Rape+Scene

- Juxtaposition of anger and love; even Cholly doesn't know what exactly to feel. In addition, Cholly's tenderness towards Pecola: "What could his calloused hands produce to make her smile?" (161), contrasts with his cruel actions. - Rhetorical sentences contribute to confusion: "Why did she have to look so whipped? She was a child--unburdened--why wasn't she happy?" (161). Cholly doesn't realize the answer to obvious questions due to his drunkenness and also due to the fact that he had no real parents growing up either. - After the deed, Cholly seems to feel guilty without knowing why: "hatred mixed with tenderness" (163). Just as in his youth, Cholly's own embarrassment and guilt causes him to hate the female he had sex with, instead of directly hating himself for it.

- When Cholly was growing up, nobody ever really helped him to get through with a difficult situation. - Even at the funeral when he was younger, everybody seemed fairly casual and relaxed. Although this could be a cultural custom, is also seems that Cholly's inevitable depression is postponed, nad he later has to go through it by himself without support. - Therefore, because Cholly has almost never been protected, he doesn't know how to protect anyone else. His "protectiveness" (162) of Pecola causes him to do the worst possible thing.

- Cholly's interactions with females throughout the book are highly dysfunctional; however, he does functions relatively normally with males. - Cholly's obsession with Pecola's leg and foot is reminiscent of when he watched Pauline scratch her leg. It also reminds to reader of how he wanted to take care of Pauline because her foot was crippled; therefore we can see that he feels genuine protection with romantic interest towards Pecola as well.