Toni Morrison's Pecola-Am I Ugly?

“Am I Ugly?”- Spongebob Squarepants, 2000 “Mrs. Breedlove, having snatched up the round, flat stove lid, ran tippy-toe to Cholly as he was pulling himself up from his knees, and struck him two blows, knocking him right back into the senselessness out of which she had provoked him. Panting, she threw a quilt over him and let him lie. Sammy screamed, ‘Kill him! Kill him!’”(46) This is a perfect picture of what Pecola’s life and situation is at home, violent and cruel. Pecola is constantly subjected to horrific and terrifying events, such as getting raped by her own father. She sees herself as ugly and disgusting and yearns to be beautiful, which she thinks is being white and blue eyes. It is an ugly scene and disturbing to read a girl's life get destroyed, but Morrison knows that in order to get her point across she needs these absurd and disturbing scenes. Morrison’s purpose of Pecola is to make the most weak and defenseless character , in order to expose the flaws of society. …show more content…
Pecola’s number one goal in the book is to be beautiful by having blue eyes, just so people will look at her with respect. The book frequently alludes to Dick and Jane , an old children's storybook depicting this perfect family all white and blue eyed, as Pecola’s role model and inspiration for her want of blue eyes. She lives in a world where being black means, ugly and hopeless. “If she looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too. Maybe they’d say, “Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes.”(46) This idea resides in Pecola and she thinks she the problem and if she were beautiful all of this would stop, but in reality she is just a victim of her