Pg. 196

Pg. 196

You are a real friend. I'm sorry about picking on you before. I mean, saying you were jealous and all... No. Really. You are my very best friend. Why didn't I know you before?

You didn't need me before.

It was at this point in the section that I began to realize the other person Pecola was talking to was actually an imaginary friend. The way Morrison worded it was both eerie and heart wrenching. This is when we discover Pecola is now completely isolated from the outside world. Before, she at least had the company of Claudia and Frieda, but now she apparently has no one but a figment of her imagination. It is also at this point that the audience begins to see that Pecola is no longer mentally sane. Although it can be normal for children to have imaginary friends, Pecola interacts with hers in a very different manner than the average child. After discussing her new "blue eyes", her friend goes on to talk about Cholly's molestation of her, suggesting she let him take advantage of her and inquiring as to what it was like. This is clearly not a normal imaginary friend. This is Pecola's way of dealing with the trauma she has recently experienced in the only way she knows how.

As a whole, I think we expected Pecola to stay strong until the end and hold her ground. However, now we see she is ultimately lost in a sea of trauma, distress, depression, and delusion. Is her "defeat" at the end of the novel Morrison's way of implying that the underdog can never win? Or is it simply to elicit a certain emotional response from the readers? At any rate, is Pecola's final mental breakdown what you expected to happen, given all that she went through?