The Difference between a Sea and an Ocean

I am floored by how skillfully crafted Toni Morrison’s writing is.  It is probably the most beautiful, accurate writing I’ve ever encountered.  One thing in particular that impresses me is her ability to define the indescribable divides society naturally draws to silently and methodically perpetuate the state of inferiority of the weak and helpless.

She shows the difference between what it means to be “put out” and to be “put outdoors (17).”  When you are put out, you still have to freedom and ability to “go somewhere else.”  I imagine this type of situation would occur when a father loses his job, because although the family has been knocked down a little bit, they can still stand strong together because of their firm grasp on control and “ownership” (20) of their own life.  However, when you are put outdoors, you are completely banished from the safe bubble of society, and “there is no place to go.”  Pecola belongs in the group of people who have been “put outdoors”, and I think this distinction is important for emphasizing her helplessness because it shows that in addition to automatically being rejected from the white world for being black, she is rejected from the black community because of her irrevocably horrible predicament.  Understanding that Pecola is at the very bottom of the caste system—practically outside of it—generates more sympathy for her from the reader and sharpens the reader’s view of her as a wounded innocent, making each blow to Pecola even more uncomfortable for the reader to silently witness.  For example, when Pecola is awkwardly listening to Mama’s cruel rant about the lowliness of the Breedloves, Pecola begins “minstratin’”(27).  This incident is the icing on Pecola’s cake of vulnerability, as it only increases her state of helpless embarrassment.  This image created of a little black girl, rejected from society and apart from her family, quietly crying as some strange woman who is supposed to be her care taker screams insults about her is incredibly painful for the reader to bear witness to.  And then to make things even worse, at this impromptu time, Morrison bequeaths upon Pecola an event that is agreeably the most embarrassing situation for any woman: getting a period.  Through the use of definition and example, Morrison successfully conveys the rejection of minority groups from society and conjures mounting sympathy from the reader for Pecola to communicate the naked horrors or racism.