The Dandelion Metaphor

 One thing that stood out to me while reading the first section of The Bluest Eye was a certain metaphor Morrison uses to demonstrate the social situation of African-Americans, and specifically Pecola, during the time period of the novel. While walking down Garden Avenue to a grocery store where she can buy candy, Pecola comes across a bunch of dandelions surrounding a telephone pole. Pecola remarks on the fact that these flowers that she saw as beautiful are considered weeds, being exterminated to adhere to the proper image of a residential lawn. Pecola goes on to discuss how dandelions are used for practical purposes, but never admired for their beauty. Morrison writes, "But they do not want the yellow heads--only the jagged leaves. They make dandelion soup. Dandelion wine. Nobody loves the head of a dandelion. Maybe because they are so many, strong, and soon" (47). Morrison is using the dandelion as a metaphor for black women in American society, such as Pecola, who are used for their practical abilities: cooking, cleaning, fertility, sexual partner - but not loved for who they are. Just as the beautiful part of a dandelion, the vibrant yellow head, identifies the plant as a weed, the beauty that lies in the black women of America was often neglected, especially when compared to the idealized beauty of white women at the time. 

    The dandelion metaphor resonated with me, as I remember the immense disappointment I felt when I first heard dandelions were considered weeds. As the flower I came across the most, I had discovered the beauty in dandelions. And even while those dandelions never lost their beauty, their identity as a weed in my mind forever warped my perception of them. This indoctrination that dandelions are weeds and should be exterminated compares to the social indoctrination in American society that black women should be seen as inferior and less beautiful, even when their beauty this idea is fully fabricated by racist ideology.