Gloria And Claudia Defends Pecola

Besides the inherent self-confident issue, the outside voice from community is also affecting Pecola’s view. For example, in the “accident” when Pecola went into Junior’s house, Junior killed the cat and impute to Pecola. His mother, Geraldine, saw Pecola was holding the dead cat. Without any thought and didn’t even ask for the truth, Geraldine simply called Pecola a “nastylittle black bitch.” This event, again, reinforces Pecola’s view of what beauty means.

As a child, he was not loved by his mother. She prefered her cat to her own son. Junior saw this at an early age and “spent some happy moments watching it suffer” (86). Junior locked Pecola in a room, becoming the perpetrator with the same turn of attitude as Cholly. When he saw that the cat liked Pecola, he threw the cat, killing it, because the thing his mother loved more than himself loved her. Pecola’s wish could be paralleled to the cat. It had blue eyes, and was loved dearly by someone, which could explain the attention she gave to the cat. Junior even said, “Gimme my cat! (90). Up to this point, he wanted nothing to do with the cat and even tortured it, but with it being the only connection to his mother, he called it his own. Pecola’s dream, or having the same attention as the cat, was killed when the cat was killed. Junior was not loved by his mother, only taken care of to live. She did not “allow her baby, Junior, to cry…[she] did not talk to him, coo to him, or indulge him in kissing bouts” (86). This unlove for her family caused Junior to be victimized, and then alter his ways, and become the perpetrator. Pecola is the victim in the rage of Junior, only because his mother did not love him. She wanted someone to be kind to her, and love her, but that was only met with

In the aftermath, there is a dialogue presented between Pecola and an imaginary friend. The dialogue includes conflicted feelings of Pecola’s rape, and her deluded thoughts of her wish for blue eyes has been granted. She believes that the changes in behavior of the people around her are because of her new eyes, and not the news of her rape. Claudia speaks for a final time, and describes the recent phenomenon of pecola’s insanity. She also suggests that Cholly, (who had since died), may have shown Pecola the only affection he could by raping her. Claudia believed that the whole community, herself included, have used Pecola as a way to make themselves feel beautiful and happier.

After she meets Pecola, her concerns go to Pecola. She explains about each and every incident that occurs to Pecola and the reasons behind leading to those incidents. According to Claudia, the narrator of the story, not just Pecola but it was the Breedlove family members who treated themselves the uglier rather than the society. Only the difference is that they make a different mindset deal with it. The narrator vividly mentions by saying, “Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction/And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it” (Morrison 39). This explains more of what they were dealing with. It is impossible to make them believe that they aren’t relentlessly and aggressively ugly (38). Being young, vulnerable and more importantly, female, Pecola is the one who gets abused frequently and endures the damage in greater

If she had beautiful blue eyes, Pecola imagines, people would not want to do ugly things in front of her or to her. The accuracy of this insight is affirmed by her experience of being teased by the boys—when Maureen comes to her rescue, it seems that they no longer want to behave badly under Maureen’s attractive gaze. In a more basic sense, Pecola and her family are mistreated in part because they happen to have black skin. By wishing for blue eyes rather than lighter skin, Pecola indicates that she wishes to see things differently as much as she wishes to be seen differently. She can only receive this wish, in effect, by blinding herself. Pecola is then able to see herself as beautiful, but only at the cost of her ability to see accurately both herself and the world around her. The connection between how one is seen and what one sees has a uniquely tragic outcome for

The affiliation between beauty and whiteness limits the concept of beauty only to the person’s exterior. The characters are constantly subjected to images and symbols of whiteness through movies, books, candy, magazines, baby dolls and advertisements. Another example of the images and symbols in the novel is when the black protagonist, Pecola, feasts on a ‘Mary Jane’ candy.

Many examples of her childlike innocence occur throughout the book including her idea of planting the marigold seeds in hope to save Pecola’s baby. Although she has a reoccurring innocence, she slowly starts to mature and understand different controversies in life, one of the major ones being racism. She later understands the reason Maureen Peal received more attention from others was because she was a lighter skin tone than herself. She also learns how to interpret different situations and peoples’ character through the gossip that she hears from her mother and the other women in the community. However, Claudia shows her maximum mature process when she realizes at the end of the book that she could not save Pecola or her baby; the baby was going to die whether the marigolds bloomed or not. Throughout the book, Claudia and Pecola are both exposed to situations they were both too young to understand. Claudia’s strength prevails and she becomes a mature women prepared for the awful realities of the world while Pecola’s weakness and self-hatred allowed her to fail and go

Both Claudia and the narrator show sympathy. Claudia wants to show Cholly’s love for Pecola even though he raped her, and the narrator provides Cholly's story to understand why he raped her and how it fit into his life.

Pecola is first introduced as a foster child coming to live with McTeer family after her father burned down the Breedlove house. She arrives with nothing but the clothes on her back, exhibiting a shy demeanor. The effects of years of abuse and neglect are immediately evident through her interactions with Claudia and Frieda. She is compliant with whatever they do, trying her best not to draw attention to herself: “When we discovered that she clearly did not want to dominate us, we liked her. She laughed when I clowned for her, and smiled and gracefully accepted the food gifts my sister gave her” (Morrison 19). As the three girls stay together, Pecola’s insecurities are unveiled. She is aware that others dub her as ‘ugly’, and believes she is

“…the pan tilted under Pecola’s fingers and fell to the floor…she cried out and began hopping about just as Mrs. Breedlove entered with a tightly packed laundry bag. In one gallop she was on Pecola, and with the back of her hand knocked her to the floor…Mrs. Breedlove yanked her up by the arm, slapped her again, and in a voice thin with anger, abused Pecola directly and Frieda and me by implication” (Morrison, p. 109). Claudia and Frieda could defend Pecola when she was being bullied by the boys at school. They could stand up for her against Maureen who was antagonizing her however they are too young and helpless to stand up for against her

Pecola Breedlove, is an eleven-year-old black girl whom the story revolves around. She is abused by almost everyone in the novel and eventually suffers being raped by her father, Cholly Breedlove. Pecola's experiences, however, are not typical of all black girls who have to grow up in a hostile society. But who is to blame? One could easily argue that it was Mr. and Mrs. Breedlove. But who is to blame for how they treat their child? The white supremacy is the main cause of Cholly’s past, Pecola’s rape and the psychological mindset the mother is in. Pauline is Pecola's mother, and her character allows the reader to see how cultural conceptions of beauty can play themselves out in a more affectionate, but still unfortunate, form than Pecola's

Claudia's strong beliefs engender difficult interactions with others. Although mocked for her bold actions, Claudia stands up for her friend Pecola Breedlove. She yells at Maureen Peal, the most revered girl in the community and calls her "Sixfingerdogtoothmeringuepie" (73) when Maureen thoughtlessly crushes the remaining shreds of Pecola's self worth. Claudia's harsh words will, if not change Maureen, at least leave a lasting impression on her. Due to the fierce criticism and painful implications of imperfection in Claudia's words, Maureen faces thoughts that have never crossed her mind. Maureen may actually begin to wonder if she is perfect or not. Pecola, due to her hard and painful life, lacks the strength that Claudia possesses. As Pecola buckles with pain and hurt from the chronic mocking, Claudia maintains her rocklike exterior. She never reveals defeat or even pain. She watches repulsed as Pecola lets down her guard and shows her weakness. To herself Claudia thinks, "Her pain antagonized me" (73). Claudia demonstrates her strength and strong will in a number of ways. Her strength is the reason she is repulsed by Pecola's weakness. It tears Claudia apart that Pecola could be defeated so easily. Pecola's weakness reflects the true strength and power within Claudia, which distance her even more from others and force her into greater strength and independence.

Pecola’s peers in school, mainly the girls, would find ways of mocking the boys through her ugliness by shouting phrases like, “Bobby loves Pecola Breedlove! Bobby loves Pecola Breedlove!” (46) an embarrassment for both parties involved. When it comes to the different bystanders, their reaction is full of laughter with no sense of comfort. Additionally, one would think that the adults around Pecola would give her some justice but it was the opposite. “They tried never to glance at her, and called on her only when everyone was required to respond” (46). The actions of the teachers further show how Pecola is received in her community since stereotypically teachers should be the most accepting members, but even they follow suit, avoiding Pecola and who she is. Altogether, it was not just Pecola planting seeds internally telling herself how ugly she is but it came from many other people, some of which are respectable figures around

The hissing of schoolboys direct at Pecola, clearly illustrate the fact, “it was their contempt for their own blackness that give the first insult its teeth” (65). The impression that the color of ours skin somehow make us slighter in refine by both black and white. This self-hatred possess an undercurrent of anger and injustice. The life lead by Pecola as well transition as others like her is a part of life that many women are experiencing world wild.

Who would wish to be subjected to a neighborhood where you are mistreated for having black skin? Geraldine only allows her son to play in the playground with upper-class colored people. Junior’s mother categorizes Pecola as the breed of lower-class niggers in their society. One day, Junior tricks Pecola into coming to his house to glimpse his kittens; on the contrary, things yield a ruthless turn. The cat was thrown on Pecola’s face by Junior and she got scratched up.