Tony Morrison: The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

A heart wrenching story of Pecola Breedlove- The girl, whose wish for the eyes of a white
girl revealed her contempt for her own racial identity, raised troubling questions about beauty
and oppression
1. About the author
2. Key facts/aspects
3. Structure of the novel
4. Characters/tree diagram
5. Themes-
 feminism,
 racism,
 outer beauty vs inner beauty/ appearance,
 family
 love
6. Title of the novel-
7. Two fragments-Prologue
8. Features of the novel-
9. Brief summary of the novel
10. Chapter wise summary
(1) About the author-
 Chloe Anthony Wofford, later known as Toni Morrison
 Toni Morrison is an American novelist, February 18, 1931 (age
85), Lorain, Ohio, United States
 Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993
 Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for Beloved
 Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue and richly detailed
African-American characters.
 She embraces the title “black woman writer.”
 Some critics also call her the “D. H. Lawrence of the black psyche.”
 In 2001 she was named one of "The 30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies'
Home Journal.
 She met Harold Morrison. They married, and before their divorce in 1964, Toni and
Harold Morrison had two sons. It was also during this time that she wrote the short
story that would become the basis for her first novel, The Bluest Eye.
 She raises troubling questions about beauty and oppression in the novel.
 Between 1971 and 1972, Morrison worked as a Professor of English for the State
University of New York
(2) Key facts/aspects
 Tragedy-tragic novel
 Written between 1962-65
  Published in 1970
 Setting (time)- 1940-41
 Setting (place)- Lorain, Ohio, USA
 Protagonist- Pecola Breedlove
(3) Structure of the novel- 2 parts/fragments which form the prologue/introduction to the
novel
4 sections named by 4 seasons- autumn, winter, spring, summer
Are further divided into 11 chapters.
 The novel is divided into the four seasons, but it pointedly refuses to meet the
expectations of these seasons. For example, spring, the traditional time of rebirth
and renewal, reminds Claudia of being whipped with new switches, and it is the
season when Pecola’s is raped. Pecola’s baby dies in autumn, the season of
harvesting. Morrison uses natural cycles to underline the unnaturalness and
misery of her characters’ experiences. To some degree, she also questions the
benevolence of nature, as when Claudia wonders whether “the earth itself might
have been unyielding” to someone like Pecola.
(4) Characters-Opening lines from Anna Karenina- ‘Happy families are all alike; every
unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’

Breedlove family- unhappy family

1. Pecola Breedlove

2. Cholly Breedlove
3. Pauline Breedlove
4. Sammy
MacTeer family- happy family
1. Claudia MacTeer

2. Frieda MacTeer

3. Mrs. MacTeer

4. Mr. MacTeer

Characters---y
Claudia MacTeer

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.
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.
Frieda MacTeer

Claudia's sister, age 11. 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.
Pauline Breedlove

Mother of Sammy and Pecola, wife to Cholly. 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.
Cholly Breedlove

A violent drunk, an unfaithful husband, an abusive father. Cholly was humiliated by white
hunters when a young boy, and the shame stuck with him. Abandoned by both of his parents,
he has no concept of parenting. He rapes Pecola, skipping town when she becomes pregnant.
Mrs. MacTeer

Mother to Frieda and Claudia. She is not an indulgent mother, but she is fiercely protective
and loving. Her word is 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.
Mr. MacTeer

Father to Frieda and Claudia. Like his wife, he is a harsh but loving parent.
Sammy Breedlove

An unhappy and 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.
Mr. Henry

The middle-aged boarder taken in by the MacTeers near the beginning of the novel. Mr.
Henry is charming but is somewhat lecherous‹he invites prostitutes under the MacTeer roof
when the MacTeers are gone, and later he makes sexual advances at eleven-year-old Frieda.
China, Poland, and Marie (aka the Maginot Line)

the three prostitutes who live upstairs from Pecola. Pecola seeks refuge in their company
when her family is too unbearable. All three women are long past their prime, but fat Marie is
the most despised by Mrs. MacTeer and the most feared by Frieda and Claudia. Their names
are heavily symbolic, as all three refer to countries where are occupied or facing invasion by
fascist armies in 1939.
Geraldine

A well-off black woman with a husband, one son, and a cat. Geraldine is concerned with
being respectable, and despises poor blacks. When her son, Louis, Jr., lies to her and tells her
that Pecola killed Geraldine's beloved cat, her treatment of Pecola is brutal.
Louis, Jr.

a little boy, son of Geraldine. He tricks Pecola into coming into his house, where he throws a
cat in her face, kills the cat, and then blames her for it.
Maureen Peal

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.
Great Aunt Jimmy

the woman who raised Cholly. She was already ancient when she took him in, right after he
had been abandoned by his own mother. She dies when Cholly is a young teenage boy.

Soaphead Church (aka Elihu Whitcomb)

a man of mixed white and black ancestry from the Caribbean. He is the town fortuneteller, in
addition to being megalomaniacal pedophile who plays God. His "magic" is the final snap
that breaks Pecola's sanity.

his name is Elihue Micah Whitcomb, fortuneteller of the town, mixture of white n black
ancestry, tried various jobs such as priesthood, advisor, interpreter of dreams, He still feels
rejected by Velma, who left him “the way people leave a hotel room.” He describes his love
for the newly budding breasts of young girls (we have already been told that he is a
pedophile- a psychiatric disorder in which an adult has sexual attraction to prepubescent
children).
He married a woman named Velma who left him two months later. He tried priesthood, the
being a caseworker, finally deciding on being a “reader, advisor, and interpreter of dreams.”
He studied, took different jobs, and ended up at Lorain, where he rents a back room. the dog
there disgusts him, so he buys poison to kill it, but won’t go near it. One day, Pecola comes in
to ask him to give her blue eyes. He lies to her and tells her that she will have blue eyes if she
gives meat to the dog. The meat had been poisoned, so that the dog would die without
Soaphead having to go near it. Pecola runs away when the dog dies. Soaphead writes a letter
to god, in which he reveals that he still feels rejected by Velma, and that he is a pedophile. He
brags that he granted Pecolas wish, since she will think she has blue eyes and that is just the
same as having them. After he writes the letter, he looks at some his favorite trinkets and
forgets that he was looking for sealing wax for his letter, and soon after falls asleep.
Soaphead convinces himself that his light skin makes him so superior that he can work
miracles and that god is jealous of him. With Pauline and Cholly, the reader feels sympathy
when they tell their stories, but with Soaphead the reader just sees him as more ridiculous
than they previously thought. It doesn’t help that Soaphead considers his behavior acceptable
because he knows the word misanthrope from his education. He cherry-picks from his
literature, ignoring the parts that don’t agree with him. Soaphead is religious and believes in
god, but is not loving. He only uses god to wish for a better life.
 Some prostitutes
 Aunt Jimmy- the woman who raised Cholly. She was already ancient when
she took him in, right after he had been abandoned by his own mother. She
dies when Cholly is a young teenage boy.

Discuss the significance of names in the story including The Maginot Line, meringue-
pie, and Soaphead Church

In this novel, names generally contribute to characterization through their sound, what they
mean, or both. For example, Maureen Peal's name has an alliteration of the sound "ee," which
reflects the shrill, irritating sound that would likely, at least by Claudia, be associated with her
voice. Maureen Peal's other name, "meringue pie," is meant as an insult by Claudia.
However, its sweetness and the fact that it seems like an affectionate name signifies how
Claudia cannot succeed in making Maureen Peal look bad and unattractive. In addition,
Cholly's name, which is probably a mispronunciation of "Charlie," reflects his rough,
uneducated upbringing as this mispronunciation reflects a lack of articulation and
sophistication. The names "China" and "Poland," make the prostitutes who have these names
seem exotic and foreign, as they seem to Pecola, who calls them by these names. In addition,
these names are the names of countries that were attacked by the Nazis during WWII. In
addition, the third prostitute's name, "The Maginot Line," is also a WWII reference, being a
failed barrier to guard against the Nazis. Therefore, the name "Maginot Line," as well as the
country names of the other prostitutes, may suggest that they were all invaded by a sort of
evil (just as their namesakes were during WWII), and therefore that they are corrupted and
"ruined," just as Claudia was told they were. Finally the name "Soaphead Church" is a prime
example of irony, because although the name would imply someone clean and devoted to
God, Soaphead's actions are very dirty, socially unnaceptable, and even blasphemous

(5) Themes-
 Feminism- Pecola raped by her own father
 Racial discrimination, racist prejudice
 Appearances/concept of beauty- outer beauty vs inner beauty
 Love- Pecola does not get love but lust from her father, macteer lovely family
 Family
  Feminism- Pecola raped by her own father
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. The male oppression over
women in The Bluest Eye, reaches its brutal climax during Cholly's rape of his own
daughter, Pecola. This scene, which details the ultimate form of violence and
oppression against women, is narrated completely through Cholly's perspective. The
lack of Pecola's perspective during the rape scene demonstrates the silencing effect of
male oppression over women.

 Racial discrimination/race/racism-
"Whiteness" is associated with virtue, cleanliness, and value, while being black is
associated with immorality, dirtiness, and worthlessness.
 Appearances/concept of beauty- outer beauty vs inner beauty
Implicit messages that whiteness is superior are everywhere, including the white baby doll
given to Claudia, the idealization of Shirley Temple, the consensus that light-skinned
Maureen is cuter than the other black girls, the idealization of white beauty in the movies, and
Pauline Breedlove’s preference for the little white girl she works for over her daughter. Adult
women, having learned to hate the blackness of their own bodies, take this hatred out on their
children—Mrs. Breedlove shares the conviction that Pecola is ugly, and lighter-skinned
Geraldine curses Pecola’s blackness. The person who suffers most from white beauty
standards is, of course, Pecola.
 Family- “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own
way,” Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina
 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.
 Cholly's rape of Pecola represents the complete absence of home and family. In
raping his own daughter, Cholly commits the ultimate violation of home and family.
(6) Title- Bluest Eye(s)

To Pecola, blue eyes symbolize the beauty and happiness that she associates with the white,
middle-class world. They also come to symbolize her own blindness, for she gains blue eyes
only at the cost of her sanity. Furthermore, eye puns on I, in the sense that the novel’s title
uses the singular form of the noun (instead of The Bluest Eyes) to express many of the
characters’ sad isolation.

(8) Features of the novel-

 Stream of Consciousness-
 It’s a mode of narration through which the author reproduces continuous flow of a
character’s mental process.
  Some critics also call it as ‘interior monologue’.
 Stream of consciousness- a term from psychology used by the authors to describe
the unbroken/continuous flow of perceptions, memories, thoughts and feelings in
the waking mind. Long passages of introspection, in which the narrator records in
detail what passes through a character’s awareness.
 The course of consciousness as it occurs in a character’s mind.
 fragmentation- The style is fragmentary due to the use of flashback technique
 Multi-perspective narrators- Claudia, Pecola, etc. Thus, it is impossible to understand
the novel completely/clearly. Claudia- 1st person narrator- I and we are used, 3rd
person narrator means he did this, she did this, Frieda did this. A kind of democratic
narrative in which many narrative voices are privileged to speak. Morrison has used
variations of this system in other novels, favoring this strategy as a way to look at a
story from many angles without giving too much control to one voice.
 The Bluest Eye is not one story, but multiple, sometimes contradictory, interlocking
stories. Characters tell stories to make sense of their lives, and these stories have
tremendous power for both good and evil

 flashback technique- at the very beginning of the novel, we come to know the ending
i.e. Prologue, Part 2 Summary- Pecola, a young girl in the town, was having her
father's baby., Pecola's baby is dead, her father Cholly is also dead.
 The narrator says that. Though it will be difficult to explain why this is so, the narrator
will try to tell how.

 I and we are used, 3rd person narrator means he did this, she did this, Frieda did this.

Third Person Omniscient Narrator

In third person omniscient, the narrator knows all the thoughts and feelings of all the
characters in the story. When writing in third person omniscient, the author will move from
character to character, allowing the events to be interpreted by several different voices, but
always maintaining an omniscient - or godlike - distance.

Why Use a Third Person Omniscient Narrator?

When an author writes in third person omniscient, the audience is able to know and see
everything about each character. Because of this, we are able to see into the minds of multiple
characters and create a stronger relationship and bond with them. We are also able to see the
reaction of multiple characters, which will help us interpret the plot of the story.
Third person omniscient also allows the author to have multiple voices in the story. They can
write in the voice of an adult, child, man, or woman. By experiencing a story through
different voices, we can see the story in another depth. We are also able to have a
more objective interpretation of the events, meaning the interpretation is not influenced by
personal feelings, as opposed to a more personal, subjective interpretation. Finally, an author
may use third person omniscient because it allows for better storytelling. Because there are
multiple characters, there can be several plot lines and many different interpretations to the
same event.
PROLOGUE
 2 parts/fragments-
 Part-1 Dick and Jane primer- is an elementary textbook whci is used for teaching children
to read (why children’s book? Because since children like Claudia, Pecola are the
narrators, so the narration should suit the children’s voice, it should match.)
 Prime- the basic coat of a paint, here elementary book
 Language of the 1st part is very simple. Why??? Because it is written by the novelist from
the point of view of a little girl.
 Opening with the Dick and Jane narrative provides the reader with a representation of the
ideal home, family, race, and standard of beauty. The passage also offers a thematic
overview of the novel as a whole. The lack of response from Jane's parents alludes to the
family dynamics and isolation many of the novel's characters experience at home. The
dog and cat running from Jane foreshadows the violence perpetrated against animals in
the novel. Finally, Jane a friend to play with, which reflects the close relationships the
novel's young black female characters engage in.
The Dick and Jane narrative is repeated two more times. Through each repetition
the words remain exactly the same, but with each recurrence of the words, the
paragraph loses some of its structure and clarity. In the first reiteration, the
paragraph is devoid of punctuation. Immediately following the first, the final
repetition of the paragraph not only lacks punctuation, but also all of the spaces
between the words. The progressive lack of structure in the paragraph transforms
the narrative into a rambling and disorienting block of text.
 The breakdown of the paragraph structure reflects the breakdown of home and family in
The Bluest Eye. The novel's black and often broken families exist in stark contrast to the
white, middle class, nuclear family in the Dick and Jane narrative.

 Prologue, Part 2 Summary

 The narrator (so far unidentified) explains that no marigolds grew in the fall of 1941.

 The narrator and her sister thought the marigolds didn't grow because Pecola, a young
girl in the town, was having her father's baby.

 The narrator and her sister thought that if they planted marigold seeds and said the
right words over them, Pecola's baby would be born OK.

 The narrator spent many years thinking it was her fault that the marigolds didn't grow,
because she had planted the seeds too far down into the earth. She now understands
that it was the earth's fault.
 The narrator says that Pecola's baby is dead, along with her father. Though it will be
difficult to explain why this is so, the narrator will try to tell how.