How does pecola feel about herself

Ray had already fought in the war. He is a resentful and an angry man. The main cause of his behaviour is because when her wife died, she was about to leave him. This causes him to take out all of his anger on his innocent daughter, being really cruel sometimes towards her.

Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Throughout the novel, as Pecola grows as a young girl her confidence is tainted by her experiences and the world around her. Pecola lives in Lorain, Ohio, in the s. During this time, role models for young girls were predominantly Caucasian, blonde, blue-eyed women.

This impacted young girls like Pecola who had no role models to look up to. Pecola not only has no role models, but also an unsupportive family. From the moment Pecola is born her mother Pauline immediately distinguishes her as ugly. The Breedloves acknowledge their appearance define them and outline who they are.

Pecola was raised to believe she was ugly, and developed ideas that her ugliness caused problems even with other people. Pecola once even debates that her ugliness is the reason for her broken family. Pecola felt demeaned and victimized. Though she had truly nothing wrong she was harassed because of her race. Pecola did not fight back against the boys, showing that she has no courage and self-assurance to stand up for herself. Shortly after this incident, Pecola meets Maureen Peel.

Maureen protects Pecola from the boys and at first is friendly to her. However when the topic of sexuality rises, Pecola is offended and Frieda and Claudia defend her. The three girls are insulted by being referred to as their own race. And you ugly! Claudia then attempts to hit Maureen, but hits Pecola instead. Pecola is constantly in situations where she is the victim although she is never at fault.

Later, Pecola feels this discrimination again when lured into the house of Geraldine and her son Junior. Get Access. It was in a dark, wet place, its head covered with great O's of wool, the black face holding, like nickels, two clean black eyes…no synthetic yellow bangs suspended over marble-blue eyes, no pinched nose and bowline mouth.

More strongly than my fondness for Pecola, I felt a need for someone to want the black baby to live—just to counteract the universal love of baby dolls, Shirley Temples, and Maureen Peals. The birdlike gestures are worn away to a mere picking and plucking her way between the tire rims and the sunflowers, between Coke bottles and milkweed, among all the waste and beauty of the world—which is what she herself was.

All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. The Bluest Eye. Plot Summary. All Themes Beauty vs. All Symbols Blue Eyes Marigolds.

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The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play. Sign Up. Already have an account? Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Download this LitChart! Teachers and parents! Struggling with distance learning? Themes All Themes. Symbols All Symbols. Theme Wheel. Everything you need for every book you read. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive.

The novel's protagonist, Pecola is an eleven-year-old black girl from an abusive home. She believes she is ugly and suffers the cruelty of her parents, classmates, and other individuals in the community. She desires blue eyes , believing that they will make her beautiful—based on her unquestioning belief regarding whiteness as the sole standard of beauty—and allow her to transcend her horrible situation.

For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:. Prologue Section 2 Quotes. Related Symbols: Marigolds. Related Themes: Beauty vs. Page Number and Citation : Cite this Quote. Explanation and Analysis:. Chapter 1 Quotes. I mean how do you get someone to love you? Related Characters: Pecola Breedlove speaker.

Page Number and Citation : 30 Cite this Quote. Chapter 2 Quotes. Page Number and Citation : 32 Cite this Quote. Chapter 3 Quotes. Page Number and Citation : 36 Cite this Quote. Page Number and Citation : 37 Cite this Quote. Related Characters: Pecola Breedlove. Related Symbols: Blue Eyes. Page Number and Citation : 44 Cite this Quote.

Related Themes: Race and Racism. Page Number and Citation : 46 Cite this Quote. Page Number and Citation : 48 Cite this Quote. Related Themes: Women and Femininity. Page Number and Citation : 55 Cite this Quote.

Chapter 8 Quotes. Chapter 10 Quotes. Chapter 11 Quotes. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. Prologue Section 2. Although the Chapter 1. Not long after Mr. Henry moves in, Pecola Breedlove also comes to stay with the MacTeers.

The county places Pecola with the MacTeers Pecola and Frieda She is always the victim, always the object of others' wrath. Pauline abuses Pecola when she accidentally spills the cobbler all over the floor of the Fishers' kitchen, Junior tricks her into his house for the sole purpose of tormenting her, Geraldine hurts Pecola's feelings when she throws Pecola out of her house and calls her "black," as if to insult her, and Mr.

Yacobowski degrades her by refusing to touch her hand to take her money. The school-boys torment Pecola about her ugly blackness, Maureen buys her an ice cream cone in order to "get into her business," and she is psychologically abused by the degrading conditions under which she and her brother, Sammy, live as they watch their parents abuse one another.

Pecola has never had proper clothing or food, and she is eventually put out of her own home because her father starts a fire in one of his drunken stupors and burns down the house. Soaphead Church uses her to kill a dog that he doesn't have the courage or resolve to kill himself. Cholly abuses Pecola in the most dramatically obscene way possible — and never once does Pecola fight back. She might have yelled back at the boys who tormented her after school the way Frieda did; she might have thrown her money at Mr.

Yacobowski when he refused to touch her hand; she might have started a fight with Maureen when Maureen began questioning her about her father's nakedness.

Had Pecola taken the ugliness that society defined for her and turned it outward, she would not have become society's victim. Previous Section 3.