The+Bluest+Eye

Lorain, Ohio in the 1940s. Note that although [|Toni Morrison]did grow up in Lorain, this is a fictionalized version of the town. A lot of the novel takes place at the McTeer family home. Also, it is significant that the Breedlove family, a dysfunctional family, does not live in a traditional home, but rather an old storefront.
 * Toni Morrison's //The Bluest Eye// **
 * Setting**

//Pecola Breedlove//: The protagonist. She is the victim of a society that does not view her as valuable and a family that abuses her. Pecola wants to be white; she wants blue eyes. She comes to live with the McTeer family (who are also African American) when her own family is evicted from their home. Pecola worships [|Shirley Temple] and is forever drinking milk out of a cup with Shirley Temple's picture on it. By the end of the novel, Pecola, who is raped and impregnated by her father, has become obsessed with blue eyes. She visits the town fraud, Soaphead Church, who "gives" her blue eyes. As she descends into madness at the end of the novel, she really does believe that her eyes are blue and more beautiful than any others.
 * Characters**

//Cholly Breedlove:// Pecola's father. Was abandoned by his mother and raised by his Aunt Jimmy who died when he was young. [|Emasculated] by the white hunters who encounter him during his first sexual experience. Spurned by his father who would rather gamble than have a relationship with his son. When Cholly rapes his daughter, he is actually envisioning his wife, Pauline. By the end of the novel, Cholly is dead.

//Pauline Breedlove:// Pecola's mother. She is like Pecola in that she is obsessed with a standard of beauty she cannot obtain. She really admires [|Jean Harlow]. She has a deformed foot which causes her insecurity. She struggles with loneliness and cannot find comfort in her husband. (Note that at first, Cholly and Pauline did seem to have a real love for each other and a good--but poor--life.) Instead of loving her daughter, Pauline decides to devote everything to working for and admiring a white family, the Fishers.

//Claudia McTeer:// The narrator of the story (most of it). She's nine years old and acts as a [|foil] to Pecola. Claudia hates Shirley Temple and doesn't understand why blacks worship white stars so much. Claudia and her sister are friends with Pecola when she lives with them, but after Pecola is impregnated by her father, they begin to shun Pecola like the rest of the community. She does understand in retrospect, however, that Pecola was a victim and that she should have done more.

//Frieda McTeer:// Claudia's older sister, a minor character.

//Maureen Peel:// A light-skinned, wealthy African American girl who goes to school with Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola.

//Soaphead Church:// A pedophile, [|misanthrope], and self-titled miracle worker. He has a predilection for young girls, but when Pecola comes to see him asking for blue eyes, he finds her so pitiful that he doesn't go after her. Instead he has her unwittingly poison his neighbor's dog.

//China, Miss Marie, Poland:// The prostitutes who live above the Breedloves. They are among the few characters in the novel who are kind to Pecola. They hate men and hate disrespectful women, but they seem to be insightful at times. Miss Marie also goes by the name The [|Maginot Line], a reference to her unyielding nature.

Most of the book is narrated in first person point of view by Claudia. She narrates as both a nine year old and as an adult. This is interesting because Morrison is able to capitalize on the use of [|dramatic irony], but also the narrator is able to reflect wisdom as she looks back on the events of her childhood. A third-person omniscient narrator also exists, narrating the scenes of the Breedlove's history. The last portion of the novel is a third/first narration of Pecola's madness. Presented in [|stream of consciousness], the last chapters seem to be Pecola talking back and forth to different parts of herself.
 * Point of View**

Beauty This theme actually relates to the [|Black is Beautiful]movement in the U.S. in the 1960s. A large amount of the book deals with characters' motivations. In many cases--including everyone in the Breedlove family--a lack of self-worth seems to be at the root of their destruction and demise. The [|antithesis] is shown with the character of Claudia. Her family is grounded, loving (but tough) and successful.
 * Possible Meanings of the Work (Themes)**

Coming of Age The book can be labeled a [|Bildungsroman] because of the lessons learned by Claudia McTeer. Note that is not a coming of age story because of the development of Pecola. Pecola is mad by the end of the novel. The issues that Claudia reports on include racism, self-respect, emerging sexuality, and self-image. Key events that mark this as a coming of age novel include when Pecola begins menstruation, Mr. Henry tries to molest Frieda, and ultimately the rape scene.

1. introduction: "Quiet as it's kept, there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941." Morrison comments in the afterword to her novel that this is a figure of speech carefully chosen to begin the novel. It has a connotation of "back fence gossip," a certain illicit, secretive feel. She says that this also creates an immediate intimacy between the reader and the page.
 * 5 Important Quotations**

2. introduction: "There is really nothing more to say--except why. But since why is too difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how." By noting this for the reader up front, Morrison is indicating that there will be some heavy, disturbing issues and scenes presented in the text (not the least of which is the rape of Pecola by her father). Morrison, in fact, does try to present the how of that situation (i.e., how could this occur, what could lead to this?), but not the why.

3. page 50: "Dandelions. A dart of affection leaps out from her to them. But they do not look at her and do not send love back. She thinks, 'They are ugly. They are weeds.'" This sentence (Pecola's thoughts) represents how Pecola feels about herself. On first instinct she thinks she is something worthy, likable (as she thinks of the first sight of dandelions), but even the weeds will not return affection to Pecola. She hates the unworthy dandelions just as she hates herself.

4. page 74: "If she was cute--and if anything could be believed, she was--then we were not. And what did that mean? We were lesser. Nicer, brighter, but still lesser. Dolls we could destroy, but we could not destroy the honey voices of parents and aunts, the obedience in the eyes of our peers, the slippery light in the eyes of our teachers when they encountered the Maureen Peals of the world." Here Claudia is commenting on the attention Maureen Peal receives. She understands that the adult world values Maureen's light skin more than it values the kindness and intelligence of Claudia and Frieda. A coming of age point.

5. page 174: "Of all the wishes people had brought him--money, love, revenge--this seemed to him the most poignant and the most deserving of fulfillment. A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes." Here, we see that even Soaphead Church, a despicable fraud musters sympathy/empathy for Pecola. Maybe they are really two of a kind.

The novel is divided into four parts that correspond to the four seasons. They are presented in the following order: Autumn, Winter, Summer, Spring. Also, the chapters have "titles" that mimic from iconic [|Dick and Jane] stories. The [|typography] of the chapter titles distintegrates as the novel progresses. Also, the stream of consciousness used to finally impart Pecola's absolute descent into madness is the key narrative technique of the novel.
 * Issues of Style**

//Shirley Temple/Jean Harlow and other stars//: represent the white ideal of beauty //Mary Janes:// the type of [|candy] that Pecola coverts also represents the white ideal of beauty (girl on wrapper) //Seasons:// The change in seasons parallels the unfolding of the story. //Marigolds:// The flowers won't bloom when Pecola is impregnated by her father (revealed at the start). At the end of the novel the marigolds will bloom, perhaps symbolizing the lessons learned.
 * Symbolism**

Although the work is set in the 1940s, it has implications for the Civil Rights era and beyond. The book, Morrison's first, was published in 1970 but did not receive distinction until later (after Morrison's other novels were published and received praise).
 * Historical Significance**

Toni Morrison is African-American. Still living. She was born in Lorain, OH. She has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She is the first African-American to earn this honor. Other important works: //Beloved, Song of Solomon, Sula, Home//.
 * About the Author**