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Barrenness, An Approach in Fetishism – Barrenness and Incest in The Bluest Eye

In this article, I paid attention to incest and barrenness in The Bluest Eye. I observed fetishism as a barren sexual circumstance and examined Pauline, Geraldine and SoapHead Church's tendency for fetishism as well as Pecola's. Their fetishism originated from the racial discrimination they had experienced. Many scholars pointed out that her action is as a result of eagerness for whites' beauty which is represented by Mary Jane and Shirley Temple. However, I emphasized Pecola's drinking milk with a Shirley Temple cup and eating Mary Jane candies as cathexis which her sexual libido is concentrated on. Therefore, she feels her sexual satisfaction in drinking milk and eating candies. Besides, her fetishism is a kind of psychological regression and leads to self denial. As a result of it, she can't resist her father's rape at all. On the other hand, her mother Pauline fails to perform her role as a mother and wife. Pecola' s father Cholly has a sexual relationship with his cousin Darlene in his younger days, and then he suffers from trauma from the first act of incest. Originally, he is a man who failed to enter Lacan' s Symbolic stage and gain manhood At last, he raped his daughter as an escape from the trauma of the first incest. In the process, Pecola becomes a victim. But this is "a unique situation, not a representative one", so we need to take note of a comparatively healthy Claudia's family as well.