The Bluest Eye Reflection

After finishing The Bluest Eye, I'm not sure how to feel. Mortified? Intrigued? All the evils described in the book have opened my eyes to the cruel racism that we are living in today. Even though it's putrid and revolting, there's still something peculiarly compelling about the inner workings of racism and the functions of society. Whilst reading through the particularly intense scenes in Spring (specifically Cholly), I could not put the book down, even though on the inside I was on the verge of throwing up. I believe whats truly compelling about these horrors is the behind the scenes of them, which Morrison has written for every character, except for Maureen Peal. Behind the shocking Pecola rape scene, I felt the tiniest bit of sympathy towards Cholly, how even though he commits this extremely evil and disturbing act of sexual assault, we find out that he does not understand the horrors of his actions, he didn't know "whether her grip was from a hopeless but stubborn struggle to be free, or some other emotion". As much as I want to blame Cholly for his actions, it makes much more sense now to not necessarily blame him, but the racists that made Cholly - among many others - for the broken life and mindset that he's been forced into. What's more interesting is how this evil still is prevalent in the world we live in and how the evils are becoming more and more revealed, yet the intricate workings of racism are still far from being discovered by society.