Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Through the characterization of Pecola, Frieda, and Claudia, Toni Morrison instills a deep empathy for these character within the reader. My empathy was so great at times that the book became difficult to read. I was not sure how well I would be able to understand what the characters of this book went through, but Morrison did such a great job portraying their characters that I felt as if i was sharing their agony. On the other hand, I found it hard to feel sympathetic toward Cholly. While reading about how he grew up and the terrible things he went through, I did feel sorry for him. But after he raped Pecola, all of my sympathy disappeared. I wanted to feel sorry for him, but I just couldn't look past all of his terrible actions. I think Morrison used Cholly's character to intensify our sympathy for the young girls. Cholly was an example of what can happen to a person that has been severely oppressed and through a great deal of pain. His character makes the reader aware of the chance of a similar future for these young girls. Do you think Morrison intended for the reader to have sympathy for Cholly?
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I think that Morrison did not intend for us to have sympathy for Cholly, but i do think she wanted us to feel shame when reading about his character. Obviously she wanted us to be ashamed of his actions, but she also wanted us to consider what brought him to the level that he was at. I think that Morrison wanted us to contemplate how things may have been different if our society had not been the way it was at the time. I definitely felt shame and embarassment that some of my ancestors may have been part of developing such a society.
I actually thought that Morrison did want us to develop some sympathy for Cholly. I think she created him in such a way that we saw his humanity and his dehumanization. What becomes of a man who is humiliated again and again because of something he cannot change--his race. As reprehesible as his abuse of Pecola was I am not sure that he saw it as abuse. I think he was demented by the demented rules of society.
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