We substituted good grammar for intellect we switched habits to simulate maturity we rearranged lies and called it truth, seeing in the new pattern of an old idea the Revelation and the Word. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life. Maureen Peal: A light-skinned, green-eyed multiracial African-American. She moves to Loraine in the winter, interrupting the. We honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength.Īnd fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive we were not free, merely licensed we were not compassionate, we were polite not good, but well behaved. The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison. A high yellow dream child, as Claudia calls her, Maureen is a mulatto girl from a wealthy family. And she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt. Even her waking dreams we used-to silence our own nightmares. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. Her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. of our peers, the slippery light in the eyes of our teachers when they encountered the Maureen Peals of the world. We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. All of us-all who knew her-felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. “All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed.

Maureen peal the bluest eye