However, Pecola didn't meet the standard, she was ugly. .
It's not just the whites that are held up as beautiful, it's anyone that came close to white, either in looks or what was considered "white" actions. The character Maureen Peal, a light skinned girl that comes from money, was put on a pedestal by her teachers and peers for this alone. "She enchanted the entire school. When teachers called on her, they smiled encouragingly. Black boys didn't trip her in the halls; white boys didn't stone her, white girls didn't suck their teeth when she was assigned to be their working partners; black girls stepped aside when she wanted to use the sink in the other girls" toilet, and their eyes genuflected under sliding lids."(Morrison 62) This biased treatment of Maureen caused normal, happy go lucky girls to be engulfed in jealousy, anger, self-consciousness, and a feeling of subordination, "If she was cute- and if anything could be believed, she was- then we were not. And what did that mean? We were lesser. Nicer, brighter, but still lesser."(Morrison 74).
Soon, Pecola began to realize this and began wishing for beautiful blue eyes. She was no longer satisfied with herself and became consumed with the idea of beauty and what it meant to be beautiful.
"Each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes. Fervently, for a year she had prayed. Although somewhat discouraged, she was not without hope. To have something as wonderful as that happen would take a long, long time. Thrown, in this way, into the binding conviction that only a miracle could relieve her, she would never know her beauty. She would see only what there was to see: the eyes of other people." (Morrison 46-7) This lack of beauty even intruded upon her family life. Pecola's first encounter with her lack of beauty comes from her mother. Even as an infant Pecola's mother, Pauline, thought of Pecola as ugly "A right smart baby she was. I used to like to watch her.
