I Need Your Sins
By Melissa Langer
After witnessing the daily interactions between Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove, one can’t help but wonder why these two seemingly incompatible people continue to live with one another. Their relationship is marked by "a darkly brutal formalism" that overshadows any hope for cheerful human interaction. But the narrator tells us that it is this formalism and hatred that "make[s] their lives tolerable" (42). In fact, Mrs. Breedlove "needed Cholly’s sins desperately" and Cholly needed his hate for Mrs. Breedlove in order to "leave himself intact" (42). But how can hate leave these characters intact? Shouldn’t love keep us intact?
In an ideal sense, love keeps the human life tolerable. But for some, when love is absent, something else must take its place to fill the void. For Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove, hatred fills the void created by love’s absence. Rather than being bound by love, they remain bound by a mutual hatred that they intentionally create to keep their minds off their misery, poverty, and ugliness. Mrs. Breedlove’s hatred, in particular, empowers her with a sense of purpose. Consequently, as Cholly becomes more despicable, Mrs. Breedlove’s cause (in the name of Jesus) becomes more justified and she becomes more of a persevering, strong victim.
I think Morrison uses Mrs. Breedlove to show the reader something about him or herself. Although we would all like to deny it, a piece of her resides within all of us. We all need something to hate, some cause to fight for, some movement to feel a part of, or some burden to bear. We like to feel victimized because it gives us a sense of purpose and something to "rise above." With a sense of purpose our cause (whatever it may be) becomes romanticized and we feel like heroic fighters of injustice. In a sense, I need your sins and you need mine. Without them, neither one of us would have a burden to bear and thus no cause to fight for.
After witnessing the daily interactions between Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove, one can’t help but wonder why these two seemingly incompatible people continue to live with one another. Their relationship is marked by "a darkly brutal formalism" that overshadows any hope for cheerful human interaction. But the narrator tells us that it is this formalism and hatred that "make[s] their lives tolerable" (42). In fact, Mrs. Breedlove "needed Cholly’s sins desperately" and Cholly needed his hate for Mrs. Breedlove in order to "leave himself intact" (42). But how can hate leave these characters intact? Shouldn’t love keep us intact?
In an ideal sense, love keeps the human life tolerable. But for some, when love is absent, something else must take its place to fill the void. For Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove, hatred fills the void created by love’s absence. Rather than being bound by love, they remain bound by a mutual hatred that they intentionally create to keep their minds off their misery, poverty, and ugliness. Mrs. Breedlove’s hatred, in particular, empowers her with a sense of purpose. Consequently, as Cholly becomes more despicable, Mrs. Breedlove’s cause (in the name of Jesus) becomes more justified and she becomes more of a persevering, strong victim.
I think Morrison uses Mrs. Breedlove to show the reader something about him or herself. Although we would all like to deny it, a piece of her resides within all of us. We all need something to hate, some cause to fight for, some movement to feel a part of, or some burden to bear. We like to feel victimized because it gives us a sense of purpose and something to "rise above." With a sense of purpose our cause (whatever it may be) becomes romanticized and we feel like heroic fighters of injustice. In a sense, I need your sins and you need mine. Without them, neither one of us would have a burden to bear and thus no cause to fight for.
posted by Ms. Jefferson at 10:06 AM
1 Comments:
Brilliant. Moreover, Pecola serves this very purpose, although she herself has not "sinned". She becomes something for everyone to hate. Claudia describes her as a mat that everyone wiped their feet on, "All of us--all who knew her--felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her" (205). Again the double entendre of the title resonates. In order not to be the "bluest I," we must find others out there more blue than we upon whom we can heap our loathing or secretly despise in order to feel cleaner and more justified, more beautiful or intelligent. Someone because of whom, we know that we are loved more. It is horrifying but true of our humanity and I believe that this truth is what continues to fuel both racism and our understanding (or misunderstanding) of grace. Somewhere in the midst of this is the definition of Christianity and the diminution of Christianity as well. With all of its irony, there is a life sustaining quality to this "hatred". yikes! Clearly, we are challenged to redefine this.
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