Quotes relating to analysis:
1. “She stiffens when she feels one of her paper curlers coming undone from the activity of love; imprints in her mind which one it is that is coming loose so she can quickly secure it once HE is through.” (page 84)
2. “ Elihue Whitcomb” (starts on page 164)
3. “ We walked down the tree-lined streets of soft gray houses. The houses leaned like tired ladies… the streets changed; houses looked more sturdy, their pant was newer… then came brick houses set well back from the street… edged in shrubbery… lakefront houses were loveliest. Garden furniture… and no sign of life… then the blue Lake Erie.” (Page 105)
4. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different.” (Page 46)
5. “We were lesser. Nicer, brighter, but still lesser… What was the secret? What did we lack? Why was it important? And so what? Guileless and without vanity, we were still in love with ourselves then. We felt comfortable in our skins, enjoyed the news that our senses released to us, admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could not comprehend this unworthiness.” (Page 74)
6. “Pecola turned to find the front door and saw Jesus looking down at her with sad and unsurprised eyes, his brown hair parted in the middle, the gay paper flowers twisted around his face.” (Page 92-93)
1. “She stiffens when she feels one of her paper curlers coming undone from the activity of love; imprints in her mind which one it is that is coming loose so she can quickly secure it once HE is through.” (page 84)
- This quote can be characterized as irony, or characterization of Geraldine. It is situational irony because she is more worried about her hair while she is making love to her husband, or her husband is making love to her. It is more characterization because it shows that she is not very “into” her husband and what they are doing. From other quotes in this section and the descriptions of her, she is not truly in love with her husband. You can tell this is true because she isn’t interested in making love with him. Also, the quote says, “Once HE is through”. This also shows that it is more enjoyable to him because if she had been enjoying it, it might have said when we are through.
2. “ Elihue Whitcomb” (starts on page 164)
- This name is an allusion to the Bible. In the Bible, Elihu is in the book of Job. He is antagonist who discusses the fact that God is the divine providence, which is full of wisdom and mercy. He also believes that is the humans job to submit that supremacy and let it become us. This relates to Elihue, or Soaphead Church, in that he believes that God works through him to help people who are troubled. He believes he is spreading the divinity of the Lord.
3. “ We walked down the tree-lined streets of soft gray houses. The houses leaned like tired ladies… the streets changed; houses looked more sturdy, their pant was newer… then came brick houses set well back from the street… edged in shrubbery… lakefront houses were loveliest. Garden furniture… and no sign of life… then the blue Lake Erie.” (Page 105)
- This quote is an example of setting. It describes the differences in the neighborhood of Frieda, Claudia, and Pecola and the neighborhoods that are fancier. It is basically describing the differences between the neighborhoods in the description of the yards and colors of the house’s yards. Morrison also makes it feel like the first neighborhood is dreary and “broken down” cause the houses are “soft gray” and lean like “tired ladies”. This implies that the houses are old and decrepit. However, the houses in the other neighborhoods are brightly with perfect lawns and freshly painted houses. Although the houses are perceived as being positive, the fact that there was “no sign of life” might be implying that the people aren’t happy because they aren’t outside enjoying the beauty of their houses.
4. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different.” (Page 46)
- This quote is significant because it shows Pecola’s characterization and point of view. It describes how she thinks that if she had blue eyes, not only would she appear beautiful, but she would see beautiful things and not see bad and painful things like her parents fighting. It shows how Pecola longs to have blue eyes and look like white people. This was a result of racism during that time. She had come to believe the racist point of view that black people were inferior and considered ugly. Her point of view is different from Claudia’s point of view in that Pecola wants to look like the white girls while Claudia does not. Claudia did not believe the racist point of view like Pecola did.
5. “We were lesser. Nicer, brighter, but still lesser… What was the secret? What did we lack? Why was it important? And so what? Guileless and without vanity, we were still in love with ourselves then. We felt comfortable in our skins, enjoyed the news that our senses released to us, admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could not comprehend this unworthiness.” (Page 74)
- This quote is said about Claudia and Frieda after leaving Pecola and Maureen. It shows characterization, point of view, and plot development. After meeting Maureen, a lighter-skinned girl at school who everyone admired and strived to be like, the girls seemed jealous of her at first. However, this quote shows that Claudia and Frieda actually enjoy being black and don’t wish to be lighter skinned like Maureen, even though everyone views that as “beautiful.” Their point of view is different than most black girls their age since most of them wish to be and look like Maureen. This relates to plot development because the girls will continue being proud of themselves and not do anything drastic to be like Maureen.
6. “Pecola turned to find the front door and saw Jesus looking down at her with sad and unsurprised eyes, his brown hair parted in the middle, the gay paper flowers twisted around his face.” (Page 92-93)
- This quote occurs right after Junior traps Pecola in his house, throws his cat at her, and then kills the cat and blames Pecola. His mother comes in and calls Pecola a “nasty little black bitch.” This shows characterization because Pecola still sees herself as nothing but an unattractive black girl, especially since people continuously call her one. This foreshadows something drastic that will happen to Pecola because she views herself as unimportant and that nothing good can come out of her. She expects for people to be disappointed in her, like Jesus in this quote looking at her with “unsurprised eyes.” He is unsurprised that she is a failure and that she ruins things. This is her point of view about her skin color as a result of the racist time period.