Quotes relating to theme:
1. "if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights- if those eyes of hers were different... beautiful, she herself would be different." (page 46)
2. "His mother did not like him to play with niggers… difference between colored people and niggers… colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud.” (page 87).
1. "furnishings... anything but describable... manufactured, shipped, and sold in various states of thoughtlessness, greed, and indifference... had aged without ever having become familiar. People had owned it, but never known it." (page 35)
Analysis:
Symbol
1. "if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights- if those eyes of hers were different... beautiful, she herself would be different." (page 46)
- This quote is an example of the theme because this book really shows how Pecola and the other girls struggle with their color and being black in a racist world. It also relates to the title of the book because Pecola wants the eyes of a typical white girl, blue eyes. This quote also relates to a possible them, family disfunction. Pecola talks about how she wishes she could "unsee" what she has seen happen between her parents. She wants new eyes that would erase the bad memories and make her beautiful. This is also showing that what she has see and been through makes her ugly, in her opinion.
2. "His mother did not like him to play with niggers… difference between colored people and niggers… colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud.” (page 87).
- This quote shows a major theme in the book; the struggle of being black in a world seemingly full of close minded people who are extremely racist. Throughout the book, there are many examples of racism and prejudice. This is a very prominent quote pertaining to the theme of racism and prejudice because not only is it defining “niggers” as “ dirty and loud”, but it is also explain that there is a difference between colored people and “niggers”. The fact that even other colored people are discriminating
1. "furnishings... anything but describable... manufactured, shipped, and sold in various states of thoughtlessness, greed, and indifference... had aged without ever having become familiar. People had owned it, but never known it." (page 35)
- The furniture in Pecola's house symbolizes Pecola because the book talks about how its only used for what it is meant for. Also, that it is not used with loved. It is simply sat on and then thrown to another owner when the previous owner is through with it. This symbolizes Pecola because she has "aged without eve having become familiar". Her parents don't show much interest in her and her needs. This can be seen through the fact that Pecola was "put outside" by her father. He does not care about her, just like th efurniture doesn't matter.
Analysis:
Symbol
- One symbol that became known towards the end of the novel was the marigolds and their seeds. The marigold seeds symbolize Pecola’s unborn baby. When Claudia and Frieda learn of Pecola’s pregnancy, they decide to help Pecola by praying, giving up their money they earned from the seeds, and planting the rest of the seeds in their yard. They also decide that Claudia will sing and Frieda will say magic words to the seeds. The seeds symbolize the unborn baby because the girls believe that if their seeds grow and the marigolds bloom, then the baby will be alright. However, the marigolds never grew, just like Pecola’s baby was stillborn.
- One archetype of the novel is Pecola acting as a scapegoat. Pecola’s symbolic death occurred when she was raped by her father, beat by her mother almost to death, and started to go mad. She so desperately wanted blue eyes that she went to the dangerous Soaphead Church to ask him for blue eyes. Even though she physically didn’t have blue eye, she believed that everyone else thought she did. She routinely spoke with her imaginary friend and didn’t understand that her mother didn’t see her friend. Pecola is specifically a scapegoat because she made the rest of the community seem beautiful since everyone viewed her as so ugly. She is also a scapegoat because the amount of suffering she endures makes everyone else feel successful and lucky to not have to go through what she had to go through.
- Another archetype for the novel is the color blue. Pecola so desperately wanted to have blue eyes, and she was willing to do just about anything to get them. The archetype for the color blue is clear sky, day, the sea, height, depth, heaven, religious feeling, devotion, innocence, truth, spirituality, and physical soothing and cooling. The ones that stand out about Pecola’s situation are innocence and truth. Since she wanted blue eyes like the white people, she wanted that sense of innocence like they did. However, when she was raped, she lost her sense of innocence. She was never able to gain it back, just like she was unable to physically get blue eyes from Soaphead.