In this quote, Claudia sums up the city-wide treatment given to Pecola. It shows how the people of Lorain, Ohio have used pecola and her family as an emotional landfill. In the quote it states, “all of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed”, they took all their insecurities and negative feelings about themselves onto this little girl. They used her as a dumpster where they put all their ugliness and sadness in because she was a convenient scapegoat. However, in this part of the quote, “And all of our beauty which was hers first and which she gave to us” as well as “beauty of the world- which is what she herself was” Claudia suggests that Pecola is a symbol of beauty. But to people in the community this beauty is invisible
