THE BLUEST EYE

(Excerpts)

Toni Morrison

Background Information
About the author
Toni Morrison (born in Lorain, Ohio on February 18, 1931) is a Nobel Prize
and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are
known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters.

Novels
Beloved (1987)
The Bluest Eye (1970)

Jazz (1992)

Sula (1974)

Paradise (1999)

Song of Solomon (1977) Love (2003)

Tar Baby (1981)

A Mercy (2008)

About the novel The Bluest Eye

I. The Story
The Bluest Eye is the story of eleven-yearold Pecola Breedlove--a black girl who is
regarded ugly by everyone, including her
parents, even herself. Her parents ignore her,
other school children bully her, and she is
raped by her drunk father and gets pregnant,
later she gives birth to a stillborn child. Finally
Pecola loses her mind and spends the rest of
her life as a mad woman believing that she has
the bluest eyes of the world and she is
beautiful, happy and all the problems are gone.

Primer Story
Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a
red door. It is very pretty. Here is the family.
Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane live in the greenand-white house. They are very happy. See Jane.
She has a red dress. She wants to play. Who will
play with Jane? The kitten goes meow-meow. The
kitten will not play. See Mother. Mother laughs.
Laugh, Mother, laugh. See Father. He is big and
strong. Father, will you play with Jane? Father is
smiling. Smile, Father, smile. See the dog.
Bowwow goes the dog. Do you want to play with
Jane? See the dog run. Run, dog, run. Look, look.
Here comes a friend. The friend will play with
Jane. They will play a good game. Play, Jane, Play.

Back Cover
"Each night Pecola prayed for
blue eyes. In her eleven years, no
one had ever noticed Pecola. But
with blue eyes, she thought,
everything would be different. She
would be so pretty that her parents
would stop fighting. Her father
would stop drinking. Her brother
would stop running away. If only
she could be beautiful. If only
people would look at her."

II. Theme
Source of the tragedy: black people accepted and internalized white
values and developed self-contempt and self-hatred for themselves or other
black people, making some of their own people victims and scapegoats.
The impact of mainstream white culture upon black people, which make
them victim of the circumstances.
"Beauty, love actually, I think, all the time that I write, Im writing
about love or its absence.I thought in The Bluest Eye, that I was writing
about beauty, miracles, and self-images, about the way in which people can
hurt each other, about whether or not one is beautiful."
-------Toni Morrison

Useful Links:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/morrison/index.html
http://www.gradesaver.com/bluest-eye/
http://lz.book.sohu.com/serialize-id-4131.html

Detailed Analysis of the Text

Structure
Part 1 (Paras.1-9) About those brown girls.
I. (1-5) General analysis of these brown girls
II. (6-9) Distorted personality because of their hiding their nature.
Part 2 (Paras. 10-53) What happens to Pecola in the house of such
a brown girl.

Detailed Analysis of the Text

Discourse analysis (Para 1-5)
Question: There is a central idea in each of the five
paragraphs. Can you point them out?
In paragraph 1, the author refers to a character type resulting from the
brown girls hometowns.
In paragraph 2, the author gives a general picture of who these brown girls
are, what they are like, and how they live.
In paragraph 3, the author shows the brown girls school education.
In paragraph 4, the author shows that the brown girls have not only
assimilated the way of life but also the ideology of the white middle-class.
In paragraph 5, the author shows the brown girls skills in keeping a
household.

Para. 1
Questions on content:
1.Who are they described in Paragraph 1 to 5?
"They" refer to a type of black people here: brown-skinned people, they have brown
skins, which are lighter than those of the normal black people.
2. Paraphrase a white butterfly glance off a fence with a torn wing
glance off: hit a surface at an angle and move away from it in another direction
Here the author uses a butterfly with a torn wing as a metaphor, meaning fragile
beauty.
3. How do you understand "The sounds of these places in their mouths make you
think of love."

Para. 2
In this paragraph the author gives a general picture of who these brown girls are,
what they are like, and how they live. The descriptions show that they are
thoroughly assimilated into the white, middle-class way of life.
Read the first eight lines and pay attention to the following expressions.
1.The sound of it opens the windows of a room like the first four notes of a hymn.
2.sly affection
3.But these girls soak up the juice of their home towns, and it never leaves them.
4.They have the eyes of people who can tell what time it is by the color of the sky.

Para. 2
5. Next several sentences tell us that in the black neighborhoods, everyone has a
good and steady job, things are arranged for leisure, and many plants are grown
to make a pretty house.Read the part "Such girls live in quiet black
neighborhoods where everybody is gainfully employed. and NO ICE on the
fourth."and pay attention to the following expressions.
porch swings hanging from chains:
Rooster Comb
Bleeding heart
Mother-in-law Tongue
6. What is the cardboard sign like? What is the use of the sign?

Para. 2
Read the rest lines of this paragraph, and answer the following questions.
7. "These particular brown girls are not like some of their sisters." How are they
different?
8. The following part talks about how these brown girls try to imitate the middleclass whites and to make themselves clean and pretty according the standards of
beauty set by the dominant culture.
9. Why did they always sing the second soprano? Why they call sex "nookey"?

Para. 3&4
In these two paragraphs the author shows that these brown girls have not only
assimilated the way of life but also the ideology of the white bourgeoisie/middle-class.
They receive more formal school education than their poorer sisters, as a result they are
more alienated from their black cultural heritage and try to get rid of the funkiness of
nature, the funkiness of the wide range of human emotion.
Land-grant colleges:
Normal school:

Home economics:

So what is the meaning of "funkiness"?

Note 12
Funky has several meanings. It is associated with a jazz style having an earthy
quality derived from early blues or gospel music. It may mean unconventional,
eccentric, offbeat, etc.. It also may mean very emotional, informal, relaxed, casual, etc..
Funk is associated with spontaneity and sensuality.

Para. 3&4
Para4 shows how the brown girls try hard to repress their emotions and passions.
Some vivid verbs: erupt- wipe it away
crust- dissolve it
drip, flower,cling-find it and fight it
How did they fight it?
details: laugh not too loud
enunciation not too round
behind not to sway too free
gesture not too generous
worry about their lips and the edges of their hair

Para. 6-9
What does the author tell us about the brown girl in Paragraphs 6-9?
Para.6 : The brown girl will make her home her own inviolable world against any
outsider, even against her husband. She runs the house in her own way. Although she
keeps the house clean and tidy, she does not give it any warmth.
stick by stick: little by little, by and by
stand /mount guard over: guard
A sidelong look will be enough to amoke on the back porch.
Nor do they know that she will give her body sparingly and partially.
Para.7-9: Usually she would have distorted personality. She denies herself of normal
sensual experience and therefore can only find occasional sensual delight in a cat, who
is first even to her own son.

Para. 6-9
How did she become such a distorted woman?
"When the intruder comes home..." Who is the intruder?
Her husband.
Several words to describe the cat:
settle and caress her with his eyes;
back paws struggle for footing on her breasts, forepaws cling to her shoulders;
preen, stretch, open his mouth;
writhe beneath her hand, flatten his eyes;
circle about her shanks;
soft hill of hair: hair like a soft hill
Note: of is used between two nouns, with the first describing the second
e.g. a tyrant of a father
that palace of a house
In rushed a giant of a French officer.
She was a mere slip of a girl.

Part 2 (Para.10-53)
I. (Paras. 10-14): About Mrs. Geraldine and her son Junior.
II. (Paras. 15-53): What happens to poor little Pecola.
Para. 10
What is the function of Paragraph 10?
This paragraph serves as a transition of the brown girls in general to focusing on one
particular brown girl Geraldine.
Para. 11
What does a baby need to grow up healthily?
Physically needs: comfort and satiety; brushed, bathed,oiled and shod.
Emotional needs: talk to him, coo to him, indulge him in kissing bouts, let them cry.
What is Junior's feeling towards his mother? Do you think Junior also has a
distorted personality?

Para. 12
1.Sport Facilities at school campus:
swing:
slide: smooth slope, track or chute down on which children can play at sliding
Monkey bars: an arrangement of horizontal and vertical bars erected as in a
playground for children to climb on, swing from, etc.
seesaw: long plank, balanced on a center support, and with a person sitting at each
end, which can rise and fall alternately
2.ways to address a black:Nigger, Negro, the black, African-American
3."His hair was cutas clost to his scalp as possible to avoid any suggestion of wool,
the part was etched into his hair by the barbor."
to avoid any suggestion of wool:
part: n.
etch: to make a drawing, design, etc. on mental, glass, etc. engrave; here used
metaphorically to refer to the action of the barbers scissors

Para. 13
Question: What kind of boy Junior used to be? What change has taken place in
Junior in his relationship with other boys? What has caused such a change in
him?
Several details about the former Junior:
He liked the game King of the Mountain: a game in which each player attempts to climb to
the top of a mound of earth and to prevent all others from pushing or pulling his/her off the top.
smell their wild blackness:
He wanted to sit with them on curbstones and compare the sharpness of jackknives, the
distance and arcs of spitting.
Present Junior: play only with white children who are good enough for him;
bully girls; lie; throw gravel at others
pick on (infml.): to tease or bully; choose for punishment, blame, or an unpleasant job, esp.
repeatedly and unfairly
e.g. Why are you always picking on me?
beat him witless: beat him dead

Para. 15-34
Expressions
when the mood struck him(para.15)
at recess(para.15): a pause from doing something (as work)/ break.
smile his encouragement(para.33)
Questions:
1.How to explain Juniors alternately bored and frightened at home?
He is frightened of what?
2. Why Pecola kept her head down? Why no one ever played with her?

Para. 35
Main content: When Pecola stepped into the house, she was amazed at its beauty,
suddenly Junior threw a cat in her face.
Q: Whats the symbolic meaning of the description of the Bible and the picture
of Jesus Christ?
A: The Bible, containing all the important teachings of Jesus Christ, is a symbol of
Christian faith. However, the big red-and-gold Bible placed on the most conspicuous
place in the room had become a showpiece. For the same purpose of showing off, a
color picture of Jesus Christ hung on a wall with pretty paper flowers. It is easy to see
the irony here because Jesus Christ teaches love of one another, love of your
neighbors, but what Junior and his mother did to Pecola later before the picture of
Jesus is just the opposite. They have nothing but hatred for this little black girl.

Para. 36-39
This part shows how Junior took delight in torturing Pecola.
Description
Junior was laughing and running around the room clutching his stomach delightedly.(para.36)
"You can't get out. You are my prisoner,"he said. His eyes were merry but hard..(para.37)
Pecola's banging on the door increased his gasping, high-pitched laughter.(para.39)
Para. 40-44

Can you retell this part in your own words?

Para. 45-48
1. Translate the following sentences describing Pecola.
She looked at Pecola. Saw the dirty torn dress, the plaits sticking out on her head, hair
matted where the plaits had come undone, the muddy shoes with the wad of gum peeping out
from between the cheap soles, the soiled socks, one of which had been walked down into the heel
of the shoe.

Para. 48
2.In the sentenceshe had seen this little girl all of her life, doesthis little girl refer to Pecola
specifically?
3. Paraphrase: "Eyes that questioned nothing and asked everything."
4. Paraphrase:"The end of the world lay in their eyes, and the beginning, and all the waste in
between."
Para. 49
In this paragraph, Geraldine listed things these black girls did to prove that they had no
manners and were not nice and quiet like brown girls.
Pay attention to the following sentences:
The girls grew up knowing nothing of girdles, and the boys announced their manhood by
turning the bills of their caps backward.
Grass wouldn't grow where they lived.Flowers died. Shades fell down. Tin cans and tires
blossomed where they lived.

Para. 50-53 The end of the story.

1. "You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house."(para.51)
----very strong swearword. What does it show?
2. "Pecola backed out of the room, staring at the pretty milk-brown lady in the pretty gold-andgreen house who was talking to her through the cat's fur."(para.52)
This picture is created in contrast with the picture depicted in the primer at the beginning of
the novel, and an ironic effect is achieved.
In the pretty and green-and-white house, Jane lives happily with her mother and father, a
kitten and a dog. The lovely kitten goes meow meow. A friend comes and will play with Jane.
3. ...Jesus looking down at her with sad and unsurpriesd eyes...(para.52)
4. Do you think the concluding paragraph is loaded with meanings into the description of how
Pecola walked away from the house?

The Bluest Eye

written by Toni Morrison

powerpoint by Risa Chavez

Important Characters
o Pecola Breedlove: narrator; a young
ugly black girl who lives in an old
store with her parents and brother
o Claudia MacTeer: narrator; Pecolas
friend.
o Frieda MacTeer; Claudias older,
braver sister. She also becomes
friends with Pecola.

More
Important
Characters
o Cholly Breedlove: Pecolas violent,
alcoholic father.
o Pauline Breedlove: Pecolas mother;
she is also a servant to a white
family.
o Soaphead Church: the town
psychic; he has an abnormal
fascination for young girls.

Before you read you should know ..

o The Bluest Eye was written in 1970.

o The author, Toni Morrison, was born
during the Great Depression and had
a rough childhood.
o During this time, racism was a major
issue, especially in the South.
o The narrator changes throughout the
book, so pay close attention.
o There are some very graphic scenes
in the book.

The Authors Objective

o The Bluest Eye is inspired by a
real girl that Morrison met when
she was younger.
o The book came from a last minute
story that she had to write for a
literary discussion group.
o Toni Morrison wanted to write a
book in which black girls were
center stage.

Setting
o The Bluest Eye is set in Lorain,
Ohio.
o The Great Depression has just
ended and many families are hard
for money.
o The book takes place in various
places depending on which
character is narrating and whose
story is being told.

Summary of the Book

Pecola Breedlove is a young, black girl with a very difficult life.
Her father is a drunk and her mother just ignores all the
problems at home. Pecolas brother runs away a lot, so she
spends most of her time alone, dreaming of a different life.
No one likes Pecola. They think she is dirty and nasty. Boys
make fun of her, girls mock her and adults look past her.
However, she does make two friends. Claudia and Freida
MacTeer get to know Pecola when she comes to live with
them due to her rough home life. They sympathize with her
and when she moves back with her parents, they keep an
eye on her to make sure she is okay.

Summary continued
Pecolas life takes a drastic turn when her father loses
control. One day when he comes home and she is
there alone, he gets a strange feeling, the same
feeling he had the first time he met his wife.
The consequences of her fathers actions deeply
impact Pecola and her future. Claudia and Freida
sacrifice all the money they have to save the little
black girl who dreams of blue eyes.
Most of the book is composed of events from the pasts
of the main characters. These events are used to
explain the actions and personalities of the people
involved.

Main Themes
o Judging
A lot of the feelings between characters are the
product of quick judgement. No one took the time
to get to know the Breedloves. They saw they way
they lived and judged them, without looking
farther into the situation, without really knowing
how little Pecola felt.
o Whiteness is Beauty
Pecola thinks the only way she can be pretty is to
be like the white girls. She admires Shirley Temple
with her golden locks and sky blue eyes. Instead
of excepting who she is, dark skin and all, she
wastes away dreaming to be someone she can
never be.

& more main themes

o Abuse
Almost every character is somehow abused throughout
the book. Mrs. MacTeer yells at her daughters constantly,
Pauline Breedlove ignores Pecola when she tries to tell
her about the things her father has done, and Cholly
Breedlove beats his wife and abuses his daughter.
o Connections
Somehow, every character in The Bluest Eye is
connected. Through the flashbacks you learn that events
that may have happened a long time ago still have an
affect on people. The actions of one affect the lives of
many. Things dont just start and stop with one person.
They travel and change through the many different
relationships gained and maintained throughout the novel.

The bad ..

For me, The Bluest Eye was kind of

difficult to follow. You have to remember
details from the beginning of the book
to piece together events alluded to in
the end of the book.
I didnt realize certain things had
happened until after I finished the
novel. The narration was tough to keep
straight. I didnt know whose
perspective I was reading by.

.. & the good

Aside from some confusion, The Bluest Eye was a
really good book.
It took a world that most of us dont know about and
made it real. It really makes you think how others
might live, how others might think and how your
judgments can affect the lives they live.
Toni Morrison has a great way with words. Her
language is very appropriate for the time period and
place. It makes the setting feel more real and
modern. Morrison also has a great way of organizing
her work. It kept me intrigued and I didnt want the
book down until I knew what happened.

Should you read it ?

I would recommend this book to
anyone. It has a good story and the
characters and their situations really
open your eyes.

The Bluest Eye

By Toni Morrison

Written in:
New York: 19621965
First published in 1970

Setting:
Set in 1941 in Lorain, Ohio, Toni
Morrison's novel centers on a
particularly difficult year in the
life of eleven year old Pecola
Breedlove. Pecola comes from
a poor and poorly adjusted black
family.

Pecola feels ugly and

unaccepted by the
world around her, and
longs for blue eyes
Shirley Temple eyes
which she believes will
make her beautiful,
happy and finally
accepted.

Exigency:
In the Afterword to The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
writes that the novel came out of a childhood
conversation she could never forget.
She remembers a young black girl she knew who
wanted blue eyes, and how, like Claudia MacTeer in
the novel, this confession made her really angry.
Surrounded by the Black Is Beautiful movement of late
1960s African-American culture, Morrison decided to
write a novel about how internalized racism affects
young black girls in a range of ways some petty and
minute, some tragic and overwhelming.

Historical Context:
Yet Pecola's story encompasses
much more:

the effects of poverty felt by so

many families, especially poor
black families during the
Depression
the effects of racism and
segregation
distortion of self-image
encouraged by media
depictions of beauty and
happiness
the struggles of rural families
who moved north to find work in
industrial areas.

Themes: Whiteness as the Standard of Beauty

The Bluest Eye provides an

extended depiction of the
ways in which internalized
white beauty standards
deform the lives of black girls
and women.
Consider the effects this has
on the characters in novel,
and the overall societal result
of such a standard.

Critical Reception:

Due to its unflinching portrayal of incest,

prostitution, domestic violence, child
molestation, and racism, there have
been numerous attempts to ban the
book from libraries and schools across
the United States, some of them
successful.

Themes:

Seeing vs. Being Seen

Pecolas desire for blue eyes, while highly

unrealistic, is based on one correct
insight into her world: she believes that
the cruelty she witnesses and experiences
is connected to how she is seen. If she
had beautiful blue eyes, Pecola imagines,
people would not want to do ugly things
in front of her or to her.

What do black women in the novel ultimately have to

sacrifice in order to see themselves as beautiful?

The Power of Stories

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.

Consider each
characters motives
for telling their
individual stories,
what it reveals about
them and what they
get out of telling the
story.

Themes: Sexual Initiation and Abuse

To a large degree, The Bluest Eye is about both the pleasures and
the perils of sexual initiation. In the novel, parents carry much of
the blame for their childrens often traumatic sexual coming-ofage. The prevalence of sexual violence in the novel suggests
that racism is not the only thing that distorts black girlhoods.
Consider the
connection between
racism and sexism in
the novel as well as the
role that parents play in
perpetuating
views about race and
gender.

Themes: Satisfying Appetites vs. Suppressing

Them

A number of characters in The Bluest Eye define their

lives through a denial of their bodily needs. In
contrast, when characters experience happiness, it
is generally in viscerally physical terms.
Consider what the novel suggests about human
desire: How does one achieve true happiness and
redemption?

Motifs: The Dick-and-Jane Narrative

The novel opens with a distorted narrative from a Dickand-Jane reading primer. The chapter headings
throughout the novel are excerpted from this primer.
What is the significance of this reference? What
inferences are embedded in the alteration of the
primer? What is the inherent irony of this motif?

Motifs: The Seasons and Nature

The novel is divided into the four
seasons. As you read each
section, consider both societal
associations and your individual
associations with each season.
Does the plot match societal
expectations for each season?
Do Pecolas associations match
your own? Why or why not?

Motifs: Whiteness and Color

Consider the duality of what whiteness
represents in the novel. What do various
colors represent? Are these soft or vibrant
colors? What do these symbolic motifs
suggest about race and happiness?

Motifs: Eyes and Vision

Eyes and vision (or lack thereof), both externally and
internally, literally and metaphorically, are another
important, recurring motif in this novel. What
messages are conveyed to the characters, and in
turn to the reader, by this motif?

Motifs: Dirtiness and

Cleanliness
What are the cultural
implications of each?
What is judged as dirty or
clean?
What are the characters
relationships with
cleanliness and dirtiness?
What does this reveal
about them, what they
value and what they are
seeking?

Symbols:
These symbols are embedded with layers of
meaning, some which contain an
intentional duality. Consider their
developing meanings as we progress
throughout the text.
The House
The Bluest Eye(s)
Marigolds