Infidelity in Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper compares and contrasts the emotional effects of adultery on the characters Daisy and Pecola in Morrison's and Fitzgerald's respective novels. The author uses examples from the texts to qualify how these characters become victims of their own circumstances.

From the Paper:

"These three versions of the same paragraph represent three distinct types of child characters: (1) the white girls (i.e., "slow readers" allowed to take their time and develop normally through childhood); (2) the black sisters Claudia and Frieda, forced to "read" (i.e., grow up) faster than white girls overall, but not as fast as Pecola; and (3) Pecola, who must "read" (grow up) so fast that nothing at all is clear. Another traumatic thing that happens early on in the book is when Pecola gets her first period. This is a normal thing, but it is traumatic for Pecola because she never heard about it at home. So Pecola thinks she is bleeding to death, and may even connect it with the violent sexual assault of which she has been a victim so early in life. Pecola's getting her period means that if she is raped again she could have a baby. Later in the book, after Pecola returns home, she is raped again by her father, gets pregnant, and later goes mad."

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