Her mother, like her daughter, is said to be filled with a sense of self-hatred and rejection. "She [Pecola's mother] was confronted by prejudice on a daily basis, both classism and racism, and for the first time, the white standard of beauty. These experiences worked to transform Pauline into a product of hatred and ignorance, leading her to hold herself up to standards that she didn't fully understand nor could realistically attain. These standards and feelings of rejection are the qualities that Pecola inherits from Pauline. Her mother, from her birth, placed upon her the same shroud of shame, loneliness, and inadequacy." (Willis, 2006)

This is perhaps the most tragic aspect of Morrison's novel at all. Pecola soaks up self-hatred in mass culture, but she has no pure, black past to turn to, given how white culture has already influenced and penetrated the previous generation of African-Americans. Thus, The Bluest...
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