In the 1940s, lighter skin was more beautiful. If you were a dark, black girl, you were considered dirty and inferior. As Pecola had dark skin and woolly hair, she was accepted openly. To be beautiful, you need “blue eyes”. Being an “ugly” black girl growing up among white people was hard for Pecola. She thought she was ugly because she was being bullied and tormented. Pecola is a fragile and delicate child at the beginning of the novel, and by the middle of the book she is almost completely exhausted by pain and shame. Pecola is a symbol of the black community's self-hatred and belief in its own ugliness. Other members of the community, such as his mother, father and Geraldine, express their own self-hatred by expressing their hatred towards