How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live. (4.11.7)
The passage seems to suggest that the town blames Pecola for her rape because they cannot come to grips with the senselessness of it all. It is almost too scary, too difficult, to think about how random and unfortunate Pecola's fate is.
Quote #8
She, however, stepped over into madness, a madness which protected her from us simply because it bored us in the end. (4.11.7)
Claudia admits to being bored with Pecola's madness and feels somewhat guilty about this.
Quote #9
The birdlike gestures are worn away to a mere picking and plucking her way between the tire rims and the sunflowers, between Coke bottles and milkweed, among all the waste and beauty of the world – which is what she herself was. All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. (4.11.5)
The constant use of the word "us" here implicates the whole town in Pecola's madness.