Chapter 9 (Seethedogbowwowgoesthedogdoyouwanttoplaydoyouwant toplaywithjaneseethedogrunr)

Study Questions
1. What is a “misanthrope”?

2. What is the significance of Soaphead Church’s name?

3. What is the one thing that disgusts him more than touching a woman?

4. What does Pecola’s request for blue eyes do to him?

5. Why does Evil exist, according to Soaphead Church?

6. What is meant when it is written that Soaphead Church’s business “is dread”?

7. How does Soaphead Church address God in his letter?

8. What does Soaphead Church mean when he writes that Velma left him “the way people leave a motel room”?

9. To what does Soaphead Church compare the breasts of little girls?

10. What parts of sex does Soaphead Church avoid by molesting little girls, as written in his letter?

Answers
1. A misanthrope is a person who has a general hatred for other people.

2. He is called “Soaphead” because he uses soap bubbles as a hair pomade. No one is sure why “Church” became his last name, but it is suggested that a town resident had heard about his brief study in the ministry.

3. That one thing was touching and being touched by another man.

4. For the first time, Soaphead Church wishes that he could perform miracles.

5. Evil exists because it was created by God.

6. The people that come to Soaphead Church’s office look for the power of God but do not understand that God’s power comes from love. His clients want a supernatural force to help and protect their own interests. So they “came to him in dread, whispered in dread, wept and pleaded in dread” because they ultimately knew that what they wished for was horrible.

7. He writes his letter “TO HE WHO GREATLY ENNOBLED HUMAN NATURE BY CREATING IT.”

8. When Velma left him, it was without regret or memory. A hotel room merely serves a temporary purpose, and once that purpose is fulfilled, the room is abandoned without a second thought. This is what he felt like when Velma left, as if he would no longer be remembered.

9. Soaphead Church compares the breasts of little girls to “not quite unripe strawberries.”

10. Soaphead Church claims that when he has sex with little girls, it is done without the “nastiness,” “filth,” “odor,” and “groaning” that accompanies sex between two adults.