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Judgment: A Destructive Path
 d Toni Morrison’s work before, but this particular story affected me more than any of the others. Morrison portrays the characters and their actions in a way that is achingly human and exceedingly real to me. Though most of the characters are judgmental, the reader is able to understand the cause of their judgment to be their own insecurity about how others perceive them. It is a vicious cycle, but one that is entirely human. Ultimately, all of the characters use judgment as a desperate attempt to find meaning or happiness in their unstable lives.
One of the things that stood out most starkly to me was how quick all the characters were to judge and how harsh their judgments were. Regardless of the age or race of the individual, everyone in this little town in Ohio finds someone to put down. When Claudia and Frieda come home to find China and the Maignot Line in their home, Claudia’s “flesh crawled…these were the fancy women of the maroon nail polish that Mama and Big Mama hated” (BE 77). Though the two girls had been warned about the prostitutes, it is not just fear that drives Claudia’s actions. She insists that she “had heard too many black and red words about her, seen too many mouths go triangle at the mention of her name, to dwell on any redeeming features she might have” (BE 77). Similarly, when Claudia overhears two neighbors discussing Pecola’s pregnancy, one insists that Pecola does “‘carry some of the blame,’” even though the other neighbor points out that “‘she ain’t but twelve or so’” (BE 189). Frieda and Claudia feel sorry for Pecola, and Freida realizes that their “sorrow was more intense because nobody seemed to share it. They were disgusted, amused, shocked…” (BE 190) but absolutely none of them feel any sort of compassion for Pecola. Part of the reason I feel that all of the characters are so intent on judging others is their own feelings of insecurity and inferiority. By bringing other people down, they can make themselves feel better about their position in life. As in the case of the boys at school who torture Pecola, “it was their contempt for their own blackness that gave the first insult its This is another way that characters in the novel tried to avoid confronting their feelings of self consciousness – they hide behind a label. Just as Junior’s mother tries to separate her family from others for fear of being judged to be like them, Soaphead Church and Mrs. Breedlove hide behind roles so they have an excuse for their actions. Soaphead Church considers himself a misanthrope, and “knowing his label provided him with both comfort and courage, he believed that to name an evil was to neutralize if not annihilate it” (164). Similarly, Mrs. Breedlove projects herself both inwardly and outwardly as a church woman, and all of her violence toward Cholly is in the name of Jesus and saving Cholly’s soul, though it gets her nowhere with Cholly and leaves her incompetent as a mother. In all of the character’s actions of judgment is the underlying hope to find a feeling of self-confidence, a feeling of self-worth, and a place in the world. Though they often choose destructive paths in the hopes of achieving these goals, we can all recognize and empathize with the utter humanness of their actions. |
teeth” (BE 65). As a way of releasing their frustration about their own hurt feelings, the school yard gang uses Pecola as a scapegoat. Additionally, during the section that tells the story of Junior, the cat, and Pecola, the women like Junior’s mother are always extremely careful to “explain to him the difference between colored people and niggers…the line between colored and nigger was not always clear; subtle and telltale signs threatened to erode it, and the watch had to be constant” (BE 87).