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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

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