Pointing Fingers at Pecola

"...all the waste and beauty of the world-- which is what she herself was. All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed...All of us...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...And she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt." - pg. 205




  Pecola Breedlove, due to her ugliness and vulnerability, becomes a scapegoat upon which the citizens of Lorraine, Ohio heap their many insecurities, short-comings, and problems. Without a well-respected family, the youngest Breedlove does not enjoy the same social safety net that the town’s respect for Mrs. MacTeer provides for Claudia and Frieda. Thus, she is ultimately left to fend for herself against people using her short-comings to raise their own self-esteem and confidence. This provides a stark contrast to some of the other little girls mentioned in the novel like Shirley Temple and Maureen Peal, who stand as symbols of societal idolatry. Whereas the children of the town looked to Maureen as the standard for beauty and acceptable behavior, they looked to Pecola to make themselves feel better about their own appearance and behavior. It’s almost as if they needed someone to belittle in order to balance out the insecurities that resulted from needing someone to idolize. In the end, Pecola finds herself shouldering the widespread disgust and shame usually only reserved for the town drunk or a notorious prostitute. The difference here is that Pecola did nothing to deserve or garner this type of extensive animosity, making her, in many ways, completely and tragically innocent. 

However, as the passage mentions, Pecola “let” them. She “absorbed” all the waste that was dumped on her instead of throwing it back like Claudia no doubt would have done. Claudia, in particular, seems to have a real problem with Pecola’s inability or unwillingness to stand up and defend herself, which appears to be one of MacTeer sisters’ strongest assets (as you recall, they saved Pecola from a pack of tormenting boys earlier in the novel). Pecola didn’t have to make a dramatic statement like this though. She did not need to destroy white baby dolls like Claudia to prove herself. If Pecola could’ve simply found away to deflect the waste instead of “absorb(ing),” then maybe she would not have ended up in such a powerless position. Eventually, enough of the waste was allowed to seep through and steal Pecola’s personal identity. Once she has lost her identity, Pecola’s sense of self is determined by the outside world, a cruel world that preys upon and exploits her vulnerabilities and weaknesses.

  So, while I think saying that Pecola “thereby deserved (their) contempt” is perhaps a bit unfair and insensitive, I no longer believe that Pecola is blameless for her misfortunes.