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kn0tp0rk's review against another edition
5.0
TW, CW// Rape, pedophilia, racism
🔸I first read this in 2010-2011 for my 10th grade literature class. Since then I've been meaning to re-read it. It poignantly stuck with me. I knew my mom had a copy on the bookshelf. She signed her name in it, so I wonder when she first bought it.
🔸A refreshing use of figurative language immediately illustrates the attitude of the time period toward Black people and the unfortunate hostile nature of Black communities toward themselves.
🔸Parents don't seem to understand the lasting damage that hollering at their children has. I've been in Claudia's general position so many times that I suffer from dysphoric dreams. That screaming really hurts.
🔸Claudia is reflecting on her time as child. She says, "I do not know that she is not angry at me, but at my sickness" and that she "think[s] of somebody with hands who does not want me to die." I've read similar sentiments in James Baldwin's work. I think we place ourselves in an unfair position as children. We make excuses for the rough manner in which our parents handle us. They treat us cruelly in order to teach us lessons. Life is painful enough without your parents' inhospitable hands molding you like putty.
🔸Though their plights are serious, there's an air of humor around how the adults speak of one another. I like listening to 1930s Blues and it's a lot like that.
🔸Mr. Henry, who will be boarding with Claudia and her family, is immediately set up as a pedophile. It's very carefully done but those of us who have experience with pedos know the indicators. It's not the friendliness but the calculated manner in which hiding a coin encourages the girls to search his body, the way their mother reacts only with her eyes, and the last sentence absolving his memory of wrongdoing.
🔸Claudia dismembers white baby dolls because she doesn't understand society's fascination with them. Nowadays, it's pretty common for girls of any race to dismember their dolls (I did), and the popularity of games like The Sims has shown how we enjoy torturing fake people. However, in Claudia's case, there's something to be said about how white girls are status quo beauty standard and little girls are groomed for motherhood through toys. Until this day, white girls are given more media attention when they go missing or are harmed. When it comes to dolls, though, there's been much improvement in providing racial diversity to customers. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop parents from pushing dolls upon their daughters. Claudia doesn't want dolls, she wants to spend time with her family, but Christmas is highly commercialized even within devout Christian circles.
🔸Whether it's pressure from society, mental illness, or both, Black women have the unfortunate habit of ranting and raving over any inconvenience. Claudia's mother complains that Pecola has consumed all the milk. She has a paying tenant and she can't have someone go buy some more? She can't go without milk until the next pay day? There are plenty of things to eat that don't need milk. A word of advice to people looking to avoid stress: stop having kids.
🔸Black Parents Stop Traumatizing Your Kids Challenge (IMPOSSIBLE!!) Maybe if the adults in their lives were kinder, they wouldn't have felt the need to deal with Pecola's period by their own ignorant means.
🔸Pecola's house is not a home. Mrs. Breedlove (a name too on the nose, perhaps) is more concerned with waging the literal Crusades against Cholly than the safety of her children. This was hinted at earlier when Claudia's mother complained that neither of Pecola's parents had come to see if she was alright.
🔸Pecola identifies with the weeds and cracks in the ground because they are equally unwanted. Her only satisfaction is penny candy.
🔸The prostitutes are the only ones who welcome Pecola's presence (before she moves in with Claudia's family). If one considers their livelihoods ugly, then it's as though kind welcomes kind.
🔸Maureen Peal joins the girls at school. She's juxtaposed against the other students, her lighter skin and "wealth" making her more palatable. Claudia and Frieda's disgust of her are equally surface-level, as seen by their willingness to cease their hostilities when Maureen "befriends" Pecola. The realization that everyone is on their own arrives in the form of ice-cream, and despite Pecola being treated, the accidental sock in the face by Claudia shows how momentary happiness is for her compared to others. The shift from friends to enemies with Maureen mirrors racism's inexplicability, and Pecola's plight is too massive for Claudia and Frieda to know what to do about it but leave her there.
🔸There's a discussion about male nudity, and Pecola is distraught at the idea of having seen her father nude. Neither she nor others are prepared to think of their parents as natural organisms who may, at times, be naked. This is understandable, of course. They're children in American society. And from their childish musings thus far, there's little hope of proper sex education. Maureen is wiser than the other three girls, but whether it's because of her education or a predatory event, we don't know.
🔸Mr. Henry feels comfortable bringing sex workers FOR THEIR SERVICES into a house that has children... He's apparently decent enough to lure the girls out of their home first, but the audacity is astounding.
🔸Louis is another upsetting but typical image. His mother is necessarily love-less, emotionally and sexually. Despite prominently displaying a Bible within her home, she doesn't hesitate to call Pecola a bitch. She's found no enlightenment there. Black people are barely tolerable or niggers, and she projects this upon her own son, Louis. His evil actions are the consequences of her behavior and Pecola is the one who pays.
🔸Mr. Henry reveals himself as a predator, having violated Frieda. He tries to obfuscate his villainy by appealing to religion, but nearly gets shot for it. Claudia is too ignorant of sex to offer words of consultation, but the adults fair little better, one worried Frieda has been "ruined." Though their mother protests this, at no point do we see her explain to her daughters the consequences of what has happened. She's more concerned about her own nerves, obsessively cleaning as though she can scrub away the incident. This is the reality for people who disavow sex education, not that they are more susceptible to sexual assault (which may be true), but that they have no system for "de-briefing" and no healthy or effective way of healing.
🔸Miss Marie doesn't care who wrongs her, flinging a bottle at the kids when they parrot what their mother's said. There's no greater purpose in fighting the public's perception, especially not children who cannot understand why it is that Miss Marie is an outcast.
🔸While you understand the stakes of Pecola spilling the pie at Mrs. Breedlove's employment, it doesn't make her vicious attack upon Pecola any less painful to see.
🔸We get a glimpse of Mrs. Breedlove's past, and as you can figure, people aren't born evil. Slowly she turns bitter as life changes. Peer pressure and dissatisfaction with oneself. The realization that someone is falling out of love with you...
🔸Cholly is traumatized by a sexual act that begins consensual and turns into a performance as white men stumble across him and Darlene. After running away from home, he immediately discovers life's cruelty by being rejected by his potential father. He turns to work and womanizing instead.
🔸Intoxicated, Cholly remembers the good times he had with Mrs. Breedlove in the beginning. Seeing Pecola reminds him of what he used to have and he rapes her, making excuses of doing it out of love.
🔸According to hearsay, Mrs. Breedlove beat Pecola upon hearing of the assault. No one seems to have any sympathy for Pecola, which is the unfortunate norm for victims.
🔸Soaphead Church makes excuses for his pedophilia and abuse of children. Typical pedophile behavior. He writes a letter to God, explaining how pure he is to have helped Pecola without touching her.
🔸Pecola asks Soaphead to give her blue eyes, and he uses her in his plans to kill his landlady's dog.
🔸Pecola's so traumatized that she muses with an imaginary friend about how blue her eyes are. Claudia and Frieda don't know how to face her.
🔸The story has been juxtaposed against Dick and Jane excerpts, further illustrating how far from peace the characters are. Is it because they're Black that they must suffer in this manner?
🔸I first read this in 2010-2011 for my 10th grade literature class. Since then I've been meaning to re-read it. It poignantly stuck with me. I knew my mom had a copy on the bookshelf. She signed her name in it, so I wonder when she first bought it.
🔸A refreshing use of figurative language immediately illustrates the attitude of the time period toward Black people and the unfortunate hostile nature of Black communities toward themselves.
🔸Parents don't seem to understand the lasting damage that hollering at their children has. I've been in Claudia's general position so many times that I suffer from dysphoric dreams. That screaming really hurts.
🔸Claudia is reflecting on her time as child. She says, "I do not know that she is not angry at me, but at my sickness" and that she "think[s] of somebody with hands who does not want me to die." I've read similar sentiments in James Baldwin's work. I think we place ourselves in an unfair position as children. We make excuses for the rough manner in which our parents handle us. They treat us cruelly in order to teach us lessons. Life is painful enough without your parents' inhospitable hands molding you like putty.
🔸Though their plights are serious, there's an air of humor around how the adults speak of one another. I like listening to 1930s Blues and it's a lot like that.
🔸Mr. Henry, who will be boarding with Claudia and her family, is immediately set up as a pedophile. It's very carefully done but those of us who have experience with pedos know the indicators. It's not the friendliness but the calculated manner in which hiding a coin encourages the girls to search his body, the way their mother reacts only with her eyes, and the last sentence absolving his memory of wrongdoing.
🔸Claudia dismembers white baby dolls because she doesn't understand society's fascination with them. Nowadays, it's pretty common for girls of any race to dismember their dolls (I did), and the popularity of games like The Sims has shown how we enjoy torturing fake people. However, in Claudia's case, there's something to be said about how white girls are status quo beauty standard and little girls are groomed for motherhood through toys. Until this day, white girls are given more media attention when they go missing or are harmed. When it comes to dolls, though, there's been much improvement in providing racial diversity to customers. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop parents from pushing dolls upon their daughters. Claudia doesn't want dolls, she wants to spend time with her family, but Christmas is highly commercialized even within devout Christian circles.
🔸Whether it's pressure from society, mental illness, or both, Black women have the unfortunate habit of ranting and raving over any inconvenience. Claudia's mother complains that Pecola has consumed all the milk. She has a paying tenant and she can't have someone go buy some more? She can't go without milk until the next pay day? There are plenty of things to eat that don't need milk. A word of advice to people looking to avoid stress: stop having kids.
🔸Black Parents Stop Traumatizing Your Kids Challenge (IMPOSSIBLE!!) Maybe if the adults in their lives were kinder, they wouldn't have felt the need to deal with Pecola's period by their own ignorant means.
🔸Pecola's house is not a home. Mrs. Breedlove (a name too on the nose, perhaps) is more concerned with waging the literal Crusades against Cholly than the safety of her children. This was hinted at earlier when Claudia's mother complained that neither of Pecola's parents had come to see if she was alright.
🔸Pecola identifies with the weeds and cracks in the ground because they are equally unwanted. Her only satisfaction is penny candy.
🔸The prostitutes are the only ones who welcome Pecola's presence (before she moves in with Claudia's family). If one considers their livelihoods ugly, then it's as though kind welcomes kind.
🔸Maureen Peal joins the girls at school. She's juxtaposed against the other students, her lighter skin and "wealth" making her more palatable. Claudia and Frieda's disgust of her are equally surface-level, as seen by their willingness to cease their hostilities when Maureen "befriends" Pecola. The realization that everyone is on their own arrives in the form of ice-cream, and despite Pecola being treated, the accidental sock in the face by Claudia shows how momentary happiness is for her compared to others. The shift from friends to enemies with Maureen mirrors racism's inexplicability, and Pecola's plight is too massive for Claudia and Frieda to know what to do about it but leave her there.
🔸There's a discussion about male nudity, and Pecola is distraught at the idea of having seen her father nude. Neither she nor others are prepared to think of their parents as natural organisms who may, at times, be naked. This is understandable, of course. They're children in American society. And from their childish musings thus far, there's little hope of proper sex education. Maureen is wiser than the other three girls, but whether it's because of her education or a predatory event, we don't know.
🔸Mr. Henry feels comfortable bringing sex workers FOR THEIR SERVICES into a house that has children... He's apparently decent enough to lure the girls out of their home first, but the audacity is astounding.
🔸Louis is another upsetting but typical image. His mother is necessarily love-less, emotionally and sexually. Despite prominently displaying a Bible within her home, she doesn't hesitate to call Pecola a bitch. She's found no enlightenment there. Black people are barely tolerable or niggers, and she projects this upon her own son, Louis. His evil actions are the consequences of her behavior and Pecola is the one who pays.
🔸Mr. Henry reveals himself as a predator, having violated Frieda. He tries to obfuscate his villainy by appealing to religion, but nearly gets shot for it. Claudia is too ignorant of sex to offer words of consultation, but the adults fair little better, one worried Frieda has been "ruined." Though their mother protests this, at no point do we see her explain to her daughters the consequences of what has happened. She's more concerned about her own nerves, obsessively cleaning as though she can scrub away the incident. This is the reality for people who disavow sex education, not that they are more susceptible to sexual assault (which may be true), but that they have no system for "de-briefing" and no healthy or effective way of healing.
🔸Miss Marie doesn't care who wrongs her, flinging a bottle at the kids when they parrot what their mother's said. There's no greater purpose in fighting the public's perception, especially not children who cannot understand why it is that Miss Marie is an outcast.
🔸While you understand the stakes of Pecola spilling the pie at Mrs. Breedlove's employment, it doesn't make her vicious attack upon Pecola any less painful to see.
🔸We get a glimpse of Mrs. Breedlove's past, and as you can figure, people aren't born evil. Slowly she turns bitter as life changes. Peer pressure and dissatisfaction with oneself. The realization that someone is falling out of love with you...
🔸Cholly is traumatized by a sexual act that begins consensual and turns into a performance as white men stumble across him and Darlene. After running away from home, he immediately discovers life's cruelty by being rejected by his potential father. He turns to work and womanizing instead.
🔸Intoxicated, Cholly remembers the good times he had with Mrs. Breedlove in the beginning. Seeing Pecola reminds him of what he used to have and he rapes her, making excuses of doing it out of love.
🔸According to hearsay, Mrs. Breedlove beat Pecola upon hearing of the assault. No one seems to have any sympathy for Pecola, which is the unfortunate norm for victims.
🔸Soaphead Church makes excuses for his pedophilia and abuse of children. Typical pedophile behavior. He writes a letter to God, explaining how pure he is to have helped Pecola without touching her.
🔸Pecola asks Soaphead to give her blue eyes, and he uses her in his plans to kill his landlady's dog.
🔸Pecola's so traumatized that she muses with an imaginary friend about how blue her eyes are. Claudia and Frieda don't know how to face her.
🔸The story has been juxtaposed against Dick and Jane excerpts, further illustrating how far from peace the characters are. Is it because they're Black that they must suffer in this manner?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Pedophilia, and Rape
transpinestwins's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, and Racial slurs
yajairat's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
A grim look into the life of a little girl whose life is destroyed at the hands of those close to her and greater society. I came into this expecting to just follow the journey of Pecola, but instead each chapter is devoted to a different character that touches her life in some way. If this book was just focused on Pecola's life and perspective, I think I would have been much harsher on those that had a hand at ruining her life. But when reading about their stories and hardships, while it doesn't take away from the how terrible their actions were, it does help us see that there are larger forces at play here. Racism, colorism, toxic beauty standards run deep. It's sad to think they can have such a devastating effect on their lives.
"Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another— physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion."
"Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another— physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Child abuse, and Pedophilia
matt_zimo's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Rape, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Medical trauma, Grief, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Incest, Vomit, and Body shaming
joja_zch's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Léanla.
Desgarradora, melancólica, un bofetón de crudeza, pero no pierde la dulzura, aunque no necesariamente para bien. Hay dulzura porque la protagonista es una niña y la narradora, también, pero la vida de Pecola, particularmente, no tiene nada de dulce… es una pena constante ❤️🩹
Esta edición tiene un prólogo y epílogo con un desmenuce de las primeras páginas del libro de la misma Toni Morrison, donde explica las decisiones narrativas que tomó, con las que quedó satisfecha y con las que no. Es como una ventanita a su mente y 🤩
Realmente, una genia. Libro increíble 💯
Desgarradora, melancólica, un bofetón de crudeza, pero no pierde la dulzura, aunque no necesariamente para bien. Hay dulzura porque la protagonista es una niña y la narradora, también, pero la vida de Pecola, particularmente, no tiene nada de dulce… es una pena constante ❤️🩹
Esta edición tiene un prólogo y epílogo con un desmenuce de las primeras páginas del libro de la misma Toni Morrison, donde explica las decisiones narrativas que tomó, con las que quedó satisfecha y con las que no. Es como una ventanita a su mente y 🤩
Realmente, una genia. Libro increíble 💯
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Racism, Pedophilia, Rape, Incest, and Child abuse
_jasper_394's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Child abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Incest, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Bullying, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, and Child death
kanj1's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Classism
Moderate: Drug use, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Sexual content
Minor: Pedophilia
cmurphysgf's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Incest, and Physical abuse
disasterri's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, and Racism
torismazarine's review
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Death, Rape, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Animal death, Antisemitism, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Sexism, Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, and Violence