieda’s nickname for Maureen Peals and the ways that Pecola and Claudia differed in how they refer to Marie, I worked to examine the role that names have in Morrison’s novel. Today, I want to continue that discussion by focusing on Pecola’s mother Pauline.

Our first real introduction to Pauline comes during the second section of the novel, “Spring,” when Claudia and Frieda go to find Pecola at the Fishers’ house. Pauline works for the Fishers as a domestic. Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola all call Pauline Mrs. Breedlove, showing respect for her by referring to her in a manner that highlights the identity as a mother and adult figure, an identity that the girls place on her from their position as children.

When Claudia and Frieda come up to the Fishers’ house, they see Pecola on the stoop and start talking to her. This initial interaction informs what follows because this is where Claudia tells Pecola that “The Maginot Line” told her and her sister where to find Pecola. Pecola doesn’t know who Claudia is…