On a rare day when Geraldine is out of the house, Junior spies Pecola walking alone and invites her in to see some kittens. Once she is inside the house, he hurls his mother's black cat in her face. Scratched and terrified, Pecola turns to leave, but Junior blocks the door, grabs the cat, and begins to swing it in circles. As Pecola tries to save the cat, she falls on Junior, who lets go of the cat, flinging it against the window. Geraldine arrives home, and Junior blames the cat's death on Pecola.
Geraldine is afraid and repulsed by Pecola's presence in her house. Her precious and perfect house has been invaded by a creature with matted hair and a dirty, torn dress. Pecola represents everything that Geraldine despises — disorder, black poverty, and filthy ugliness. Pecola's humiliation takes place in the pretty house with the pretty lady's grisly words — "nasty little black bitch" — filtered through the fur of the dead, blue-eyed black cat. The last image Pecola sees as she is absorbed into the cold March wind is the sad and unsurprised gaze of Jesus, the same Jesus whom she prays to every night, begging for blue eyes.
