Throughout the story Pecola appears to be a scapegoat of her oppressors. She is a symbol. A societal symbol that states that being black means: ugly and subhuman. A high toll for a young girl, she eventually succumbs to her oppressors and sadly becomes trapped into her unconscious delusions. This novel illustrates the human cost of oppression and shows that there is only a limit that one can take before they dissipate.

The dynamic character in the book is a girl named Pecola. In the beginning of the book Pecola was a young black girl growing up in the ghetto of Ohio. She is viewed ugly by the community and her family because she was dark skinned, had a broad nose, thick lips and short coarse hair. Everyone treats her like dirt. Her famil

Through trails and tribulations, Mary Jane Has difficulty being something she's not as well as dealing with her own hatred for her own race. However, unlike Pecola, the little girl finally did fully accept her race even though it wasn't until her mother had passed away.

I compare this book to the movie "Imitation of Life." In this movie a light-skinned black girl name Mary-Jane desperately wants to be viewed as white because she feels that their treated better. Her mother who was dark skinned tried to get her daughter to accept and not be ashamed of whom she is.

Throughout the book Pecola was either pitied by her friends or ridiculed for "ugliness" by family and other neighborhood children. As a result Pecola believed unless you had blonde hair and blue eyes your were nothing. The turning point in the story was when she became pregnant at 13 by her father who raped her. When she told her mother, she was beaten and the neighbors all said it was somehow her fault. She then went to a physic and asked for blue eyes. Eventually she went crazy believing she actually had blue eyes and would t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Pecola Pecola, Shirley Temple, Imitation Life, Mary Jane, Toni Morrison, blue eyes, black girl, girl named pecola, named pecola, white family, own family, book pecola, girl named, dark skinned,
Approximate Word count = 740
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)