Question and answers -

The Bluest Eye' written by Toni Morrison is one of a kind in terms of

showing racism, differences in terms of money, beauty, and
ugliness through the life of the characters of the story

1. Why does the Breedlove family live in a storefront?

→ the Breedlove family live in the storefront because they were
poor and black and because they believed they were ugly

2. What can you say about Cholly’s ugliness?

→ Cholly’s ugliness was the result of despair, dissipation and
violence which was directed towards pretty things and weak people

3. What is the source of their ugliness?

→ themselves. ​They are ugly because they believe they are ugly

4. ‘They gave substance to the minutes’- Explain

→ Pauline looks forward to them. She sees herself as being
stronger than she is in her day-to-day life, and her ability to display
this power to her family during these arguments adds a sense of
excitement to her otherwise dreary life. it is only through her
relationship that she finds some self-worth in her life.

5. Do you think Cholly’s past is responsible for his behaviour?

→ yes. Because he has always been alone since he was a baby
and I think that kind of had a dangerous effect since there was no
one to guide him through and I think it made him think that he could
commit crimes and not have to face any consequences

6. What literary devices does Morrison use in The Bluest Eye?

→ The literary devices Morrison uses in The Bluest Eye include
symbolism, motif, allusion, and imagery. Claudia’s destruction of the
baby dolls and Pecola’s preoccupation with blue eyes symbolize the
omnipresence of white supremacy in their society, as well as in real
life.

7. What does Pecola represent in The Bluest Eye?

→ Pecola is also a symbol of the black community’s self-hatred and
belief in its ugliness. Others in the community, including her mother,
father, and Geraldine, act out their self-hatred by expressing hatred
toward her.

8. What happened to Pecola in The Bluest Eye?

→ She is raped by her drunken father and self-deceived into
believing that God has miraculously given her the blue eyes that
she prayed for. She loses her baby, and shortly afterwards she
loses her sanity

9. Who is Dewey in The Bluest Eye?

→ Dewey Prince: Marie’s ex-boyfriend. She ran away with him
when she was younger and she tells Pecola all about him. From
this, Pecola wonders about love and what it must feel like. Maureen
Peal: New girl in school, she is a light-skinned black girl with long
brown hair in two braids and dark green eyes

10. What is the main conflict in The Bluest Eye?

→ major conflict Pecola needs to receive love from somebody, but
her parents and the other members of her community are unable to
love her because they have been damaged and thwarted in their
own lives

11. Did Pecola get blue eyes?

→ When Pecola is finally granted her wish for blue eyes, she
receives it in a perverse and darkly ironic form. She can obtain blue
eyes only by losing her mind. Rather than granting Pecola insight
into the world around her and providing a redeeming connection
with other people, these eyes are a form of blindness
12. Who is the father of Pecola’s baby?
→ Through fragments of gossip, Claudia and Frieda learn that
Pecola is pregnant and that the baby’s father is Pecola’s father.
According to gossip, only a miracle can save the baby.

13. How does the Bluest Eye End?

→ Meanwhile, Pecola converses with an unidentified
person—presumably, herself—about her new blue eyes, which she
still thinks “aren’t blue enough.” In the final moments of the novel,
the adult Claudia tells the reader that Pecola gave birth prematurely
and the baby did not survive

14. What is the theme in The Bluest Eye?

→ At its core, The Bluest Eye is a story about the oppression of
women. The novel’s women not only suffer the horrors of racial
oppression but also the tyranny and violation brought upon them by
the men in their lives. The novel depicts several phases of a
woman’s development into womanhood.

15. What does Mr Henry do in The Bluest Eye?

→ Mr Henry is a boarder who rents a room in the MacTeer family
household. He has a reputation for being soft-spoken and
hard-working, although he has a secret, promiscuous side and a
desire for young girls. He easily befriends Claudia and Frieda and
earns their trust

16. Why is Mrs MacTeer upset with Pecola?

→ MacTeer is angry because Pecola has drunk three quarts of milk.
The girls are avoiding Mrs That night in bed, Pecola asks Frieda
how babies are made. Frieda says you have to get someone to love
you.
17. What period is The Bluest Eye set in?
→ The events of The Bluest Eye take place primarily from the
Autumn of 1940 to the same time in 1941, but to explain the full
stories behind those events, the narrative frequently moves back in
time. Claudia MacTeer is the younger of two sisters in the MacTeer
family

18. What mental illness does Pecola have?

→ Pecola’s schizophrenia has created an imaginary friend for her
because she has no real friends — Claudia and Frieda now avoid
her. Not even her mother is a friend. Pauline Breedlove didn’t
believe that Pecola was an innocent victim of Cholly’s drunken rape

19. Why did pecola’s mother beat her?

→ Pecola’s mother beat her when she found out what happened,
and Cholly runs away. Some community members believe Pecola is
to blame for the horrible situation. Some believe she should be
pulled out of school. Others hope the baby dies

20. Why do Cholly and Mrs Breedlove hate each other?

→ Breedlove comes in and attempts to wake Cholly to bring her
some coal for the stove. Instead of hating the white men, Cholly
hated the girl. Because of this and other humiliations, Cholly is a
violent and cruel man. The fights between him and Mrs

21. What does Pecola pray for each night?

→ Unable to endure the brutality toward herself, every night Pecola
prays for blue eyes because she thinks that there will not be any
other way out to overcome her problem except being beautiful by
having blue eyes. She never stops thinking about it until finally, she
is obsessed
22. What is the story The Bluest Eye about?
→ SUMMARY OF THE NOVEL The Bluest Eye is the story of a
young African American girl and her family who are affected in
every direction by the dominant American culture. It tells the story of
an African American girl named Pecola, an eleven-year-old who is
described as poor, black, and ugly

23. Who is the most sympathetic character in The Bluest Eye?

→ Claudia is yet another candidate for the most sympathetic
character, simply because we experience so much of the story from
her point of view and she is the one who helps us makes sense of it
all

Character analysis -

1. Pecola Breedlove -
Pecola is twelve years old. Her family lives in a converted
storefront. She is considered ugly and is emotionally and socially
awkward. She prays for blue eyes because she knows from images
in movies and on candy wrappers that to have blue eyes is to be
loved. She is raped by her father, Cholly, in the spring, and becomes
pregnant. Her baby comes too early and dies. Terrified of her
parents, she is not free (due to gender and age) to run away from
home as Sammy does. Either during the pregnancy or after the
miscarriage, Pecola goes mad, manufacturing an imaginary friend
who becomes her only conversation partner

2. Claudia and frieda McTeer -

Claudia is the first-person narrator of the first section in each of the

four units. Claudia is nine years old, extremely bright, and comes
from a loving family that owns their own house. She is
warm-hearted and sensitive, but she is also angered by injustice
and instinctively feels threatened by the standards of beauty that
glorify Shirley Temple while ignoring black children. As a narrator,
she fluctuates between an adult voice and a child's without
problems. Frieda is Claudia's sister, age eleven. Frieda makes
important decisions at several places in the novel, and she is the
clear leader of the MacTeer sisters. Like her sister, she is sensitive
and concerned about Pecola and is willing to stand up for herself
and others. She is the more fearless of the two girls

3. Pauline Breedlove -
Pauline is the mother of Sammy and Pecola, and Cholly's wife. She
has a lame foot and a missing front tooth. She is harsh and abusive
to her children. She lavishes her love on the Fishers, her generous
white employers, while her own family falls apart. She and Cholly
battle constantly. Although once she longed to have nicer things
and romantic love, she settles into surviving through her work and
being a martyr by staying with Cholly. She is religious in a vindictive
and vengeful way, hoping that the Lord will help her in her war
against Cholly

4. Cholly Breedlove -
Pauline is the mother of Sammy and Pecola, and Cholly's. She has a
lame foot and a missing front tooth. She is harsh and abusive to her
children. She lavishes her love on the Fishers, her generous white
employers, while her own family falls apart. She and Cholly battle
constantly. Although once she longed to have nicer things and
romantic love, she settles into surviving through her work and being
a martyr by staying with Cholly. She is religious in a vindictive and
vengeful way, hoping that the Lord will help her in her war against
Cholly
 5. Mrs MacTeer -
Mrs MacTeer is the mother of Frieda and Claudia. She is not an
indulgent mother, but she is fiercely protective and loving. Her word
is the law with the two girls, at several points, the girls attempt to
decide what to do based on literal interpretations of things Mrs
MacTeer has said

6. Mr McAteer -
He is Frieda and Claudia's father. Like his wife, he is a harsh but
loving parent

7. Sammy Breedlove -
Sammy is an unhappy young teenage boy, constantly in trouble,
constantly running away from home for months at a time. Unlike
Pecola, he has freedom, as a male, to escape the Breedloves'
miserable home life

8. Bertha Reese -
Bertha is an old, religious woman from whom Soaphead Church
rents his room. She is the owner of Bob, the dog that Soaphead
Church loathes

9. Maureen Peal -
Maureen is the new girl at school. She is mulatto and very well-off.
Walking home with the MacTeer sisters and Pecola one day, she
starts out being civil but very quickly becomes haughty. She is the
darling of teachers, and Claudia sees in her all of the social forces
that she fears and despises. Claudia insists that the societal forces
are more to be feared and hated than Maureen herself
 10. Mr Yacobowski -
Mr Yacobowski is a store owner who sells Pecola nine pieces of
Mary Jane candy. Pecola can read in his eyes the impatience and
disdain that he feels for her, and she internalizes all of it

Notes -

1. Claudia and Pecola were friends but they were much different
in terms of a lot of things. In terms of behaviour, Claudia was a
free soul and a rebel. She hated how Shirley Temple was
made to be a beauty icon but in terms of being able to relate,
she never could, so she was vocal about it. But Pecola was
much more calm and quiet and she suffered more for it. The
circumstances of the girls can be seen from the viewpoint of
Claudia from when she was a child and in terms of adults too.
Toni Morrison gave much more analysis of the difference
between social standards and racial standards throughout the
novel. Read up on these quotes below to understand more

2. Quotes (summer) -
a) A little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white
girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is
exceeded only by the evil of fulfilment
b) There is no gift for the beloved. The lover alone
possesses his gift of love. The loved one is shorn,
neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover's inward eye
c) We stare at her, wanting her bread, but more than that
wanting to poke the arrogance out of her eyes and
smash the pride of ownership that curls her chewing
mouth
d) More strongly than my fondness for Pecola, I felt a need
for someone to want the black baby to live - just to
 counteract the universal love of white baby dolls, Shirley
Temples, and Maureen Peals
e) We honed our egos on her, padded our characters with
her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength
f) We rearranged lies and called it truth, seeing in the new
pattern of an old idea the Revelation and the Word
g) If there is somebody with bluer eyes than mine, then
maybe there is somebody with the bluest eyes. The
bluest eyes in the whole world. That's just too bad, isn't
it?
h) Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people
love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people
love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a
free man is never safe
i) We courted death to call ourselves brave and hid like
thieves from life

(autumn) -
a) We stare at her, wanting her bread, but more than that
wanting to poke the arrogance out of her eyes and smash the
pride of ownership that curls her chewing mouth.
b) Each member of the family in his cell of consciousness, each
making his patchwork quilt of reality…From the tiny
impressions gleaned from one another, they created a sense
of belonging and tried to make do with the way they found
each other
c) Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window
signs—all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed,
yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child
treasured
d) The Breedloves lived there, nestled together in the storefront.
Festering together in the debris of a realtor's whim. They
slipped in and out of the box of peeling grey, making no stir in
the neighbourhood, no sound in the labour force, and no wave
in the mayor's office
 e) We loved him. Even after what came later, there was no
bitterness in our memory of him
(spring) -
a) She left me the way people leave a hotel room. A hotel room
is a place to be when you are doing something else. In itself, it
is of no consequence to one's major scheme
b) Pauline and Cholly loved each other. He seemed to relish her
company and even to enjoy her country ways and lack of
knowledge about city things

3. Themes -
a) Beauty and ugliness -

- The black characters of The Bluest Eye have been

taught to believe that whiteness is the paragon of beauty.
The characters are constantly subjected to images of
whiteness offered through movies, books, candy,
magazines, toys, and advertisements. Early in the novel,
Pecola and Frieda gush over Shirley Temple's beauty,
and later, Mrs Breedlove spends her days at the movies
admiring the white actresses, wishing she could access
their world
- The association between beauty and whiteness pushes
the idea of beauty beyond the body's exterior, making it a
signifier of one's value and worth. Many characters in the
novel believe that their beauty (or ugliness) defines their
value (or lack of value) in society, community, and family
- Characters establish their sense of self-worth based on
these ideas of beauty. In turn, beauty and ugliness
become internalized conditions, which have devastating
effects on the lives of the novel's characters. The
narrator suggests that The Breedloves are fixed in
poverty because they believe they are ugly, and Pecola
believes she deserves the abuse and neglect she
 experiences at home based on her self-perceived
ugliness
- Contrary to the incapacitating effect of internalized
ugliness, beauty endows certain characters with power.
The presence of Maureen Peal's beauty, for example,
has the power to stop the violence Pecola experiences
at the hands of the boys at school. The power that
comes along with beauty leads Pecola to believe that
possessing blue eyes, the quintessential signifier of
whiteness and beauty, would allow her to transcend the
misery of her situation. As her life becomes more and
more brutal, her obsession with blue eyes leads her to
madness and in the isolation of that madness, she
comes to believe that she does have blue eyes. In the
end, the novel suggests that beauty and ugliness in and
of themselves are not destructive or dangerous. Instead,
it is the internalization of the idea of what makes beauty
that holds immense destructive power

b) Women and femininity -

- At its core, The Bluest Eye is a story about the

oppression of women. The novel's women not only suffer
the horrors of racial oppression but also the tyranny and
violation brought upon them by the men in their lives.
The novel depicts several phases of a woman's
development into womanhood. Pecola, Frieda, and
Claudia, the novel's youngest female characters,
possess a limited and idealistic view of what it means to
be a woman, to have sex, and to be loved by a man
- Mrs Breedlove's and Geraldine's narratives depict this
innocent view being shattered as they enter into the
harsh realities of marriage and the oppression they
experience in their homes
 - Although the women of The Bluest Eye experience
oppression from men in their lives, they are not
completely powerless. They exercise authority over their
children through physical force and verbal assault, and
likewise, over other women through gossip and slander.
In the same way, women are oppressed by men, women
turn toward those who are vulnerable and weak,
directing their forms of oppression outward
- The prostitutes China, Poland, and Miss Marie offer the
only exception to the rule of male oppression over
women. They gain power over men by exploiting their
femininity and sexuality. Exploiting themselves in this
way, however, comes at the price of their self-respect
and the respect of the women around them. In many
ways, the prostitutes, through their drinking, aggression,
and masculine mannerisms, resemble the men they
have come to hate

c) Racism -

- Race and racism are complicated issues in The Bluest

Eye. Unlike typical portrayals of racism, involving white
hatred against blacks, The Bluest Eye primarily explores
the issue of racism occurring between people of colour.
There are few white characters in Morrison's novel, and
no major white characters, yet racism remains at the
centre of the text. Because the novel involves mostly
black characters, "whiteness" exists on a spectrum. The
race is not only defined by the colour of one's skin, the
shape of one's features, or the texture of one's hair, but
also by one's place of origin, socioeconomic class, and
educational background. "Whiteness" is associated with
virtue, cleanliness, and value, while being black is
associated with immorality, dirtiness, and worthlessness
- These ideas of race, having to do with cleanliness,
virtue, and value, become internalized to varying
degrees by different characters. Internalizing these ideas
of race ultimately leads to racial self-hatred among the
characters of The Bluest Eye, which creates various
forms of dysfunction in the characters' lives. Mrs
Macteer, for example, is unusually harsh with Claudia
when she gets sick because sickness signifies
uncleanliness, which is related to being black. Likewise,
Soaphead Church, who can't stand the dirtiness he
associates with black women, directs his sexual desires
toward children
- The novel's characters use the other black individuals as
reference points against which they judge their own
"whiteness" and sense of self-worth. Distinctions are
drawn based on the shade of one's skin, the hue of one's
eyes, and the texture of one's hair, but when these
markers fall short in defining one's race, characters opt
for socioeconomic, educational, religious, regional, and
hereditary differences to define their "whiteness"
- Geraldine attempts to separate herself and her family
from appearing black by straightening her hair, using
lotion on Junior's skin to keep it from becoming ashen,
and keeping her home immaculately clean. Likewise,
Soaphead Church uses his white heritage, place of
origin, and educational background to define his
"whiteness"
- Characters lacking any marker of "Whiteness" suffer the
most. The theme of race and the destructive force of
racial self-hatred reach a climax during Pecola's rape.
This moment offers the literal and metaphorical pinnacle
of racial self-hatred. After the rape, Pecola must bear the
metaphorical internalization of Cholly's racial self-hatred
through the trauma she carries forward, and literally, as
she carries her father's baby
d) Home and family -

- Home in The Bluest Eye represents more than the

physical structure where a family lives. In Morrison's
novel, home is an idea that defines the characters' sense
of self and self-worth, and likewise, informs the way they
are perceived by those around them. The homes
depicted in The Bluest Eye are set against an ideal
image of home and family, presented in the novel's
opening section written in the style of a Dick and Jane
primer. This ideal serves to contrast the non-traditional
homes and family compositions in which the novel's
black families live
- Because the idea of home is fundamental in the way
black families are perceived, owning and caring for a
house becomes the primary focus of most black families.
Already disadvantaged because of the colour of their
skin, home becomes a means through which black
families may establish and sustain a sense of value.
Several homes are depicted in the novel, offering the
degrees to which the idea of a home defines an
individual's or family's sense of worth
- The Breedloves live in an abandoned storefront and
have the lowest sense of self-worth. On the contrary, The
Masters live in an old house, but it is theirs and Mrs
Macteer takes great pride in it, and Geraldine lives in a
 beautiful house, which allows her to feel superior to other
black families
- Claudia draws a sharp distinction between being without
a home and being "outdoors". Most black families in the
novel don't own homes, but still possess a sense of
home and family. Being "outdoors", to the contrary,
signifies the end of home and family, a place from which
there is no return. Cholly's rape of Pecola represents the
complete absence of home and family
- In raping his daughter, Cholly commits the ultimate
violation of home and family. On the contrary, possessing
a sense of home and family can serve as a redemptive
force in one's life. Because of their home and family,
Claudia and Frieda are capable of having a different
perspective than characters lacking home and family. In
the end, Claudia's untarnished perspective allows
Morrison's narrative to unfold for the reader

e) Sex and sexuality -

- In The Bluest Eye, sex is associated with violence,

humiliation, and immorality. Instead of sex being an
enjoyable act between two people, sex, like race and
beauty standards, works as a form of oppression. For
both men and women, sexual initiation has devastating
effects on an individual's life and sense of self. The
scenes of sexual initiation are particularly violent and
humiliating, leaving a lasting effect on the novel's
characters
- Cholly's first sexual experience is paired with humiliation
and hatred, as the white men force him to rape Darlene.
Frieda's first sexual experience is forced upon her by Mr
Henry and causes her to believe she has been ruined.
And Pecola's sexual initiation happens through rape
- Men in the story use sex as a means to oppress the
women in their lives. Their sexual desires are distorted
by their past sexual failures and their ideas concerning
the value of women. Cholly's first sexual experience
leads to his hatred of women, hatred of his race, and his
feeling of being unlovable. The combination of these
things leads to the rape of his daughter. Soaphead
Church's failed marriage and hatred of women leads to
the direction of his repressed sexual desire toward
children
- For the younger characters in The Bluest Eye, sex
becomes the defining element of their passage into
womanhood. The adolescent girls in the story, however,
lack a true understanding of the perilous nature of sex.
They hold idealistic views of what sex means,
associating sex with love and a sense of self-worth as a
woman
- As an adolescent, Mrs Breedlove fantasizes about a
man coming into her life and offering redemption from
the rejection she receives from her family. Geraldine
represents another kind of experience. Her sense of
worth as a woman still comes through her relationship
with her husband. The husbands of women like
Geraldine marry them because they cook, clean, and
take care of the house. Although sex for her is not
overtly violent, she is unable to enjoy sex because she
views it as a burden she must bear for her husband
- There are examples of women who escape the violence
and oppression of sex. This evasion of sexual
oppression, however, comes only through passing the
point of being sexually desirable, or through exploiting
one's sexuality as a means to gain power over men.
M'Dear and other elderly women in the community
experience freedom because they are no longer desired
as sexual objects. These women, however, are bitter,
 tired, and accept the presence of pain. The Prostitutes
exploit their sexuality to gain power over men, but this
method of gaining power leads to self-hatred and hatred
of the opposite sex. Sex stands as the primary form of
oppression in the novel. Even those who escape overt
sexual violence bear the consequences of oppression
through sex. The climax of the story offers the primary
example of this form of oppression. Pecola's rape leads
to her ultimate demise. Through this experience, Pecola
embodies the devastating effect of

4. Racism examples in the bluest eyes -

a) “The distaste must be for her, her blackness. All things in here
are flux and anticipation. But her blackness is static and
dread. And it is the blackness that accounts for, that creates,
the vacuum edged with distaste in white eyes”
When Pecola goes to the store to buy penny candy, the owner of
the store sees her, but Pecola notes that he does not seem to view
her as human. Given that he knows nothing about her, she can only
assume that her race causes his prejudice. Throughout the story,
blackness equates with ugliness, while whiteness equates with
purity. By knowing only her race, the store owner has made up his
mind about what kind of person Pecola is

b) “She had explained to him the difference between coloured

people and African Americans They were easily identifiable.
Coloured people were neat and quiet; African Americans were
dirty and loud”
Geraldine tells her son, Junior, those white children will not want to
play with him if he acts like what she considers a lower-class black
child. Even though Geraldine and her family are black, because
they dress better and have more money than other black people,
they consider themselves better and almost of a different race
entirely. Even among the black community, racism runs rampant.
However, in this case, the prejudice stems from behaviour rather
than skin colour

c) “Sullen, irritable, he cultivated his hatred of Darlene. Never did

he once consider directing his hatred toward the hunters.
Such an emotion would have destroyed him. They were big,
white, armed men. He was small, black, helpless”
After Cholly and Darlene are seen having sex and humiliated for the
act by two white men, Cholly develops a hatred for Darlene and all
women in general. Logically considering things, Cholly should hate
white people for shaming him. However, Cholly understands that he
can never dominate white men or humiliate them as they did to him
because, in their society, his race makes him weaker and lower in
class. Therefore, he transfers his rage to black women. Now, he
can hate and beat black women and feel like he’s doing something
with his emotions, and such action makes him feel more powerful

5. Beauty standards example in the bluest eyes -

a) “Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window

signs—all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed,
yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child
treasured”
Here, Claudia describes what everyone seems to believe to be the
standard of beauty: a white girl with blue eyes and yellow hair. This
standard is perpetuated not just by advertisements but even by
members of Claudia’s own family and the local community. Frieda
and Pecola both love playing with dolls that fit this description, and
they both admire Shirley Temple. Accepting those qualities as the
only traits that make someone beautiful is so ingrained in their
society that they do not question whether anyone else can be
beautiful
 b) “But their ugliness was unique. No one could have convinced
them that they were not relentlessly and aggressively ugly”
The narrator describes the appearance of the Breedlove family.
Although they are not objectively ugly, their deep-seated belief that
they are ugly has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In their world,
whiteness is associated with beauty; thus, they believe that being
black, they will never be seen as beautiful. Such a powerful belief in
turn seems to alter their appearance. The Breedloves’ conviction
that they are ugly demonstrates how appearances run deeper than
skin. As they have internalized their ugliness, they can never be
happy

c) “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes,
those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if
those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she
would be different”
As Pecola reflects on how relentlessly the other children at school
tease her about her appearance, she thinks that if she could have
blue eyes she would be an entirely different person and would be
beautiful. Perhaps if she were beautiful her pain would go away.
Rather than focusing on changing the colour of her skin or her hair,
she only wishes to change the colour of her eyes. As she says at a
different point in the novel, her eyes function as her windows to the
world, and if they were more beautiful, perhaps the world would
react more kindly to her

d) “A little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl,
and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by
the evil of fulfilment”
After Pecola goes mad and thinks that her eyes have turned blue,
Claudia reflects on how her transformation happened. Claudia, who
appears to be the only character in the novel who does not value
whiteness and other widely accepted standards of beauty, sees the
danger in wishing to change one’s appearance. As Pecola now
believes she has blue eyes, she talks with an imaginary friend
about her blue eyes incessantly. Once a sweet, quiet girl, Pecola
becomes vain and shallow once she believes she has become
beautiful

6. Class examples in the bluest eyes -

a) “Knowing that there was such a thing as outdoors bred in us a

hunger for property, for ownership. The firm possession of a
yard, a porch, a grape arbour, Propertied black people spent
all their energies, all their love, on their nests”
When Claudia’s family takes in Pecola, Claudia explains that being
put “outdoors” meant you were homeless and had nowhere to go. In
the black community in this novel, there exists an important
distinction between people who rent and people who own houses.
Those who own houses feel safer and more secure because they
do not face the possibility of being suddenly homeless. Even though
all black people are seen as lower class, homeownership can help
those who can afford to own a house to raise their status in society

b) “The Breedloves did not live in a storefront because they were

having temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the
plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and
they stayed there because they believed they were ugly”
After describing the storefront that the Breedloves use as their
home, the narrator clarifies that this living space doesn’t represent a
temporary or unusual housing situation. The Breedloves are poor
and do not even seem to aspire to be homeowners. Their situation
demonstrates how race and appearance can affect a person’s
class. The Breedloves cannot change the fact that they are poor
and black, but their perceived ugliness makes them feel that they
cannot change their status in society. Despite their misery and
suffering, they simply accept how they live and never take action to
change their situation
 c) “The familiar violence rose in me. Her calling Mrs Breedlove
Polly, when even Pecola called her mother Mrs Breedlove,
seemed reason enough to scratch her”
When Claudia and Frieda go to find Pecola at the house where her
mother works, the little girl that Mrs Breedlove takes care of calls for
her, and Claudia feels astounded and quite angry, that the girl calls
Mrs Breedlove by her first name. As this little girl is white and a
member of a wealthy family, she does not feel the need to address
Mrs Breedlove with the same respect expected of black people, and
society seems to agree with her. Mrs Breedlove could have asked
the girl not to use her first name, but she knows she comes from a
lower class and has no say in what the family calls her
7. Femininity examples in the bluest eyes -

a) “He fought her the way a coward fights a man—with feet, the
palms of his hands, and teeth. She, in turn, fought back in a
purely feminine way—with frying pans and pokers, and
occasionally a flatiron would sail toward his head”
The narrator describes the routine fights between Mr and Mrs
Breedlove, explaining that even as they hurt each other, they
embody traditional gender roles. Although beating one’s husband
doesn’t seem like a typically feminine thing to do, Mrs Breedlove
uses kitchen and cleaning products to take such action. Her
weapons of choice show how women of the time internalized the
roles they were supposed to perform in the household, using the
tools of a housewife even when amid a fight

b) “In none of her fantasies was she ever aggressive; she was
usually idling by the river bank, or gathering berries in a field
when a someone appeared, with gentle and penetrating eyes,
who—with no exchange of words—understood; and before
whose glance her foot straightened and her eyes dropped”
Here, the narrator describes Pauline’s life before meeting Cholly. As
she grew up, she started to fantasize about meeting a man and
falling in love. In what would be considered a historically feminine
fashion, she never imagined pursuing a man herself. Rather, she
would wait for him to find her. Even though her life and appearance
were far from those of characters in romantic movies, she still
longed to be swept off her feet and saved by some Prince
Charming

c) “Everybody in the world was in a position to give them orders.

White women said, “Do this.” White children said, “Give me
that.” White men said, “Come here.” Black men said, “Lay
down.” The only people they need not take orders from were
black children and each other.”
While Cholly’s Aunt Jimmy is sick, the black women around her
reflect on how they have had to take orders from nearly everyone in
their lives. Even white children had the power to order them around
simply based on their race. While being maternal is seen as a
positive feminine quality, the fact that black children were the only
group of people who had no power over them makes these women
want to exert control over these black children, which readers see
them do throughout the novel

8. Innocence examples in the bluest eyes -

a) “We were full of awe and respect for Pecola. Lying next to a
real person who was ministration was somehow sacred. She
was different from us now—grown-up-like”
After Pecola begins menstruating, Frieda and Claudia no longer see
her as a peer but as a woman. While they see this event as
awe-inducing, they have no idea that this event indicates a loss of
Pecola’s innocence. If she had not begun menstruating when her
father raped her, she could not have gotten pregnant and later
would not have watched her baby die. While being raped would be
traumatizing in any circumstance, Pecola had to experience even
more evils of the world

b) “Each pale yellow wrapper has a picture on it. A picture of little

Mary Jane, for whom the candy is named. Smiling white face.
Blond hair in gentle disarray, blue eyes looking at her out of a
 world of clean comfort. The eyes are petulant, mischievous. To
Pecola they are simply pretty. She eats the candy, and its
sweetness is good”
As Pecola heads to the store to buy candy, she begins to feel anger
at the ugliness in the world and distracts herself by picturing the
candy she will buy. Even though Pecola’s circumstances have
taken most of her innocence by showing her the racism and poverty
in the world, Pecola can still calm herself by thinking of childlike

9. Motifs and symbol quiz -

a) Who or what represents the fetishization of whiteness as the

standard of beauty in The Bluest Eyes?
→ Shirley temple, jean Harlow and Claudia's baby doll

b) In what season does Pecola lose her baby, underlining the

way her experiences run contrary to "natural" order?
→ fall

c) What do blue eyes symbolize to Pecola?

→ Beauty

d) For most characters in The Bluest Eye, sexual coming-of-age

is synonymous with
→ peril

e) For Claudia and Frieda, who or what becomes a symbol for

the survival of Pecola's baby?
→ marigolds

f) The first time we meet Rosemary Villanucci, what is she

doing?
→ taunting the macteer sisters

g) What kind of car does Rosemary Villanucci's family have?

→ a Buick

h) Before coming to board with the MacTeers, where did Henry

Washington live?
→ at Della jones house

i) According to Claudia's mother, Della Jones' husband left her

because
→ she smelled too clean

j) Who is depicted on the cup Pecola likes to drink out of when

she comes to live with the MacTeers?
→ Shirley temple

k) After Cholly is released from jail for burning the house down,
the Breedloves move into an apartment that was formerly
→ a storefront

l) After the Breedloves moved out, what business was run out of
their apartment?
→ a pizza parlour

m)What kind of group moved into the Breedloves' apartment

after they left?
→ a gipsy family

n) What is in the front room of the Breedloves' apartment?

→ a fake christmas tree

o) What piece of furniture in the Breedloves' apartment fills its

owners with rage?
→ The couch

p) On the Saturday morning when Pecola's family has a violent

fight, what has Mrs Breedlove asked Cholly to do?
→ fetch some coal

q) While Pecola's family is fighting violently in the next room,

Pecola imagines all her body parts disappearing except for
→ her eyes

r) What kind of flower does Pecola observe when she walks to

Mr Yacobowski's grocery store to buy candy?
→ dandelions
s) What kind of candy does Pecola buy at Mr Yacobowski's
grocery store?
→ mary janes

t) Who tells Pecola a story about turning one of her boyfriends

over to the FBI?
→ miss Marie