In her forward, the author states that she was concerned readers would be led “into the comfort of pitying her rather than into an interrogation of themselves.” She feels she failed in this objective. Do you agree? What emotions did you feel on finishing the novel?
While that was far from my own experience, I’m sure that it may have been for others. Within the context of a university classroom and with the influence of an insightful and discerning professor, I came away with widened observational skills and perspective. As a country, we did at that time move toward civil rights activism.
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I sure wish I’d had the opportunity to discuss this in-depth in a classroom setting when I was younger. We read Baldwin in high school, but very few female authors. I think so many of us would have benefitted from knowing about this book way back then! And it’s still benefitting us now!
I know Morrison’s books do get taught (and challenged) in school, but I’m not sure this is one of the more popular ones. I imagine Beloved has a wider audience. For those of you with high schoolers, what’s your opinion? Does this get a reading?
I definitely felt very sad and angry about Pecola’s circumstances. However it did force me to revisit my standards of beauty. I’m still annoyed when I see ads on TV that portray “Black” children who still don’t look like the typical Black child in this country.
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I appreciate Morrison’s sentiments here and don’t disagree. I can see where so many would read this without self reflection. For me personally, I absolutely thought about how I might make judgements based on various aspects of appearance. I’m glad Morrison calls this out and maybe it has/will encourage readers to do the same.
I can’t say that I was led into the " comfort" of pitying Pecola. There is no black and white answer to this question for me. I was trapped in the sadness and depression of her life. Once I could move slightly past of these initial feelings, I was able to examine my personal past experiences with others and wishing that I could meaningfully communicate the impact of this book to them.
First read…I thought Percola did nothing to help herself. I didn’t sympathize with her at all. Second time around…I did sympathize with her because no one wanted to change anything about their lives. They were poor, lived in a store, always hating their life but nothing changed from generation to generation. They just accepted it as this is what it was to be. A never ending cycle. I also felt that just maybe by wishing for blue eyes, Percola wanted to change but thought she only could change if she had blue eyes. If Ms. Morrison wanted us to look inward…for me she accomplished that. I don’t think this book is a read it once book.
One of the earliest responses is pity, but I felt the intensity of differential treatment early on. I do believe that the people who need self interrogation the most will not notice but instead read the story on its face. I felt a general complicity in the injustices that had to be endured by the characters. I guess she did both—succeeded partly and failed partly. So much depends on the openness of the reader.
Yes, I feel she failed. The book made me frustrated and very pitiful and sorrowful for Pecola. It did not make my interrogate myself; what do I need to interrogate myself for? I have not put anyone in any of these situations, and I do not regard them with apathy of complicity.
Some readers may feel pity and stop there. Yet, the novel’s themes linger causing consideration of the world that shaped her. Different perspectives make readers see how multiple characters and cultural forces contribute to Pecola’s fate. At the end, I felt anger, guilt, grief and helplessness - a sense of loss and frustration at the community and the system.
If Ms Morrison caused even one person to ask themselves questions she did not fail. And we know that has happened too many times to count. For myself this was all new to me. I grew up in Newton Ma in the 50’s and 60’s. There were very few blacks and I never knew them. Moved to Richardson TX IN 67 and didn’t realized my high school was segregated Assumed if I even thought about it that there were no blacks who wanted to live in our school zone. I found out when the schools integrated the next year. Never did think about it though my sisters were still in the school system. It was never discussed. So this book made me do a lot of thinking about me and my attitude toward people of color I still have not lived anywhere where there have been many if any blacks so my understanding is oddly unbalanced