Maureen Peal Character Analysis in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The brainwashed minds of the elders has infected the youth by grooming them to believe that darker skin is ugly and these minds have not hesitated to reveal their beliefs to Pecola. Maureen Peal is a mixed child who comes from a wealthy family. She is seen as a “high-level dream child with sole green eyes” and is treated with special kindness and respect by her peers. Maureen has flaws, such as a “dog tooth” on the upper jaw and “sloe eyes,” but the fellow black students are enslaved behind the white qualities that she possesses to recognize these flaws. Instead, she is prized and envied for her “whiteness.” 

This pedestal that she is placed on leads her to believe she has superiority over others and can choose to treat someone with kindness or cruelty. Pecola was seen being victimized and humiliated by a group of boys, some being dark-skinned just like Pecola, chanting on about her darkness and insults her father about supposedly sleeping naked. Claudia and Freida were walking with the newcomer, Maureen Peal, and they spotted this harassment. Freida leading, they shut down the torment that Pecola was receiving and invited her to walk with them. Maureen engages in conversation with Pecola and even offers to buy her ice cream which indicates the inferiority of Pecola to Maureen. It is a paternalistic superior where Maureen can purchase stuff without thinking twice whilst Pecola was on the other side of the spectrum and couldn’t. Her kindness can be viewed as enforcing her superiority over Pecola. Maureen would brag about her wealthy parents and informed the girls that she was able to see the film Imitation of Life four times with her mother. Pecola informs Maureen that she’s never heard of this movie and Maureen explains the movie being a film about a mulatto girl having hatred towards her mother because she is a black woman. Maureen's way of showing her fondness for this movie reveals Maureen’s racist tendencies. She reveals that she has watched this movie numerous times with her mother which indicates that this move is rooted in their relationship. Maureen casually talks about the plot of the movie which suggests she is not fully aware of the racist meaning behind the movie and her feeling of racial superiority. Maureen begins to tease Pecola and question her about personal matters in her life. 

When Maureen brings up her father and is called out on it by Claudia, she utters “What do I care about her old black daddy” (Morrison 73.) The term ‘black’ was used as an offensive word and it indicates that Maureen was brought up thinking that being ‘black’ or darker was not something preferable. Although Maureen is half black herself, she was taught that she was “better” than the other black children. Maureen proceeds to enter into an agitated state and states “I am cute! And you are ugly! Black and ugly emos. I am cute!” (Morrison 73.) She picks on their skin tone having that that had been the normality in their society. It has what she’s seen being talked about darker skinned girls and she used it as an insult indicating her ignorance on the topic of racism in their society. Maureen had just befriended Pecola and has already acknowledged that she was inferior to her. She picks on her for her skin tone and uses that as a reflector to refer to her as ugly. Children were told from a young age that black people are never beautiful and being white, or having white features, would always make you prettier. These teachings are passed through them and would affect the self-esteem of all the young black girls.