... grows up in an abusive and un-loving family. She longs to disappear from the face of the Earth to rid her of her problems; however, it soon drives her into a yearning to become beautiful. Pecola gets the idea that if her brown eyes were to turn blue, her world would be different. For a year Pecola prays for blue eyes, but ... beat of a drummer so distant only she could hear. Elbows bent, hands on shoulder, she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly. Beating the air like a winged but grounded bird, intent on the blue void it could not reach--couldn't...

• Word Count: 413
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... . He ends the letter with "I am signing this letter with love, of course, but more than that, with gratitude" (99) and this sends Hagar "spinning into a bright blue place where the air was thin and it was silent all the time...where everything was frozen except for an occasional burst of fire inside her chest" (99). Milkman's language suggests an ... , one can see how the rejection of Hagar's love and her abandonment by the one she loves inevitably causes her demise and love's transformation. Hagar's devotion to Milkman transforms her into a self-destructive character and detaches her fro...

• Word Count: 1436
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Family, whether realized or not, is permanent. Generations come and different traits are passed on, yet as different members of families marry into others, their own respective family unit remains. They can never break that thread of relationship. They are completely and irrevocably tied by blood ... His struggles continue into adolescence, when he finds his father intimidating and unworthy of his respect. He obeys his father when need calls for it, but by the time he is fourteen, the only similarity he finds that he shares with his father is "his love of good shoes and fine thin socks. ...

• Word Count: 769
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... a good-bye note, which ends with a "thank you" for all she had done for him. The words of thanks "sent Hagar spinning into a bright blue place where the air was thin and it was silent all the time, and where people spoke in whispers or did not make sound at all". Ever since then every new moon ... and does not realize she is wet with rain until her shopping bag splits. She finally gets home completely wet with all her purchases ruined. She rushes into the bedroom and puts make up on her wet face and her ruined clothes on her body. When Pilate and Reba see her, she sees in ... their face...

• Word Count: 1568
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School