Thursday, September 8, 2011

SUMMER

"All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. All of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. All of us--all who knew her--felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. Her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. Her poverty kept us generous. Even her waking dream we used--to silence our own contempt. We honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength." -pg. 205

In this passage, Claudia is summarizing how the community felt about Pecola and ultimately how they used her. She was merely an object to the people of Lorain, an object they could wash themselves on. In hindsight, Claudia describes how in comparison to Pecola and her unfortunate circumstances, Claudia and Frieda, and presumably the rest of the community felt "sanctified", "wholesome",  "strong", "eloquent" and "decorated". She was a tool for them to elevate themselves with and a scapegoat on which they could dump their own self-hatred and guilt. However, Pecola did not put up much of a fight, instead she "abosorbed" it. Because of this, one could argue that Pecola may be the most important and central character in the entire novel. Without Pecola to blame, where would the people of Lorain be? From Claudia's perspective, hating Pecola was the only thing that kept everyone's minds off of hating themselves, and calling Pecola ugly was the only thing that kept everyone's from feeling ugly themselves. Claudia even says that all of their beauty was "hers first which she gave to us". She acknowledges the beauty in Pecola's appearance and character but how it was quickly sacrificed for the sake of the town. I would argue that Pecola could be deemed the heroin of the novel in the way that she, whether intentionally or not,  consistently laid herself down to be a stepping stool for the people around her. Ironically, though everyone seemed to have hated her so much, it's almost as if the community would've fallen apart without her.

-Annie Baker


Q: To what degree is Pecola aware of her position as scapegoat? Does she think her situation could be different?

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