To impose an unwelcome or unnecessary person or thing onto someone else malaiseĪn overall feeling of discomfort and lack of well-being stultifying Stony waste matter separated from metals during the smelting or refining of ore phlegmĪ liquid secreted by the mucous membranes of mammals, produced by the respiratory system Alaga syrupĪ southern brand of cane syrup, used in cooking soliloquyĪn act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play chagrinĭistress or embarrassment at having failed or been humiliated Pels NaphthaĪn old-school bar laundry soap used as a stain remover foists Had Pecola taken the ugliness that society defined for her and turned it outward, she would not have become society's victim.A type of fish oil supplement, linked to many health benefits, including reduced inflammation and lower blood pressure slag Yacobowski when he refused to touch her hand she might have started a fight with Maureen when Maureen began questioning her about her father's nakedness. She might have yelled back at the boys who tormented her after school the way Frieda did she might have thrown her money at Mr. Cholly abuses Pecola in the most dramatically obscene way possible - and never once does Pecola fight back. Soaphead Church uses her to kill a dog that he doesn't have the courage or resolve to kill himself. Pecola has never had proper clothing or food, and she is eventually put out of her own home because her father starts a fire in one of his drunken stupors and burns down the house. The school-boys torment Pecola about her ugly blackness, Maureen buys her an ice cream cone in order to "get into her business," and she is psychologically abused by the degrading conditions under which she and her brother, Sammy, live as they watch their parents abuse one another. Yacobowski degrades her by refusing to touch her hand to take her money. Pauline abuses Pecola when she accidentally spills the cobbler all over the floor of the Fishers' kitchen, Junior tricks her into his house for the sole purpose of tormenting her, Geraldine hurts Pecola's feelings when she throws Pecola out of her house and calls her "black," as if to insult her, and Mr. She is always the victim, always the object of others' wrath. If she had had the inner strength of Claudia and Frieda, she would have been able to counter the meanness of others toward her by assuming a meanness of her own.
Tormented and even tortured by almost everyone with whom she comes into contact, Pecola never fights back. She is the "broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Pecola, a little black girl in the 1940s, does not survive. Today, most black girls survive the onslaught of white media messages, but even today, some fail. She loses her baby, and shortly afterward she loses her sanity.Īll little black girls try to grow up into healthy women with positive self-images - despite the fact that white society seems to value and love only little girls with blue eyes, yellow hair, and pink skin. She is raped by her drunken father and self-deceived into believing that God has miraculously given her the blue eyes that she prayed for. She realizes that no one - except Claudia and Frieda - will play with her, socialize with her, or be seen with her.
She is ridiculed by most of the other children and is insulted and tormented by black schoolboys because of her dark skin and coarse features.
Except for Claudia and Frieda, Pecola has no friends.