Why does Cholly Breedlove rape Pecola in The Bluest Eye?

As the previous educators have mentioned, Cholly's rape of Pecola is directly tied to the trauma that he experienced during his first sexual experience with Darlene. What was supposed to have been a healthy exploration of sexuality in the context of a community cookout—that is, a circumstance in which Cholly should have felt safe and comfortable—turned into an instance in which he was reminded of the omnipresence of white supremacy.

Ironically, Cholly doesn't feel anger toward the white men who disrupt him (or, at least, he doesn't think he does); however, he feels, or projects, his anger onto Darlene—ignoring how she, too, is being humiliated in this instance. Cholly can't bring himself to feel anger toward the white men, realizing how futile that emotion would be. He projects it onto Darlene because, within the white supremacist and patriarchal social structure in which he must exist, she is the only person who is "lower" than he.

His marriage to Pauline, which began with tenderness, has soured into a violent and contentious arrangement. Shortly before he rapes his daughter, Cholly watches her washing dishes at the sink. Pecola makes a small but meaningful gesture when she scratches the back of her leg with her big toe. Cholly watches her and is reminded of how Pauline once made a similar gesture when she was younger and they were in love.

Cholly's decision to rape his daughter results from a moment in which memories of love and tenderness are confused with memories of humiliation and trauma. Cholly never learned how to love and only understands sexuality in the contexts of humiliation and dominance. One could say the same about Pauline, whose experience of giving birth to Pecola occurred in the context of being observed by medical students. Their instructor, a doctor, pointed out how Pauline and other black women are like horses in terms of their supposed ability to give birth with ease. He says this in the midst of Pauline's typical experience of immense pain.

In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Cholly Breedlove is an angry, psychologically disturbed man who takes out his rage on those who are less powerful than he.

This is traced to Cholly’s first sexual experience with Darlene, when two white men interrupted the young couple and laughed as they watched the couple have intercourse. This encounter forever cements Cholly’s perception of sex as a form of conquest and a source of shame.

Cholly’s alcoholism, as it is portrayed in the novel, doesn’t help him deal with the angst he has about his past, but rather exacerbates his rage. Pecola is the most vulnerable person to which Cholly has access. He knows she will neither fight back nor be believed if she told others about his abuse. Cholly possibly uses sexual violence to feel powerful because of his feelings of impotence in life.

How does Cholly's rape of Pecola instigate her downfall in The Bluest Eye?

Cholly Breedlove’s rape of his daughter, Pecola Breedlove, instigates her downfall because it takes away her voice. During the graphic assault scene, Morrison notes the “silence of her stunned throat.” It’s reasonable to claim that the traumatic sexual abuse produces Pecola’s inability to stick up for herself. The rape has rendered her passive and made her feel like she has no choice but to except other people’s mistreatment, whether it be from the man at the grocery store, Maureen, her mom, or her dad.

Another way that the rape brings about her downfall is that it alienates her. After the rape, Morrison describes Pecola as lying on the kitchen floor and "trying to connect the pain between her legs with the face of her mother looming over her.” The specific derangement connects to a general detachment that follows Pecola to her death. Since her Black identity has been the site of such much pain and abuse, it’s possible to argue that the rape is what causes Pecola to idolize white people and wish that she had blue eyes.

For a third piece of textual evidence that reveals how Cholly’s rape instigates Pecola’s downfall, think about how grownups in Pecola’s community react to Pecola’s situation and how their responses make matters worse. One might also think about how the phrasing of the question reinforces sexist tropes about "fallen women." It’d probably more mindful to say that Cholly’s rape causes Pecola deep suffering and trauma.