Describe The Relationship Between Pauline And Pecola

Even though Pauline cannot instruct her daughter on how to be desirable, she still has high hopes for her daughter to meet those standards of beauty. Pauline hopes that her daughter, Pecola, will be highly valued in society so that Pauline’s status will rise through her daughter’s status. However, Pecola does not meet those standards. In the novel,
Morrison includes a chapter where Pauline has many journal entries in which she depicts how she feels towards her children. She comments on how she would love Pecola no matter how she turned out, but concludes the entry by stating, “[b]ut I knowed she was ugly. Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly” (126). Pecola grew up in a household that knew she was not pretty, and because of this,
Pauline had a hope that Pecola would be beautiful so that her status would rise; however, when Pauline realizes that she is not, it causes Pauline to checkout of her mothering, further dehumanizing and preventing Pecola from experiencing normal life experiences. In one entry, she comments on how “I loved them and all, I guess, but maybe it was having no money, or maybe it was Cholly, but they sure worried the life out of me. Sometimes I’d catch myself hollering at them and beating them…” (124). Pauline was so wrapped up in her life, in her reality, that she was unaccepted, that she did not have the time or know-how to love and care for her children properly, and further than that, she did not see Pecola as the beautiful daughter that she wanted, causing her to further disconnect from her mothering.
Pauline hoped that if her daughter were beautiful, it would compensate for her deformity; however, when Pecola was born, when Pauline saw that she was ugly, it was as if that deformity was resurfacing. Pauline is now unaccepted on three levels: because she is a woman, because she is deformed, and because she has an ugly daughter. Having a beautiful daughter could have validated Pauline, allowing her to live