Beauty and the Beast

"It was in a dark, wet place, its head covered with great O's of wool, the black face holding, like nickels, two clean black eyes, the flared nose, kissing-thick lips, and the living, breathing silk of black skin. No synthetic yellow bangs suspended over marble-blue eyes, no pinched nose and bowline mouth."(Morrison 190). Morrison uses vivid imagery to illustrate how innocent Pecola's baby is. The "synthetic yellow bangs" also reminded me of the phallic figured barbies, and how unnatural they looked. Although Pecola's child doesn't resemble those plastic, artificial figurines, it's considered ugly and even unnatural. This irony plus the fact that the innocent baby doesn't survive childbirth just further emphasizes how society's perspective of beauty is skewed. Although the idea of longing for "blue eyes" is constantly mentioned within the novel, Morrison ends the book with the idea that even if one obtains such beauty, it will not seem like it's enough. Once a person falls into the mentality of longing for something they're not, there's always the possibility of a more beautiful being. Therefore, by making the last chapter of the novel a conversation between Pecola and her imaginary friend, Morrison not only shows Pecola's true feelings, but she also uses these feelings to tell the reader that longing to be something you aren't is pointless. Since the "what if's" are infinite, it's better to accept yourself for who you are and if others can't appreciate that, then they're the ones with ugly hearts.