The Bluest Eye Pauline Breedlove Quotes

She came into her own with the women who had despised her, by being more moral than they....She joined a church where shouting was frowned on....She stopped saying "chil'ren" and said "childring" instead. She let another tooth fall, and was outraged by painted ladies who thought only of clothes and men. (3.7.25)

There is a trend in the novel of characters starting in one emotional state (say, Cholly's anger at the white men who humiliate them) and sublimating those emotions into ones that are easier to handle. Here Pauline takes her jealousy of other women and turns it into martyrdom.

Then the screen would light up, and I'd move right on in them pictures. White men taking such good care of they women, and they all dressed up in big clean houses with bathtubs right in the same room with the toilet. Them pictures gave me a lot of pleasure, but it made coming home hard, and looking at Cholly hard. (3.7.23)

Pauline envies the lives of white people as she sees them portrayed in the movies. In particular, she envies the monetary security, comfort, and romance she finds in them.

She regarded love as possessive mating, and romance as the goal of the spirit. (3.7.22)

Love is a kind of ownership for Pauline.