A particular family strives to achieve an ideal lifestyle, with Pecola's story largely narrated by Claudia MacTeer, a member of this family. The MacTeers aim for the quintessential Dick and Jane lifestyle but are inevitably set to fall short. As a child, Claudia harbored a rebellious dislike for Shirley Temple, who "danced with Bojangles, who was my friend, my uncle, my daddy, and who ought to have been soft-shoeing and chuckling with me." Unconsciously during her childhood (and perhaps more consciously as an adult), Claudia resented how Afro-American family figures were reduced to symbols of submissiveness and racist stereotypes. She also felt bitterness towards European-American culture, directing her anger towards white dolls in acts of violence. As an adult, Claudia realizes that this destruction was a way to express her displaced rage against the economic and attitudinal oppression imposed by white America. Despite this understanding, her family continues to pursue their own version of the American dream, and Claudia does not dare to express her resentment towards white people to her family.