Through literary works, past events can positively or negatively shape a character in social and personal ways. Authors often provide information about a character's history to justify their current condition. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison's use of Cholly and Pauline Breedlove's characterization and background information contributes to their current actions, attitudes, and values. Morrison's descriptions of Cholly Breedlove's past create a justification for her evil personality. Throughout the story, Cholly represents a broken man, involved in many inappropriate events. His abuse of his wife and children, as well as the incidents of rape, give the reader the idea that beneath the surface there is an underlying cause. Such events are revealed in Cholly's life, including abandonment by his mother, the death of his great-aunt, humiliation by two white men, and the lack of growing up with a father figure. Soon after his birth, Cholly's mother abandoned him in a pile of garbage and his aunt Jimmy rescues him. Growing up and not knowing his biological mother...