maintains, "shame disturbs those distinctions by distorting responsibility and encouraging

self-blame."15 Unlike Claudia, who dares to question and even gives vent to her anger at

the imposed biased value by dismembering the white doll given as a gift, Pecola meekly,

shamefully takes in and internalizes all the negative views or emotions other people

project. She even holds herself responsible for the endless violence between her parents

and prays for blue eyes, with the logic that "if she looked different, beautiful, maybe

Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too. Maybe they'd say, 'Why, look and at

pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn't do bad things in front of those pretty eyes'" (46).

Pecola's shame-prone personality exacerbates the detrimental effects of her traumatizing

life experiences, consolidating her victim status.

 The feminist critic Marilyn Frye views anger as an "instrument of cartography" in

"defining others' concept of who and what one is." "To be angry," Frye notes, is "to

claim a place, to assert a right to expression and to discourse."116 Another feminist

psychiatrist, Jean Baker Miller, also emphasizes that anger as a "statement of oneself and

to others" provides a chance to recognize one's discomfort and elicit interactional

responses that can lead to a change in the distressing circumstances. In contrast, Miller

explains, repeated instances of suppressing anger and inaction can lead to lack of self-

esteem and feelings of helplessness.117 Although Frye and Miller examine anger from

different feminist perspectives, their observations shed light on Pecola's predicament of

helplessness and powerlessness. Anger as a form of "resistance" can chart out and

maintain the boundary between the self and the impinging or violating environmental

forces. As a definite form of self-assertion, anger is a demand for a fair share of respect