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The Theme Of Abuse In Pecola

877 Words4 Pages

The novel talks about a young girl who has received all sorts of abuse from everyone in the community. Pecola encounters all kinds of ill-treatment including racism, sexual abuse, and beatings among others. Pecola hates her skin color, and so are the rest of the people in the community, and she believes that by getting blue eyes, people will treat her better and with respect. Pecola is also a scapegoat in the community in that everyone accuses her of almost all the wrong doings in the community. For example, Geradine accuses her of killing their cat that was killed by Geraldine's son (Morrison, 93). All these ill treatment towards Pecola shows the abuse people receive in society. The theme of abuse is crucial because it can portray levels …show more content…

To begin with, there is a lot of racism in society today whereby the skin color of a person dictates how a person is to be treated. In the novel, Pecola is seen as ugly, and this lowers her esteem as she feels ugly. Pecola thinks that by having blue eyes that all will be well and that the community will treat her with dignity (Morrison, 84). In society today, black girls try to use bleach to whiten their skin tones so that they blend in well in the society. Others go to the extreme by getting surgeries to change their color that ends up causing diseases such as skin cancer and death. Sexual abuse and violence are also one of the major societal issues. Sexual abuse against children has been on the rise in society today. Every single day there are reports of children being sexually abused. Some of the abuse is inflicted by the parents and relatives who have the duty of caring for their children. There is also the fact that children do not report some of the abuse, and often the perpetrators are left free. For example, Pecola does not report Cholly’s abuse on her but instead carries the burden of the violent act and that of carrying her father’s

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