I think that in this book the one society she is writing about is ours in present day, but it can also relate to many different time periods. In particular what our society did to an entire race of people that began in the days of slavery and how its destructive, dehumanizing effects have affected its people and its country to this day. The way I think I see it, after you break it all down to its most basic form is, that when you feel good about yourself, you do good things. When you feel bad about yourself, you do bad things. You need to feel like somebody to keep your integrity and dignity.

Pecola is treated poorly by her family. It seems that there is little support and encouragement of her self-worth at her home, the place that she needs it the most. She even has to direct her own mother as Mrs. Breedlove. Pecola lives in constant torment of not feeling special in any way. She thinks the only way that she can feel special is if she becomes the definition of 'special' that society has constantly bombarded her with that she should be. She has not known of any other kind of beauty or self-confident image.

Her parents did not know of any other kind of beauty either. Her grandparents also were trapped themselves in this destructive chain of not knowing of any kind of other beauty. Cholly, her father, did not really feel special at all for the most part of his life either. He recalled that the two happiest times of his life, was eating watermelon with a relative and getting a good deal on the train ticket to Macon. I, personally like eating watermelon and getting good deals too but I would not think of ranking them as the two great defining moments of my life. He knew of nothing higher he could reach for. His confrontation with Samson Fuller, his father, turned out to be a horrible experience for him that further established in himself the feeling of nothing. Now how is that feeling go to translate to his own family and children in the future? It is a destructive chain that is extremely difficult to break.

Mrs. Breedlove also had her problems with recognizing her self-worth. She felt like beauty was found in the light skin, blue eyed, blond hair, image that Hollywood and society had portrayed to her through picture shows and her surrounding neighbors thought so too. So how is that feeling of beauty going to be handed down to her daughter, Pecola, in the future. So I can imagine being put in Pecola's place where she lives in a home where her parents feel little self-worth themselves and that lack of pride is reflected in Pecola. I, myself, live in a house with two awesome parents who feel and act like champions themselves and that feeling is translated over to me. Now, if I had the parents like Pecola, I would most likely have a harder time feeling good about myself. It is not that Pecola and her parents and their parents were not good people, but they did not feel particularly special or beautiful or important or good about themselves in any way that would motivate them in naturally or easily portraying these good attributes to their own selves or to others. They destroyed themselves inside and that feeling was the one portrayed to others. They did not want to be part of the chain, as does anybody, but it trapped them. It is a very difficult chain to break.

Now where did this destructive chain originate? Where is the blame supposed to be put? It must of originated back to the beginnings of slavery itself, because slavery was designed to destroy a person. I think Morrison is trying to say that we cannot keep letting this personal destruction continue to be handed down. We need to find a way to stop it together. We cannot go on being uneducated and non-understanding on the matter of the wrong traditions and rituals that have been going on for years and years. The problem lies within each individual. Those of us that feel good about ourselves, let us help those that do not. We need to help free ourselves of the chain and others to break it that have yet not or we may be the next ones to get trapped in it.

Timothy McGaffin II graduated from the University of Utah with a BA degree in Mass Communication and worked as a journalist for the Lone Peak Press and The Daily Herald. Visit: http://ChampionsNeverQuit.com