What did you think about the point in the narrative when Pecola approaches Soaphead about obtaining blue eyes? Why do you think the author included this story? How would it have been different, in your opinion, if it had been relayed from Pecola’s point of view rather than Soaphead’s?
I got lost at this point. I look forward to someone else explaining "what happened. I assumed she actually visited Soaphead and did poison the animal, but then she was “crazy”. Help!
@Joyce_Montague I do think that Soaphead used her to poison the dog. There’s another instance where someone uses Pecola to injure (and maybe kill?) at cat. I’d love to know what Morrison’s thoughts were about this scene.
Morrison did say that she tried to use different narrative techniques to help bring home the fragmented nature of Pecola’s existence. I guess I think by showing this scene through the eyes of a different narrator she was striving to achieve this objecting. I’d love to hear her thoughts on this chapter, since, like you, I did find it a little confusing.
I think the interaction with Soaphead changed the trajectory of Pecola’s life forever. She legitimately believed doing his work of poisoning the dog (which she didn’t realize she was doing) changed her eye color. That belief led to her mental state at the end of the book. By telling that chapter from Soaphead’s POV, the reader knows there’s no truth to what he tells Pecola. I wonder if reading it from her perspective, might we believe that his magic actually did work?
I just re-read this part and I’m still confused. Soaphead was a fraud, but he wanted to grant her wish for blue eyes. She believed her eyes turned blue and that was going to give her the life for which she yearned. When she talked to her friend, she kept asking if hers were “the bluest eyes”. Although she thought her wish was granted, her life did not improve. Cholly “loved her enough to touch her. But his touch was fatal, and the something he gave her filled the matrix of her agony with death.”
By making Soaphead tell the story, it protected Percola and the myth about her wishing. We know it didn’t happen,but we empathized as Percola kept asking if she had the bluest eyes. Again this section shows the “image scenario”. Percola felt her life would change but as we know ,it did not. Her obsession drove her crazy. So what if we knew the inner turmoil of Percola…would that have changed my mind? Maybe.