Ugliness In Mrs. Breedlove's 'Love'

Register to read the introduction… Adult women, having matured into consummate self-loathers, detesting the bodies in which they were born, express their hatred by taking it out on their own children: Mrs. Breedlove adopts the conviction that her daughter is ugly, and Geraldine curses Pecola’s blackness. The idea that ugliness is in fact a state of mind is presented early on in the book when illustrating the Breedlove family: “Mrs. Breedlove, Sammy Breedlove, and Pecola Breedlove—wore their ugliness” (38). This sentence provides an implication that the Breedlove’s ugliness was a result of deliberate choice. The narrator then continues on, observing, “You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source” (39). In saying this, one can elicit that the members of the Breedlove family are not inherently ugly, rather they are driven to believe that they are and that they deserve to be, convincing those that look upon them that they are ugly. The Breedlove’s sense of physical insecurity emanates outwardly, and causes others to see them in the way they want to be seen. For one reason or another, being viewed with contempt for their appearance benefits them in some way. For Mrs. Breedlove, her ugliness is used for purposes of “martyrdom,” for Sammy, it is used to inflict “pain,” and for Pecola, it is used as a “mask” to hide behind. In the vein of …show more content…
She believes that if they were to lock eyes with her, they would realize something unpleasant: that she is no different from the white patients. With regard to invisibility, the early scene with Pecola in the candy shop also seems to be particularly telling. In speaking of Mr. Yacobowski, it says, “…he senses that he need not waste the effort of a glance. He does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see. How can a fifty-two-year-old white immigrant store-keeper… see a little black girl? (48). What can be gathered from this is that the man, to some degree, has made a conscious choice not to look at her, not because he is physically incapable of doing so, but because he considers someone of her skin color insignificant, and not worth the energy necessary for acknowledgment. This theme underscores the difference between how one sees and how one is seen, also differentiates between superficial sight and real insight. Pecola’s desire for blue eyes is undoubtedly essential to examine when considering the power and impact of vision in the novel. Pecola is consumed with the thought of having blue eyes because she believes that they would be the simple panacea for everything that is unpleasant in her life. She is convinced that they will alter the way she is seen by others, and therefore the way that she sees the world around her. To Pecola, blue eyes and happiness, are inextricably linked. In a way, too, they represent her own