What Is Pecola's Downfall Of The Catcher In The Rye

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger prove to be significant yet controversial within American literature because it provides an uncensored and unromanticized view of race, gender and class. The Bluest Eye illustrates the specific cultures and histories of African-American women and how social contractions are often tied with racial and gender differences. She provides evidence on the influence white society possess over the erasure and replacement of the black community. Her purpose is to rewrite the history of black Americans whose positive light and image have been eradicated by white supremacy and mass culture. Similarly, in his coming-of-age novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), J.D. Salinger critiques

Pecola believes she is far from meeting the white standards of beauty, offering no opposition to the judgements implied on to her. Her unconscious assimilation to beauty standards brings her into a state of delirium and worthlessness. Her conviction of her ugliness is rooted from societal standards of beauty rather than from herself: “...long hours she sat looking in the mirror trying to discover the secret of her ugliness, the ugliness that made her ignored and despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike” (Morrison 34). Pecola’s inability to reject and oppose standards of beauty is expected, as every encounter and experience further reinforces her low self-esteem. All members of Pecola’s community, participate in crushing any possibility of a healthy self image of herself. For example, when Pecola heads to the grocery store, the clerk looks at her and her money with disdain: “She looks up at him and sees the...total absence of human recognition the glazed separateness. She doesn’t know what keeps his glance suspended...The distaste must be for her, her blackness” (Morrison 48). From this quote, Morrison describes how non-black members of the community treat Pecola lower than human. She is rejected due to her blackness and therefore her ugliness. Pecola frequently encounters such discrimination not only due to her race, but her gender as well. Such distressing encounters paired with a poor sense of self, Pecola falls victim to cultural expectations and her community’s prejudice. Society has eaten away at her self-esteem and self-worth; thus, Pecola is prevented from developing a positive self image and instead, loses her innocence on account of her community’s own need for self assurance. Living in a community that internalize white beauty standards, and condemned by her peers and parents for it,