In an interview you can find on YouTube she has further referred to the reasons that led her to write
The Bluest Eye:
I felt compelled to write this mostly because in the 1960s, black male authors published
powerful, aggressive, revolutionary fiction or nonfiction, and they had positive racially
uplifting rhetoric with them that were stimulating and I thought they would skip over
something and thought no one would remember that it wasn’t always beautiful, how hurtful
racism is. I wrote The Bluest Eye because someone would actually be apologetic about the
fact that their skin was so dark and how when I was a kid, we called each other names but we
didn’t think it was serious, that you could take it in, so the book was about taking it in, before
we all decide that we are all beautiful, and have always been beautiful; I wanted to speak on
the behalf of those who didn’t catch that right away. I was deeply concerned about the
feelings of being ugly.
Source: “Toni Morrison Talks about Her Motivation for Writing”
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Zgu2hrs2k
2. SETTING
The main action takes place in Lorain, Ohio.
One of the flashbacks tells us that Pauline’s family lived in Alabama before moving to
Kentucky.
Pauline and Cholly married in Kentucky and then decided to move to Ohio: “Young, loving, and
full of energy, they came to Lorain, Ohio. Cholly found work in the steel mills right away, and
Pauline started keeping house.” (90).
Locate Alabama,
Kentucky and
Ohio on this
blank map of the
US.
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3. TIME
1860s-1910s 1940-1941 1960s?
Flashbacks narrated by an omniscient The main events are recounted by Claudia as an adult narrator.
narrator that goes back to the 1900s both Claudia as an adult and by She opens and closes the
and occasionally even further back an omniscient narrator. narration.
(for instance, the Emancipation
Proclamation of 1863).
Activate everything you
learnt about the Civil
Rights Movement in the
module American Cultures,
1. Claudia, as an adult, remembers the past. We don’t or find information about it
know when this recollection takes place, but it could if you didn’t take that
well be during the 1960s, when Claudia would be in course.
her thirties. That is, the recollection might be taking
place at the time of the Civil Rights Movement.
More importantly, she might be influenced by the
Black Is Beautiful movement.
Are there any
references to WWII
2. In particular, she recalls the events that took place in in the novel?
between the Fall of 1940 and the Fall of 1941. The main Can’t you find them?
action takes place at the time when the US is about to get Check the names of
involved, or is beginning to get involved, in WWII (the the prostitutes who
attack on Pearl Harbor took place in December 1940). live in an apartment
above the Breedloves.
3. Besides, an omniscient narrator introduces flashbacks that
go back to the beginning of the 20th century and the period
of the Great Migration (1890s-1910s). What was the Great
Migration?
Pauline Williams’ family moved from Alabama to When did it take
Kentucky as so many other African Americans did at the
place?
time of the Great Migration, as we see in this quotation:
Why did so many
“Near the beginning of World War I, the Williamses
discovered from returning neighbors and kin, the possibility African Americans
of living better in another place. In shifts, lots, batches, leave the South and
mixed in with other families, they migrated, in six months move up North?
and four journeys, to Kentucky, where there were mines What did they
and millwork” (87). expect to find
there?
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5. CHARACTERS
THE MACTEERS: Mr & Mrs MacTeer Mr. Henry
Frieda (19) Claudia (9)
One of the narrators (tells the story as an adult).
Her narration is told in retrospect; she’s an adult looking back. A boarder at the
Her childhood memories begin each of the season chapters. MacTeer house
She’s different from all other girls when it comes to dolls. Why
is that?
THE BREEDLOVES
Darlene Cholly Breedlove: THE FATHER? Pauline Williams (Mrs Breedlove,
Polly): THE MOTHER?
Cholly’s first girlfriend. An accident (she stepped on a nail
Suffered a humiliating sexual Abandoned by his parents. when she was 2) hurt her badly and she
encounter: they were interrupted by Raised by his great aunt Aunt Jimmy. walks with a limp since then.
jeering white men. Frequently drunk. This made her feel separated from other
Abuses his wife and children. people and unworthy.
She’s a diligent housekeeper for a
wealthy white family, the Fishers.
She’s the primary
breadwinner in her family.
She’s obsessed with Hollywood films.
Is there
anything Sammy (14): DICK? Pecola (11): JANE?
ironic about Passive, plain young black girl.
the Befriended by Claudia and Frieda after
Breedloves’ county officials placed her in their
family name? home as a foster kid.
Suffers the onset of puberty, racial
harassment, rape and incest.
THE PROSTITUTES: Miss Marie (Maginot Line), China and Poland
What’s funny about
Three prostitutes who live in the apartment above the Breedloves; they befriend Pecola.
their names?
Elihue Micah Whitcomb: SOAPHEAD CHURCH Bertha Reese’s DOG
Of multi-racial descent.
Married and left by Velma. This woman has an old dog, Bob, that Soaphead Church
Psychic and faith healer; takes lodgings at Bertha Reese’s. hates: THE DOG.
Has abused girls in the past and uses Pecola for his own
benefit.
THE “COLORED” FAMILY
Geraldine
She shows little affection for her son but adoration for her What do Geraldine, Soaphead
blue-eyed black cat: THE CAT. Church and Maureen Peal have
Her family epitomizes the black middle class which has in common?
become far distanced from its black roots and looks down on How distant are they from
black people who do not have white middle-class aspirations. their black roots? And how
Louis Junior
close to middle-class
aspirations?
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6. STRUCTURE AND NARRATIVE VOICES
The Bluest Eye does not have a straightforward narrative; events are not presented
chronologically, nor is there a single narrative voice.
How many narrators are there in the
novel?
What is the effect of having several
narrators and therefore perspectives?
And of the lack of chronological order?
Who are Dick and Jane?
Sections: What is the symbolic
meaning of starting the novel
with excerpts taken from a
1. First section: THE PRIMER primer?
Why is the same paragraph
repeated three times?
First paragraph Why is each repetition more
Second paragraph difficult to read? Why are
Third paragraph writing conventions
progressively abandoned?
2. Second section:
CLAUDIA MACTEER’S CHILDHOOD MEMORIES IN ITALICS
Why does Claudia say that it’s impossible to explain WHY things happened the way
they did? And why must one take refuge in HOW?
Does the novel refrain from explaining the why? Or does it make any attempt at
explaining it somehow? Does it succeed in doing so?
What is the connection between the “little pot of black dirt” that Claudia and her
sister used to plant their seeds and Pecola’s body?
Why does Claudia think that Pecola’s problems were her fault? Does she think the
same at the end of the novel? What10or who does she blame instead?
Remember that in Claudia’s text in italics Can we state that this novel
there is a reference to the Fall of 1941: “there
were no marigolds in the Fall of 1941” (3).
has a circular structure?
Do the season chapters help us
to reach that conclusion?
Are we somehow helped too by
the fact that Claudia, the
FALL of 1940 (5) adult narrator, opens and
Claudia’s narrative closes the narrative?
Omniscient narrator: “the house” (24) What about the role of
“the family” (28) Claudia’s diegetic summary in
italics at the beginning of the
novel?
WINTER of 1940-41 (47)
Claudia’s narrative
Omniscient narrator: “the cat” (63)
SPRING of 1941 (75)
Claudia’s narrative
Omniscient narrator: “the mother” (102) + Pauline’s own words
“the father” (103)
“the dog” (130) + Soaphead Chuch’s letter to God (140)
SUMMER of 1941 (147)
Claudia’s narrative
Dialogue: “A friend” (152)
Claudia’s narrative (162)
7. THEMES
Find excerpts from the novel where these themes are
dealt with.
Which points is the novel trying to make?
Beauty vs. ugliness; whiteness as the standard of
beauty
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Family relationships
Sex: sexual initiation, sexual abuse, child abuse
Cultural constructions
Cultural mutilation of black people in America
Male vs. female reactions to injustice
Love as a potentially damaging force
Guilt
Innocence
Other?
8. SYMBOLS AND MOTIFS
Find excerpts from the novel where these symbols and
motifs are introduced.
Which points is the novel trying to make?
Dandelions
Marigold seeds
The seasons
Eyes and vision (seeing vs. being seen)
Dirtiness and cleanliness
Pecola’s madness
Pecola’s baby
Blue-eyed dolls
The Breedloves’ couch
The family of the Dick and Jane primer
Hollywood’s iconic actresses
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