Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Hierarchy of Power and Pecola
Toward the end of lecture today, Professor Zimmerman commented on the hierarchy of power in society and that Pecola is placed at the very bottom of that structure. In turn, she is everybody's victim. I see evidence of this in two lines that take place during the scene with the cat. First, when Junior sees Pecola petting the cat and the cat's favorable reaction to it, the text says that "he had seen that expression many times as the animal responded to his mother's touch" (90). In turn, he harms the cat, which in turns, leads to blame Pecola for the incident. Then, when Geraldine comes home and finds the cat, the text says, "She had seen this little girl all of her life," (91), which leads her to pass blame onto Pecola and call her a "little black bitch." This illustrates clearly that when a situation arises or something breaks a pattern, the blame surpasses everyone down through the levels of power, straight to the bottom onto those who are weakest and most vulnerable--no questions asked.
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I almost find just the opposite true when discussing a system of hierarchy. Pecola seems to hold a sort of power over Junior. He sees her petting the cat and becomes upset, no longer is Junior the one upsetting Pecola by throwing a cat in his face, now it is Pecola upsetting Junior. She has manipulated power over him. The same holds true for my second example. Pecola is able to boast the clothes that the prostitutes have been buying for her. They give her soda, and all sorts of great things. No one believes Pecola because she is supposed to be black and ugly, but in reality she has some “pull” over the others. While Pecola is the brute of the majority of situations, I think she has small victories over certain people at certain times.
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