How did Pecola get her blue eyes?
When Pecola approaches him asking for blue eyes, he tells her to give meat to his landlord's dog, and that her wish will be granted if the dog reacts. However, he secretly poisons the meat, and the dog dies, contributing to Pecola's delusions that she has blue eyes.
Who is Pecola Breedlove in the Bluest Eye?
Pecola Breedlove. Pecola is the protagonist of The Bluest Eye, but despite this central role she is passive and remains a mysterious character. Morrison explains in her novel’s afterword that she purposely tells Pecola’s story from other points of view to keep Pecola’s dignity and, to some extent, her mystery intact.
Why did Soaphead Church give Pecola blue eyes?
He finishes the letter by telling God that he has given Pecola blue eyes because God had refused to do it himself, although nobody would be able to see them but her. The reader gains access to the severity of Soaphead Church's delusional mindset in the letter.
Why does Pecola think she is beautiful?
Pecola has internalized white society's ideal of what it means to be beautiful. And part of that ideal is the possession of blue eyes. Blue eyes, along with blond hair, is widely considered by white society to be the epitome of physical beauty. Throughout the whole of her short life, Pecola has never felt beautiful.
How 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 is able to 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.
Did Soaphead give Pecola blue eyes?
He finishes the letter by telling God that he has given Pecola blue eyes because God had refused to do it himself, although nobody would be able to see them but her. The reader gains access to the severity of Soaphead Church's delusional mindset in the letter.
What do Frieda and Claudia decide to do for Pecola?
Claudia and Frieda decide to help Pecola by praying and by giving a sacrifice; they will give up their seed money and plant the rest of the marigold seeds. They will bury the money by Pecola's house and bury the seeds in their own yard so that they can tend them.
What do blue eyes mean to Pecola?
the beauty and happinessTo 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.
What does Soaphead do to Pecola?
Unbeknownst to Pecola, Soaphead gives her poisonous meat to feed the dog. When the dog starts to gag and limp around, Pecola believes she is getting her wish for blue eyes. After Pecola runs away, Soaphead writes a long letter to God about being rejected by Velma.
What has happened to Pecola at the end of the novel?
After the dog eats the meat, gags, and dies, Pecola believes her wish has been granted. Thus begins her sharp descent into madness. The fourth and final section (“Summer”) takes place after Pecola loses her mind. In the beginning, Claudia and Frieda learn that Pecola has been impregnated by her father.
How does Pecola lose her sanity?
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 afterward she loses her sanity.
Are Claudia and Frieda black?
Claudia and her older sister, Frieda, have learned their life lessons from their mother. They have learned how to be strong black females who can fight back and not be overwhelmed and brainwashed by standards of beauty imposed on them by white and black women.
Why did Pecola go crazy?
Pecola, a little black girl who thirsts for a pair of blue eyes, finally goes mad because of her never achieved wish. She can only live in her fantasy, persuading herself that she has a pair of beautiful blue eyes. She believes that only when she has a pair of blue eyes can she be loved.
What do blue eyes represent?
Therefore, they are sometimes attributed to “eternal youth.” Blue eyes are heralded by some to be the most desirable and attractive of eye colors, and those who have them possess a calm and peaceful personality. Blue eyes are also representative of knowledge.
Why is The Bluest Eye named The Bluest Eye?
The title is taken from the protagonist's desire to have blue eyes. “Whiteness” is the beauty standard that Pecola Breedlove cannot fit in with, and from this her obsession with having blue eyes stems.
How much milk did Pecola drink?
MacTeer is angry because Pecola has drunk three quarts of milk.
Why does Frieda want to get some whiskey to drink?
Based on this logic, the girls decide that Frieda should drink whiskey to avoid getting fat and becoming "ruined", so they go to Pecola's house because they know her father will have whiskey and believe Pecola can acquire it for them.
Why does Claudia destroy the dolls?
Answer and Explanation: Claudia destroys the doll as an act of resistance against the idealized beauty standards that uphold white features while diminishing her own. For Claudia, her resistance extends to her lack of appreciation for the white baby dolls that sometimes show up on Christmas.
Why was Frieda crying at the beginning of this section?
Frieda is crying because she overheard Miss Dunion, a neighbor, say that she might be ruined just like the Maginot Line. Claudia imagines Frieda as fat as the Maginot Line.
Who is Frieda in The Bluest Eye?
Frieda MacTeer Claudia's ten-year-old sister, who shares Claudia's independence and stubbornness. Because she is closer to adolescence, Frieda is more vulnerable to her community's equation of whiteness with beauty. Frieda is more knowledgeable about the adult world and sometimes braver than Claudia.
Why does Pecola wish she could have blue eyes?
Pecola wishes earnestly that she could have blue eyes so that she could seem more beautiful; this desire derives from the idea of beauty that she has internalized by being given blonde haired, blue eyed dolls throughout her life.
Why does Pecola Breedlove want blue eyes?
Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old African American girl living in Ohio, longs for blue eyes because they represent to her the freedom she imagines she would have if she were blonde and blue-eyed, all qualities of whiteness that represent beauty to her.
Why do Pecola's eyes look blue?
Blue eyes are associated with beauty. She internalizes the social standards that dictate beauty, norms that say "blue eyes" represent attractiveness. In order to be as loved like Shirley Temple, Pecola yearns for blue eyes. She believes that if "those eyes of hers were different" or if they could be seen as "beautiful," her life would be different. She believes that blue eyes would give her the belonging that she craves. In Pecola's mind, this desire forms the basis of her prayers because it is the answer to all of her questions.
What would happen if Pecola was white?
For Pecola to have blue eyes, her character would also have to be white, and it is true that if Pecola were white, everything would be different . Pecola's wishes, however, are unrealistic, obsessive, and representative of her unfairly hurt and damaged mind.
What would happen if Pecola's eyes were different?
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 herself would be different.
Why is Pecola's self image unhealthy?
Pecola, like many girls, therefore develops an unhealthy self-image because she isn't white and doesn't have what are considered "traditionally beautiful" characteristics, such as blue eyes or blonde hair, which have been reinforced as desirable attributes throughout her life.
What is the significance of Pecola?
Pecola is also a symbol of the black community’s self-hatred and belief in its own ugliness. Others in the community, including her mother, father, and Geraldine, act out their own self-hatred by expressing hatred toward her.
Why does Morrison tell Pecola's story?
Morrison explains in her novel’s afterword that she purposely tells Pecola’s story from other points of view to keep Pecola’s dignity and, to some extent, her mystery intact. She wishes to prevent us from labeling Pecola or prematurely believing that we understand her.
What does Geraldine call Pecola?
At this point Geraldine appears, and Junior promptly tells her that Pecola has killed the cat. Geraldine calls Pecola a “nasty little black bitch” and orders her to leave. The third section of the novel (“Spring”) is by far the longest, comprising four vignettes.
Why was The Bluest Eye banned?
Since its publication in 1970, there have been numerous attempts to ban The Bluest Eye from schools and libraries because of its depictions of sex, violence, racism, incest, and child molestation; it frequents the American Library Association’s list of banned and challenged books .
Why are the Breedloves homeless?
The Breedloves are currently “outdoors,” or homeless, because Pecola’s father, Cholly, burned the family house down.
How many chapters are there in The Bluest Eye?
The Bluest Eye is divided into four sections, each of which is named for a different season. (The novel begins with “Autumn” and ends with “Summer.”) The four sections are further divided into chapters. Most of the chapter titles are taken from the simulated text of a Dick and Jane reader. Three versions of the simulated text appear at the beginning of the novel. The first version is clear and grammatically correct; it tells a short story about “Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane,” focusing in particular on Jane, who seeks a playmate. The second version repeats the message of the first, but without proper punctuation or capitalization. The third version lacks punctuation, capitalization, and spaces between words. It reads:
Where is the Bluest Eye set?
The Bluest Eye, debut novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, published in 1970. Set in Morrison’s hometown of Lorain, Ohio, in 1940–41, the novel tells the tragic story of Pecola Breedlove, an African American girl from an abusive home. Eleven-year-old Pecola equates beauty and social acceptance with whiteness;
Who is the main narrator of Pecola?
Pecola’s story is told through the eyes of multiple narrators. The main narrator is Claudia MacTeer, a childhood friend with whom Pecola once lived. Claudia narrates from two different perspectives: the adult Claudia, who reflects on the events of 1940–41, and the nine-year-old Claudia, who observes the events as they happen.
Who narrates Pecola and Geraldine?
Friendly at first, Maureen ultimately humiliates Pecola and her friends by declaring herself “cute” and Pecola “ugly.”. The second vignette, narrated by a third-person omniscient narrator, focuses on Geraldine and Louis Junior, a young mother and son in Lorain, Ohio.
What did Pecola struggle with?
Though the methods varied, the pain was as consistent as it was deep. She struggled between an overwhelming desire that one would kill the other, and a profound wish that she herself could die.
Who is Pecola's brother?
Here, the narrator describes how Pecola and her brother, Sammy, each deal with the blowout fights between their parents. While Sammy has the option to leave the house for a few days, Pecola remains too young to go off on her own. Rather, she simply wishes the fights away.
What does Pecola ask Soaphead to do?
When Pecola goes to see Soaphead Church, she asks him to turn her eyes blue. Pecola is old enough that she should know the impossibility in such a request, but she prays every night that her eyes will turn blue and then asks Soaphead for help anyway. Even though Pecola has experienced a good deal of misery, her desperate wish for blue eyes shows that, at this point in the story, she still possesses some innocence.
What does the narrator say about Pecola?
As the narrator describes how each Breedlove feels about and uses his or her perceived ugliness, she explains that Pecola uses hers as a shield from others. Just like the owner of the grocery store, no one truly sees Pecola, and she seems to be a mystery even to readers. Throughout the novel, she continues turning into herself, living in a fantasy world where she has blue eyes and looks beautiful.
How does Pecola behave after being raped?
Here, Claudia describes how Pecola behaves after being raped by her father and losing her baby. In addition to talking to an imaginary friend, Pecola makes bird-like motions, making her damaged mental state obvious to anyone she sees. Claudia notes that Pecola looks like she is trying to fly, which perhaps indicates that Pecola wants to escape from inside her own mind.
Who are Pecola's parents?
The novel, through flashbacks, explores the younger years of both of Pecola's parents, Cholly and Pauline, and their struggles as African Americans in a largely White Anglo-Saxon Protestant community. Pauline now works as a servant for a wealthier white family.
Why was the book Pecola banned?
The ban was enacted in response to a complaint received by a parent of a ninth-grader student who was on the board and who took issue with the novel's sexual content, specifically the scene of Pecola's rape. Students protested the ban by reading passages from the book in their school libraries.
What is the book Bluest Eye about?
30110136. Followed by. Sula. The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison. The novel takes place in Lorain, Ohio (Morrison's hometown), and tells the story of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grew up following the Great Depression.
Why was the book The Bluest Eye removed from the reading list?
In 1999, parents of students at Stevens High School in Claremont, New Hampshire, objected to the book's being assigned to lower grade levels. The case started when parents complained to the school that they thought the book contained content that was sexually inappropriate for children. As a result, the school decided to remove the book from freshmen and sophomore reading lists, and deemed that the novel was only "suitable" for juniors and seniors. In addition, the school also ruled that teachers must send reading lists to parents early on in the year to get their approval as to which books their children could read and discuss in class. While some parents would have preferred heavier restrictions against the book at Stevens High School, they were glad that action was taken, as they viewed The Bluest Eye to be an "adult book."
What was Morrison's graphic storytelling within The Bluest Eye?
Morrison's graphic storytelling within The Bluest Eye challenged existing attitudes about keeping children's literature free of sex and violence. The lifestyle standards found in Dick and Jane were not achievable for many children who shared backgrounds similar to Pecola.
Why is The Bluest Eye banned?
The Bluest Eye has frequently landed on American Library Association 's (ALA) list of most challenged books because it contains offensive language, sexually explicit material, and controversial issues, as well as depicting child sexual abuse and being unsuited for the age group. The ALA placed it on the Top Ten Most Challenged Books Lists for 2006 (5), 2014 (4), 2013 (2), and 2020 (9). Ultimately, it became the 34th-most banned book in the United States 1990-1999, the 15th-most banned book 2000-2009, and the 10th-most banned book 2010-2019
Where does the Bluest Eye take place?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison. The novel takes place in Lorain, Ohio (Morrison's hometown), and tells the story of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grew up following the Great Depression. Set in 1941, the story tells that she is consistently ...
What does Pecola's plan permit them to imagine?from sparknotes.com
But their plan permits them to imagine a world in which human beings are connected to one another and to nature. They imagine that their sacrifice can earn Pecola’s safety and that the fruitfulness of the earth will parallel the fruitfulness of Pecola. Most of all, they imagine that words and song can be healing.
What do the gossips think about Pecola?from sparknotes.com
The gossips think that it would be best for the unborn baby to die. Claudia and Frieda are embarrassed and hurt for Pecola, and their sorrow is intensified by the fact that none of the adults seems to share it. Claudia can picture the baby in the womb, with beautiful eyes, lips, and skin.
Why did Claudia and Frieda take Frieda to the doctor?from sparknotes.com
Then another neighbor, Miss Dunion, came in and suggested that they take Frieda to the doctor because she might be “ruined,” a fear that now makes Frieda weep. Frieda and Claudia are confused about what “ruined” means and worry that Frieda will become fat like the Maginot Line.
What is Claudia's mother telling her about?from sparknotes.com
Claudia remembers a storm her mother told her about that blew away half of South Lorain in 1929. She imagines her mother being pulled up into the air, smiling with her hand on her hip, unconcerned. Frieda and Claudia are selling marigold seeds to earn money for a new bicycle.
What does Pecola spill on the floor?from sparknotes.com
In contrast, Pecola spills “blackish blueberries” all over the floor, underlining the connection between blackness and mess. Her mother reinforces this connection as well. Instead of worrying that her own daughter has been burned by the hot berries, she pushes Pecola down into the pie juice.
What is Frieda's reaction to Pecola's rape?from sparknotes.com
Frieda is angered by her experience and ready to take action rather than remain ashamed and defeated. Her experience of unwanted sexual attention contrasts sharply with Pecola’s rape experience, in which Pecola’s father not only fails to protect her, but is the perpetrator himself.
What is the bluest eye?from sparknotes.com
The Bluest Eye. Once there was an old man who loved things, for the slightest contact with people produced in him a faint but persistent nausea. He could not remember when this distaste began, nor could he remember ever being free of it. Velma was to rescue him from the nonlife he had learned on the flat side of his father’s belt.
Who was Pecola's father?
Pecola was placed with the MacTeers by social services after her father, Cholly Breedlove, burned down the family's apartment and beat his wife. While staying with the MacTeers, Pecola got her first menstrual period.
What did Maureen do to Pecola?
After the girls rescued Pecola, Maureen ridiculed Pecola by repeating a rumor that she had heard about Pecola seeing her father naked. After trading insults with Maureen, the MacTeer girls headed home, where they caught their boarder, Mr. Henry, entertaining the sex workers that lived above the Breedlove apartment.
What happened to Pecola in Autumn 1941?
In "Autumn," the first division of the novel, Claudia describes the fall of 1941 as a cold, lean one when the MacTeer house was cash-strapped due to cutbacks at the plant where Mr. MacTeer worked. That fall was also the first time Claudia heard the gossip about the Breedloves. Pecola was placed with the MacTeers by social services after her father, Cholly Breedlove, burned down the family's apartment and beat his wife. While staying with the MacTeers, Pecola got her first menstrual period. A third-person narrator describes the violent, loveless home life Pecola deals with at her house and her efforts to change her eyes to blue ones through prayer.
What does Pecola panic about?
Pecola panics as she begins to suspect that she does not have the bluest eyes. Claudia resumes the narration at the end of the novel. Pecola's baby died shortly after birth, and Pecola descended into madness, which made the entire community avoid her.
What happened to Claudia in Spring?
In "Spring," the third division of the novel, the narration reverts to Claudia, who discovered her sister crying in their bedroom one afternoon. Frieda told Claudia that she was molested by Mr. Henry, who was chased away by their parents with a shotgun. The girls thought being “ruined” meant being obese, so they sought out Pecola to see if she could give them some alcohol (the other ruined women they knew were skinny because they were malnourished alcoholics). They found Pecola at the Fishers, the white family for whom Pauline works, but the visit ended in disaster after Pecola knocked over a dessert.
What is the bluest eye study guide?
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
Why did Pecola feed her dog meat?
Eager to show up God and rid himself of his landlady's loathsome dog, he told Pecola that she needed to feed a piece of meat (secretly laced with poison by Soaphead) to the dog in order to receive a sign of God's willingness to grant the favor. When the dog died, Pecola believed her wish for blue eyes had been granted.
