The Meaning of Pecola´s Beauty

Pecola ends up isolated at the edge of the town, lost in her own world of madness because she loses touch with reality. She realizes no matter how much she tries to change her physical appearance, she’s never appreciated. She lacks the confidence a young female deserves to have. Someone with a mind of lust interrupts her life and it automatically changes everyone’s perspective of her, from worst to even worse. Is it her fault or is this a question that remains unanswered?

Back then, beauty was the true definition of perfection and just simply being white. The Breedloves believe they deserved to be poor and pushed their ugliness outward into the world. They were convinced that they were black and ugly, that society was inclined to view them as ugly, which all leads to Pecola’s low self-esteem. “It had occurred to Pecola sometime ago that if her eyes…were different, that is to say beautiful, she herself would be different” (Claudia 46). “In equating physical beauty with virtue, she (Pauline) stripped her mind, bound it and collected self-contempt by the heap. She forgot lust and simple caring for” (Claudia 22). Being surrounded in a home of negativity, such as Pauline’s thoughts, made Pecola wanted to feel loved and beautiful. She responds to her home life by wanting to physically transcend away from it.

Love, it’s just a word that isn’t showed quite so often. It was all a young girl ever dreamt of, just the feeling of what it felt like to be loved. “Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe” (Claudia 206). How could one feel so invaded by their own blood, their father? ...

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...ace” (Claudia 19). She worshipped Shirley temple so much until she desired to be like her. “We knew she was fond of the Shirley Temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet Shirley’s face” (Claudia 23). One doll, one mindset, one imagination, the minute Pecola laid her eyes on that doll, she knew exactly what she wanted.

You should never overlook a person. You never know what’s going through their head. A couple of weeks ago, a young teen ended his own life. Take the time out to talk to someone. Make them feel like they’re not worthless and they are somebody. Communication is the key to all things. It’s what brings distant even closer than before. A person could have so much bottled up in their mind and there’s never any one to share it with. A simple conversation with one other individual can make everything alright.