The white family's unhappy life shows that even though they fit the ideal on the outside, being white and rich, they are still unhappy. Pauline's view of whiteness as the ideal, however, is not changed by what she witnesses. The interaction between Pauline and the white woman captures a lot of the trickiness of racism and its complicated effects on communities. The white woman's sense that Pauline should leave Cholly is almost certainly correct. But the white …show more content…
She knows that the terrible guilt is shared by everyone in her community, including herself. She punishes herself for her part in the failure and makes clear that she will never be at peace with what she has witnessed. Morrison said about her novel that she wants her readers (white and black) to feel the victimization of Pecola’s life, not for the purpose of congratulating themselves for having compassion but rather for accepting their own responsibility for it. The tragic victim is neither a king nor even one little girl but the entire black