Examining the Character of Cholly Breedlove

    Off the bat, Cholly is portrayed as the villain, and rightfully so. After all, what could possibly be more villainous than impregnating your own daughter? No amount of childhood trauma or difficult life situations could ever begin to justify what Cholly did, as incest is by nature unjustifiable and despicable. However, Morrison refuses to take the easy road of strict condemnation. While it would have been easy for Morrison to finalize Cholly Breedlove's characterization as an evil rapist solely by examining his perverted actions, Morrison decides to broaden her scope and tell the entire story of Cholly Breedlove, providing context for his actions. While Morrison doesn't attempt to provide justification for Cholly's actions, she does wish to give the reader an explanation as to what put Cholly in the mental state to consider such an act, making a point about the detrimental impacts of American society on the mental sanity of black people during this time period.

    To start, Morrison discusses Cholly's childhood. Days after Cholly's birth, he was abandoned by his parents, who left him "placed on a junk heap by the railroad" (132). His Great Aunt Jimmy took him in and adopted him, and while she cared for him intently, he never had a loving relationship with his parents. Cholly's trauma continued when he was ridiculed by a group of white men while having sex with Darlene. The shame he felt manifested itself in anger towards Darlene, developing a shameful hatred towards her. But the trauma didn't stop there. Soon after this funeral, Cholly went out to find his father in Macon, but was devastated to find his father wanted nothing to do with him, telling him to "...'get the fuck outta my face'" (156). It was all this trauma that boiled into the varying emotions of shame, anger, and depravity, that led Cholly to seek pleasure through his daughter. Cholly never knew what true love was, as he had never witnessed it himself or in the people around him, so he had no perception of how he was supposed to properly reciprocate the familial love his daughter had for him, and the fatherly love he had for his daughter. Depravity and desire are inherently connected, and Cholly's immense childhood depravity led to intense desire for which he had no manner of controlling, leading him to perfom an unspeakable act.

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