Geraldine's Reaction To Pecola

While the first criterion does not lend itself well to this example, the latter criteria (particularly the third) explain Geraldine’s reaction to Pecola. She was not only black like Pecola, but Pecola was in her house, which was a threat to her identity. In order for Geraldine to truly feel like she was on par with her white middle class counter parts, she had to have a quaint, well kept house.
This was yet another formative event for Pecola’s negative identity of herself. Junior, a member of what she clearly thought was part of her in-group (or she would not have trusted him), had betrayed her. This, coupled with Geraldine’s harsh words, in a matter of moments catapulted Pecola from the false security of what she thought was her in-group, into the world of the other. Nearly every experience mentioned by Morrison in Pecola’s life (while she was still sane) reinforced the concept that she was ugly and undesired. Any chance of having a positive identity and self esteem throughout her life was dashed to pieces by acts of hate committed by members of the out-group in her life, and the groups to which she actually belonged. These events were piled on top of the poor identity she had received from her unfortunate family situation, along with her own personal belief that she was ugly. These factors readily show why Pecola so readily identified with the Maginot Line, China, and Poland. They treated her like any other little girl. When she was with them she was not ugly, she was not poor and unmannered, and she was not black, she was just a little girl. The apartment above her own where the prostitutes lived was the only lace it seems that Pecola could go without wishing she was something or someone else. Other survivals such as the three whores are also the good examples to retain their identities by valuing their individuality. …show more content…
Though traditionally labeled victims themselves, China, Poland and Miss Marie do not fit the stereotype of the fallen images. The name of the three prostitutes, China, Poland, and Miss Marie evoke people to remember the dauntless effort against invasions of China, Poland and France in the face of more powerful forces during World War II, the history setting of The Bluest Eye. They are self-employed people who control their business; they are independent and reliant. Although not accepted by the society, the three whores are not devoid of self-confidence, arranging their lives according to their own ways, which is different from Pecola whose life is arranged and controlled by the outside world. Sexual abuse triggers Pecola’s complete identity fragmentation. Her father, who should protect her and should be an identity development model for her, becomes her sexual attacker. As Doris Brothers contends, “psychic trauma can only be fully understood as the betrayal of trust in the self-object relationships on which selfhood depends” (in Hwangbo 2004: 66). When Cholly rapes Pecola the second time, she succumbs to a mental breakdown and fully withdraws into a fantasy world, a safe universe, absolutely convinced that she has acquired blue eyes: “this eleven-year-old girl steps across commonly accepted borders of reason and speech to enter her own personal world of silence and madness. Pecolas ‘self’ becomes so