Did learning about Cholly’s and Pauline’s pasts help you develop any sympathy for either of them?
I felt bad for Cholly up until the scene where Pecola was washing dishes. No matter how messed up a persons life is, there’s no excuse to mistreat a child. And, well I guess that goes for Pauline too. She could have been a better mother to her children,
For Polly, more sympathy, but it was harder harder for me to sympathize with Cholly, I did learn to give much more thought to environment and parenting as result of having that information and I believe that must have been part of Morrison’s decision to include it
Sympathy is an unusual word to describe the emotions I personally felt reading this novel. I feel sadness would better describe my emotions.
I guess, I had sympathy for the all the children throughout the book. Even Junior, Geraldine’s son. All children, then and now, are products of their environment.
Junior was unloved, Frieda and Claudia were raised in a more loving environment, Pecola was raised in an awful environment.
Nurture is caring for and encouraging the growth of others. Most of the children in this novel didn’t have a lot of 'nurturing" which makes me sad, not very sympathetic.
Knowing about the background of these characters helped me understand why Pauline and Cholly acted the way they did. Both of them thought they were ugly because they were Black. Cholly is angry because of his Blackness and Pauline is ashamed of her daughter Pecola’s ugliness, treats her terribly and lives in a fantasy world as a servant in the Fisher household. Her idea of beauty came from her love of the movies and the Hollywood starlets. Compassion and sorrow best describes how I feel about both of these characters. I doubt that it is possible to act differently if they have no role models in their lives. It is a cycle of generational dysfunction. These negative patterns persist across generations because they are learned within families and it is hard if not impossible to break the cycle.
I wouldn’t call my reaction “sympathy,” although I did develop an understanding. Their backgrounds explained, but did not justify, their behavior, Both felt unloved (though Cholly did have kind attention from his aunt) and ignored – outside the norm of those they lived with and near. Having no role models, neither had much awareness of what normal family relationships might entail. Cholly’s lack was particularly egregious.
I would not say I felt sympathetic, but understood their inability to be good parents. They lack good role models. They were trying to survive the best they knew how. They live in a two worlds; a dichotomy that whites do not have to experience; the white world where they employed and black community where they lived. These are two disjoints world with different rules, priorities, behaviors and values. It can be exhausting and confusing. Yes, Polly could have been a better mother but her employer expected her to be loving and nurturing toward their “ideal” child. While as child was shunned and considered black, ugly and not precious or lovable by white society. So she didn’t have a role model what to be a good mother to her own child. To survive she believed to treat the white child better than any black child, and sadly, her own black child. She had no time to cultivate a loving relationship with her child while balancing the demands of of her employer. Thus her child is neglected. Second or last on the list. Many black mothers had to choose which child was more important and desirable.
Cholly was not much different than his wife. He left the only supportive community he knew. He tried to find his identity as a man by looking for his father, but to be shunned. He didn’t kno how to treat females (daughter or women). He wasn’t taught how the proper relationships. He wa unexpected and horrifying what he did to his daughter. Confusion of affection between his wife he remembered when young and looking at his daughter in the same manner. He should have know better. It’s inexcusable. But he didn’t know better and that is a poor excuse. He should not have protected and cherished his daughter. And not see her like her mother for affection or desire .
Pecola was left confused and traumatized. S Other Black children had similar experiences from either or both parents. What terrible abuse in society. Happens in many races and culture. But here the Black child is an innocent victim and unfortunately mistreated. Cholly would have been better to find another woman if he could not get the type of affection ot intimacy with his wife. Preying on a child.
I would 100% echo this thoughtful response. I did not feel any sympathy for either Cholly or Pauline.
I agree with the consensus. While I appreciated the background, and it certainly helped to fill in the context, I did not sympathize with either character. There was too much bad and too much hurt to outweigh their backstories.
I didn’t develop sympathy, but I thought Cholly’s and Pauline’s backstories helped to understand the characters and why they acted in the ways they did. Their miseries and self-loathing were transferred to their innocent child who was not only neglected, mistreated, and abused by her parents, but generally shunned from the community in which she lived.
I felt sorry for Pauline and Cholly, but also pitied them and Pecola because of lack of education and no desire to do stop the cycles of abuse and poverty. It was also interesting to me this didn’t take place in Mississippi or Alabama, but Ohio. It shows a lack of geographical black history on my part.
Well said, Laura_Poe.
I did not feel sympathy for grown adults who make their own choices and know right from wrong. However, learning about their backgrounds made me understand where they were coming from, and validated that quite often we are doomed to repeat the sins of the past when we don’t learn from them.
We are not expected to forgive Cholly or Pauline, but we are challenged to see them as complex, damaged characters shaped by systematic racism, generational trauma and personal hardships. This deeper understanding fosters a level of sympathy even as we are horrified by their choices and the suffering they inflict on Pecola