Rachel Stovall
"Spring" was dedicated to new life and new growth, and had many scenes dedicated to sex, to the creation of life and how awkward, humiliating, or beautiful an act that can be. It was in "Spring" that Pecola was impregnated by her father, but it was in "Summer" that life began to end. Pecola's baby died shortly after birth, Cholly became 'dead' to the family and ran away, and the marigolds simply would not grow. Pecola seemed to fade as well, slipping into madness after unknowingly killing the old dog on Soaphead Church's house. He had given her blue eyes, but the price was a life, and perhaps even her sanity. Pecola alone saw herself as beautiful, while everyone else turned their head from her in shame. If Pecola simply saw herself as beautiful from the beginning, perhaps her quest for blue eyes, her quest for love, would not have destroyed her. She would have had self worth that could have sustained her through a hard childhood. It is in the end, when she has achieved her blue eyes, that she receives a companion that finds her worthwhile and wants to be her friend. However, this companion is driven away when Pecola doubts that she has the 'bluest' of eyes. This friend, this self worth, promises to return only once her eyes are the bluest of them all. From this, we can see that Pecola is trapped in her own self doubt and low self esteem. From a mother that loved white children more than her own to a father that didn't know how to love a child at all, it is no wonder that Pecola is unable to love even herself. 'Summer' reveals this; the crumbling sham that is the Breedlove's attempt to connect with one another. Polly loved shallowly, by sight, while Cholly loved too deeply, a love that was not meant for a child. Pecola had the chance to love herself just enough, but was thwarted by her desire to be loved, by her desire for the bluest of eyes.
At what moment do you think that Pecola lost her mind? When she was raped? When she killed the dog on accident? When her baby died? Or when she obtained blue eyes? Why?
What does it mean for Pecola to have blue eyes? What does it mean that she is the only one who can see them?
How are Soaphead and Junior similar in their attempt to blame Pecola for the death of an animal? What does this say about all three characters?
Pecola was always kinda teetering towards an unbalanced mind. She would constantly want to disappear and she could never even see her own self worth. She did have two friends but even they couldn't do anything for her. I think somewhere after the incest and the dead baby she was just done.
ReplyDeleteSoaphead and Junior are both black men in a white mans world. They each feel the oppression of their race combined/ clashing with an entitlement that comes from affluent childhood. In a world in which this man and this boy are consistently denied power and agency, the desire to control someone else in turn, is an unfortunate side effect. Being small and black and female and poor, Pecola is the sad recipient of their lashing and misuse. She is the tool these 2 characters use to make themselves feel powerful and to further hurt even more helpless creatures (the animals).
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