Beauty in "The Bluest Eye"
page 97
She stopped staring at the green chairs, at the delivery truck; [Pauline]
went to the movies instead . . . 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 . . . She was never
able, after her education in the movies, to look at a face and not assign
it some category in the scale of absolute beauty, and the scale was one
she absorbed in full from the silver screen.
Comments:
Pauline is Pecola's mother. This excerpt seems to explain a lot about
Pecola's insecurities and where they originated (her mother).
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