ipl-logo

Pecola's Three Prostitutes In Othello

531 Words3 Pages

What is the significance of Pecola's encounter with the three prostitutes (which begins on page 50)? As a poor, African American girl in the 1940s, Pecola is aware that society has cast her aside. She is inherently ugly, and often times for “long hours she [would sit,] looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness, the ugliness that made her ignored or despised,” (45). Pecola sees herself as ugly in this way because the world has labeled her as such. She is ugly for being black and cast aside for being poor. These traits do not make actually cause her to be ugly in and of the term itself, but the way her society views these traits does. The prostitutes draw Pecola to them as not only are they are the few people who do not view her as ugly, but they do not view themselves as ugly. Instead they accept Pecola as she is. They draw her in and speak to her as their equal, a luxury that Pecola has yet to experience. …show more content…

Little parts of her body faded away,” (45). Due to the fact that Pecola sees herself as a creature of disgust, the thought of talking to these prostitutes thrills her, as they treat her closer to an equal than any other adult has. The prostitutes see themselves as inherently beautiful, worthy of makeup and curls and love. “They know I’m rich and good lookin’,” (53) says Miss Marie, one of the prostitutes. To Pecola, she represents a an uncommon viewpoint of self-worth and love. These women intrigue Pecola as she sees the prostitutes as people the society looks down on and deems ugly. However, unlike Pecola, the prostitutes reject society’s view of them and see themselves as

Show More
Related

  • Stereotypes In Judith Ortiz Cofer's The Myth Of The Latin Woman

    902 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stereotypes are “simplified and standardized conceptions or images invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group,” (Dictionary.com). They are often offensive and highly discriminatory. In The Myth of the Latin Woman by Judith Ortiz Cofer, Cofer denounces the American stereotypes of Latinas by establishing her credibility with personal experiences, manipulating the audience’s emotions, and employing imagery. Cofer begins her piece with the establishment of her credibility via ethos. She opens The Myth of the Latin Woman with a recollection, stating that “[I was] on a bus trip to London from Oxford University where I was earning graduate credits one summer,” (370).

    Read More

  • The Gathering Of Old Men Analysis

    1343 Words  | 6 Pages

    This is his coping with it, he runs away just like his father and mother did. Due to the fact that he never had a loving family, he ends up raping Pecola. All his life he has been oppressed and learned that you can’t blame the oppressors. The only thing you can do is pass the oppression along. He is the symbol of the perpetuation of oppression and how it cannot be solved.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Frederick Douglas And The Bluest Eye: The Pathing Of Identity

    1008 Words  | 5 Pages

    When Pecola was just being born she was being called ugly by the person who she needed the most, her mother. This is because the same thing happened to her Mother, and her Grandmother. Racist Societal constructs broke their family

    Read More

  • Maggie's Loss Of Prostitution In The 19th Century

    256 Words  | 2 Pages

    In New York, during the 19th century, about 13% of prostitutes entered the profession due to being seduced and abandoned (Zaharides 53). This fact is likely because women, unlike men, would lose their pure reputation by having sex before marriage. Such indiscretions by a woman at this time would have earned the label of “fallen woman” (Zaharides 2). Maggie was already labeled a fallen woman by her family even before there is any evidence that she may have lost her virginity. In fact, after their first date, Pete attempts to get a kiss from Maggie.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Bluest Eye

    1647 Words  | 7 Pages

    Many of the black characters, including Pecola, Cholly, and Pauline believe that they are indeed “ugly” and “dirty” because it’s what society has wanted people to think since the beginning of time. This idea that they are worth nothing and that there is no beauty or cleanliness in them has become embedded in their memories considering it is all they’ve ever known while growing up. Pecola and her family “did not live in a storefront because they were having temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly” (38). While some of the black characters in The Bluest Eye are very much confident in themselves, there are characters like the Breedloves, who have succumbed to society’s opinion and have started to believe that they are the equivalent of dirtiness.

    Read More

  • Barbie Doll Idealism

    1868 Words  | 8 Pages

    The characters in the poem and short story “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne can both relate to one another in the fact that the public sets expectations for women. “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:/ You have a great big nose and fat legs.” (Piercy 5-6) This quote from the poem “Barbie Doll” is an exceptional example of our general society making fun of an adolescent, who does not meet the societal expectations that have been set for women, until a tragic event happens.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices In The Bluest Eye

    1648 Words  | 7 Pages

    To have something as wonderful as that happen would take a long, long time"(46) This line from the text shows that to Pecola this white feature represents beauty and the end of her problems. Furthermore, symbolism can also be found in the homes of the characters. In the novel, homes are a symbol of economic status. The reader can infer that the nicer the home is, the richer the character.

    Read More

  • The Bluest Eye Beauty Standards Essay

    975 Words  | 4 Pages

    Pecola and her mother, Pauline, see themselves as ugly because they hold themselves to beauty standards in which light-skinned people are the ideal. Pecola and her mother have a brutal home life due to the drunken violence of Cholly Breedlove, and the constant pressure of beauty standards only adds to their misfortune. Morrison explains this pressure by asserting that “[i]t was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Connie From 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

    960 Words  | 4 Pages

    She went shopping with her best girl friends. She was everything that Pecola laid awake dreaming about at night. She was seemingly everything that society praised in a fifteen year old girl. Connie’s life, as easy as it may seem, was not free of confusion and controversy. Her social life and her life at home were in constant opposition.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Marge Piercy's A Barbie Doll

    1480 Words  | 6 Pages

    Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” takes a sarcastic approach to backlash at society and send the reader a message about what beauty really is. In “Barbie Doll”, A Barbie doll is used to show and symbolize what society views as what a female should aspire to become “perfect”. “Barbie's unrealistic body type…busty with a tiny waist, thin thighs and long legs…is reflective of our culture's feminine ideal. Yet less than two percent of American women can ever hope to achieve such dreamy measurements.”

    Read More

  • The American Dream In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

    1002 Words  | 5 Pages

    Pecola is challenged by the idea that her mother prefers her work life, that they have an outdated house, and that she does not look like the Shirley Temple doll with blue eyes. Morrison went into great detail when describing the elegance and beauty that was present in the Fisher home, to demonstrate that those who do not fit into the ideal American life often feel shame. The Breedlove family lived a very simple life, and in no way did they fit into what society believed to be correct. Mrs. Breedlove was the only member of the family that truly understood what the American Dream looked like. The work that she did for the Fishers lead her to envy the American Dream.

    Read More

  • The Bluest Eye Research Paper

    1260 Words  | 6 Pages

    1) Society has change the way Pecola perceives herself and she has the idea in her mind that her life would be less miserable if she has blue eyes. She is always thinking that “if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (Morrison 46). Pecola has gotten the impression of her life being complete if only she has blue eyes. She would see the eyes of others and become envious of their blue eyes. The boys at school would always pick on her and call her an ugly black girl.

    Read More

  • Social And Social Class In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

    1356 Words  | 6 Pages

    But it is not only the race and the colour of their skin what makes them unable to change their situation, but also poverty. Race and wealth are intertwined, and Pecola is the fundamental victim of this relationship, for she is a young black girl suffering from this ideology that determines her life. The dominant class imposes its values upon the other, for they think they are the best ones, reducing thus the personality of the people belonging to other classes, and at the same time, making them unable to change their oppressed situation, for they do not have the chance. They just accept their current position, and thus they will always be

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Motherhood In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

    3280 Words  | 14 Pages

    It is the mother’s vulnerability to the racial standards of beauty that is transmitted to the daughter and ultimately leads to her victimization. In fact, the reason of Pauline’s vulnerability to the racially prejudiced notions of beauty lies in her relationship with her own mother. The relationship between Pecola Breedlove, the protagonist, and her mother, Pauline Breedlove, is ironically characterized by lack of love, and emotional attachment, indifference, frustration and cruelty. Set in a small town in Ohio, during the Depression, The Bluest Eye is the story of eleven year old Pecola Breedlove, who, victimized by the racist society, yearns for blue eyes, which, she believes, will make her worthy of love, happiness and acceptance in the

    Read More

  • Self-Worth In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

    1172 Words  | 5 Pages

    As Paul C. Taylor declares, “the most prominent type of racialized ranking represents blackness as a condition to be despised, and most tokens of this type extend this attitude to cover the physical features that are central to the description of black identity” (16). Such attitudes are found in the words of black women themselves, when they talk about Pecola’s baby, saying that it “ought to be a law: two ugly people doubling up like that to make more ugly. Be better off in the ground” (188). Without any support from her community or even family, Pecola is a character who is

    Read More

More about Pecola's Three Prostitutes In Othello

Open Document