irst time when Mrs. MacTeer hugs Pecola and Frieda after she begins ministratin. Mrs. MacTeer then takes Pecola inside to the bath to help her and laughter is heard.The relationship between Mrs. MacTeer and her daughters is in sharp contrast with the relationship between Pauline Breedlove and her daughter, Pecola. Pauline and her husband, Cholly, hate their children, Pecola and Sammy as much as they hate themselves. Again, we see unworthiness breeding unworthiness. Mrs. Breedlove wanted her family life to disappear and is happiest when she is working for the white family that employed her, without any reminder of her failures. Similarly, Pecola wants to disappear and become invisible during her parents violent fights and Sammy physically disappears as he runs away from home frequently.Experiences transferred Pauline into a product of hatred and ignorance, leading her to hold herself up to unrealistic standards that she could not attain. Pauline, the ninth of eleven children, was ignored by her family and she in turn, ignores her family. She learned early in life to be separate and unworthy because of her limp that she acquired by stepping on nail at age two. She assigns this unworthiness to Pecola when she is born, so she too will be separate and feel unworthy. These standards and feelings of rejection are the qualities that Pecola inherits from Pauline. Pauline suffers a separation of self in which she is constantly confronted with a world of Hollywood movies. Pauline differs from Pecola only in the sense that the image she believes in comes from the movie screen rather than the Shirley Temple milk cup. Whiteness is goodness. Pauline compensates for her lameness and ugliness by creating order whenever possible. When she can no longer do this at home, she abandons her family. She feels more at home in a white kitchen than with her black family at home.She commits a role reversal by loving her employers daughter, the perfect l...
