While reading Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, I began to notice similarities and differences between the character of Pecola Breedlove and Maya Angelou's description of her life in I know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Both long to "pass" in the white world, to blend in rather than have the proverbial bull-eye and label of Negro on their backs.
Both Pecloa and Maya entertain the dream that one day they will wake up and be transformed into the ultimate standard of white beauty; blond hair and blue eyes. But for Maya, the dream passes as she grows older and she learns to accept herself. For Pecola, the dream becomes an obsession, one she uses to steady herself when life knocks her down and her father abuses her. With her obsession with "passing" and being impregnated by her own father, pushes Pecola over the edge and she descends into madness.
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