One scene we never got to touch base with that I find interesting is the scene of Pecola and the prostitutes. We are informed that Pecola often visited China, Poland, and Miss Marie (the 3 prostitutes), and they conveniently lived upstairs to Pecola (when Pecola and her family weren't "put outside"). The women had a good relationship with Pecola, and even were concerned about little things that parents would be questioning (example: Miss Marie asks Pecola where her socks are since she isn't wearing any -- a question a mother would ask their children).
On page 57, the paragraph "Pecola went to the window and looked down.......Maybe that was love. Choking sounds and silence", raises a question to me about Pecola and her life. She is unsure of the idea of "love" and when she hears about Miss Marie's love life, she questions what love is destined to be. She even thinks of her parents and the sounds her father makes "as though he were in pain" and how her mother "made no noise at all". It's a different picture than the one Miss Marie explained about her personal life with Dewey Prince. Pecola is being conditioned to learn the opposite of love and doesn't seem to enjoy her life at home; maybe this could be the reason she is constantly visiting the three women.
This is really perceptive, Jennette. I think the prostitutes are interesting too. It seems that they, esp. Miss Marie, are the only positive adult influences in Pecola's life. And in some ways, they're the only sympathetic adults in this story of abused children. They seem to be happy even though we've all been conditioned to assuming prostitutes are unhappy. They're the few adult women in the story who aren't being abused by men (some would argue that they're being exploited by men, but I think these women would say they're exploiting men). It's interesting, too, that when Pecola expresses the desire to someday be a prostitute, none of the women try to dissuade her.
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