The Bluest Eye (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Toni Morrison
- First Published: 1970
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: 1940-1941
- Setting: Lorain, Ohio
- Principal Characters: Claudia MacTeer, Pecola Breedlove, Pauline (Polly) Breedlove, Cholly Breedlove, Frieda Macteer, Micah Elihue Whitcomb (Soaphead Church)
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Social realism, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: African Americans, Girls, Family or family life, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Racism, Adolescence, Race, Sex or sexuality, 1940’s, Religion, Midwest, Ohio, Poverty or poor people, Alcoholism or alcoholics, Beauty, Child abuse, Domestic violence, Emotions, Incest, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Mental illness, Obsession, Pregnancy, Rape, Substance abuse
- Locales: Lorain, OH
The Novel
The events in The Bluest Eye are seen from the point of view of Claudia MacTeer. As the novel begins, Claudia is looking back at the year when she was nine and when her friend Pecola Breedlove, then eleven, became pregnant, having been raped by her own father, Cholly Breedlove. In the summer of 1941, Claudia and her sister, Frieda, planted marigold seeds in the childish belief that if the marigolds survived, so would Pecola’s baby. Even as the novel opens, however, the reader knows that the seeds never germinated and that the baby died. Years later, it is...
[The entire page is 3107 words long]
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