The Significant Role of the Effects of Past Experiences on the Present and Future in Everything is Illuminated and the Bluest Eyes

The novels, Whatever is Brightened by Jonathan Safran Foer and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, both emphasize the way that the past affects people in the present and future. In Everything is Illuminated, we see how his upbringing and the anti-Semitic culture in Ukraine has influenced the life of Alex. In The Bluest Eye, we see how childhood trauma and bullying affect the main character, Pecola. Additionally, in both books, we see how family relationships can negatively affect children as they grow up.

Renowned psychologist, Sigmund Freud, first introduced the idea of The Subconscious, the Desires, and the Defenses. This theory posits that human beings tend to repress painful memories into our subconscious and as a result, these repressed memories transform into either desires or defenses. We are first introduced to Alex, in Everything is Illuminated, as a seemingly affluent, popular, and lively young man, but in fact, he lives a quiet, subdued, and slightly abused home life. He describes how his father yells at him and has a very tough demeanor, and how his grandfather occasionally berates him. Dealing with this from a young age has driven Alex to desire a life far from his family and his “predestined” path in the family business. His defense against his harsh home life is creating a whole new persona within himself. Pecola Breedlove, from The Bluest Eye, is the victim of bullying, hatred, and abuse from the moment she is born. Being “ugly and black,” she is mocked by schoolmates, gossiped about by adults in town, and even detested by her own parents. She yearns for blue eyes because she believes that with blue eyes, her outlook on life will change. Her defense against all the negativity in her life involves daydreaming about her blue eyes and ultimately convincing herself that she does have blue eyes. Her delusion gives her a sense of happiness but also leads to others seeing her as mentally unstable.

In The Bluest Eye, the Breedlove family is defined by misery, darkness, and tragedy. Cholly Breedlove is an alcoholic with a heartbreaking past who fails to support his family and instead abuses them. Pauline, also known as Polly Breedlove, is Cholly’s wife who lost her beauty after losing her front tooth and regressed to working as a housemaid. Sammy Breedlove, their eldest son, frequently runs away from home to escape the grim reality of his home life. Lastly, Pecola Breedlove is the youngest in the family who silently endures the abuse and neglect from her family. In their small hometown, there’s a pervasive sense of sadness and shame surrounding the Breedloves. “You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closer and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious, all-knowing master had doled out a cloak of ugliness for each to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.” (Morrison) The Breedloves were unloved, including by themselves, which most adversely affected Pecola.

At the tender age of twelve, Pecola has experienced a lot of despair and pity that no child at her age should experience. From the second she was born as a Breedlove, she was doomed. She was ugly, dark, poor, abused and marginalized, yet still no one wanted to help her. As Morrison reveals throughout the story, all of these factors had a noticeably negative effect on Pecola. Being a young child still innocent in thought, Pecola desperately wanted to have blue eyes. To her, having blue eyes would change her whole life for the better. “It had struck Pecola long ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures and knew the sights, were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (Morrison). Unfortunately, however, Pecola’s aspiration for blue eyes, blended with her painful reality, drove Pecola mad.

In Everything is Illuminated, the first character we are introduced to is Alex. Our initial impression of Alex presents him as a handsome, intelligent, and affluent young man who is highly sought after by women. “If you want to know why so many women want to be with me, it is because I am a very desirable person to be with. I am homely and also very funny, and these are winning qualities” (Safran Foer, 2). However, it does not take long for readers to see that the image Alex is portraying of himself is merely superficial. The perfect, happy Alex is exposed as fictional when we meet his family and observe the relationships they share. Alex lives with his father, mother, younger brother, and grandfather. The most significant relationship is that of Alex and his father. From the very beginning, Alex conveys that he and his father do not get along, and that his father uses his fists to discipline him. “When I look in the mirror, what I see is not my father, but the negative of my father” (Safran Foer, 54). Alex longs to be the opposite of his father; he yearns to leave Ukraine and move to Russia, and to become a better man than his father. However, his father does not care about Alex’s dreams and aspirations, frequently dismissing them.

Throughout the novel, we get to see Alex from a much more vulnerable side, and it is clear that he is dealing with finding himself. He has been hidden under the strong arm of his father for so long that, when he gets the chance to be unique, he lies about himself to others whenever he gets the opportunity. “This is something I have never told anyone, and you must promise that you will not tell it to a soul. I have never been intimate with a girl. I know. I know. You can’t believe it, but all of the stories I told you about my dalliances with girls, were all lies, and they were unbecoming lies. I think I create these lies because it makes me feel like a better person. Dad frequently asks me about girls, and which ones I am being intimate with, and under what circumstances we are intimate. He likes to jest with me about it, especially late at night when he has had some vodka. I know that he would be greatly disappointed if he knew what I am truly like.” (Safran Foer, 114) Eventually, Alex admits to Jonathan that the reason he lies about himself is because he is afraid of disappointing his father and others around him. From a psychological perspective, Alex uses these lies as a means of escaping reality, and because he seeks affirmations from others, which is a result of his unhealthy relationship with his father.

“I realized that some victims of strong self-loathing become dangerous, violent, repeating the offenses of the person who has degraded them continually. Others relinquish their identity; merge into a shell that offers the robust character they lack. Many others, however, grow beyond it. But there are some who perish, silently, anonymously, lacking any voice to share or acknowledge it. They are invisible. The death of self-esteem can occur quickly, especially in children, before their ego has ‘legs,’ so to speak. Combine the vulnerability of youth with indifferent parents, contemptuous adults, and a world that, in its language, laws, and images, reinforces despair, and the pathway to destruction is paved.” (Morrison) This quote from the General Introduction of The Bluest Eye best encompasses both Pecola and Alex. Pecola allows herself to become passive and invisible, succumbing to the negativity in her life. In contrast, Alex attempts to relinquish his identity; he tries to create an entirely new version of the man he wishes he could be. Unlike Pecola, Alex has individuals in his life who love and cherish him and, because of this, he is able to flourish and overcome his self-loathing.

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