Maureen Peal is
a light-skinned black girl who is the darling of teachers and students at school
The fact that the children use the word "black" as an insult against each other shows
that black people have internalized the loathing whites feel for them
The narrator tells us that for the Breedloves, ugliness comes from
their own conviction that they are ugly, shaped by social constructions of beauty
Claudia and Frieda discover that Mr. Henry
has prostitutes over at the house while the MacTeers are gone
Geraldine's reaction to Pecola reveals
that there are many blacks who internalize white bourgeois standards of behavior and beauty
6. The face of the cat (blue eyes and a black face) and the cat's death foreshadow
Pecola's madness
Mr. Henry is kicked out of the house because
he makes a sexual advance at Frieda
When Frieda and Claudia go looking for Pecola, they find her at the home of the white folks for whom Polly Breedlove works. From Mrs. Breedlove's treatment of her employers' daughter and Pecola, we can see that
Mrs. Breedlove treats the white girl with far more affection and tenderness than she treats her own child
Mrs. Breedlove, when younger, was obsessed with
movies and the world of movies, especially the beautiful Caucasian movie actresses
Mrs. Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove, like many of the blacks in the industrial towns of Ohio, migrated from
the South
When Mrs. Breedlove was in the hospital ready to give birth to Pecola, a white doctor said to a group of medical students that
the birth would be easy because black women give birth with no pain, like horses
Cholly was raised by
his Great Aunt Jimmy
M'Dear is the name of
the wise old woman whose advice to Great Aunt Jimmy was not followed, causing Great Aunt Jimmy's death
When young Cholly was humiliated by the white men by the river (forced to continue having sex with Darlene while the two white men watched), Cholly felt mostly anger directed at
Darlene
Soaphead Church uses Pecola to
poison a dog
Pecola, after being raped by her father and impregnated
loses her mind, manufacturing a second personality and believing that at last she has blue eyes
The image of the barren soil, with which the novel begins and ends, among other things suggests that
Pecola's tragedy has been produced largely by social forces, which continue to exist
The novel is divided into an untitled prelude and four sections. The four sections are named after
the four seasons
The very first section of the novel, elements of which are used later as chapter headings, is
a passage from a grade school reading primer, repeated and altered
Claudia MacTeer, the novel's main narrator, is Pecola's
friend
Claudia tells us in the beginning of the novel that Pecola
was impregnated by her own father
The date given in the prelude for the denouement of the novel's events is
1939
The time of the novel's events ties the story to
World War II and the Nazi regime's ideas of beauty
In the prelude, Claudia says that when facing the tragedy of Pecola, one
asks "why" and then, because "why" is too difficult to handle, asks "how"
The above-mentioned question posed by Claudia in the prelude shows that
philosophical questions like "why" might be impossible to handle, but a novel can dissect a social situation and an event, tackling the troubling question of "how"
Claudia's parents could best be described as
stern but loving
The MacTeer family gets a new boarder named
Mr. Henry
The second new boarder at the MacTeer home is
Pecola Breedlove
The second and temporary boarder comes to stay with the MacTeers because
her father, Cholly, hit her mother and tried to burn their house down
The actress that everyone seems to adore and Claudia hates is
Shirley Temple
Claudia's violent dissection of the blond haired and blue-eyed dolls parallels
the work of the novel, which examines and deconstructs social constructions of beauty and the source of black self-loathing
Pecola drinks too much of the MacTeer's milk because
she is so fond of drinking from the little cup that has Shirley Temple's face on it
When the girls are outside, Pecola notices that she
is bleeding between her legs
Pecola's bewilderment at her own first menstruation shows
the gap between her mother's detachment and Mrs. MacTeer's closeness to Claudia and Frieda
Pecola's first menstruation is ominous because
both we know that it makes it possible for her father to later impregnate her and the event is met initially with misunderstanding and even anger
The Breedlove's house is best described as being
cold, poor, and devoid of love
The relationship between Cholly and Polly Breedlove could be best described as
violent and characterized by strange co-dependence
The three women who live upstairs from the Breedloves work as
prostitutes
The names of China, Poland, and Marie (aka the Maginot Line) refer to
countries that were invaded by fascists around the time of the novel's events, linking the story and the America in which it is set to the Aryan ideal of beauty
Pecola want to have blue eyes so that
people will look at her and think she is beautiful, and so her life will change
The white shopkeeper's attitude towards Pecola could best be described as
disdainful and distant
Eyes and eyesight are important symbols throughout the novel of
subjectivity (meaning, sentience and status as a person and not an object) and the ability to recognize the subjectivity of others
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'swithout 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 girlsat 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.
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.
Bertha Reese
an old, religious woman from whom Soaphead Church rents his room. She is the owner of Bob, the dog that Soaphead Church loathes.
Mr. Henry
The middle-aged boarder taken in by the MacTeers near the beginning of the novel. Mr. Henry is charming but is somewhat lecheroushe 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.
Mr. Yacobowski
store owner who sells Pecola nine pieces of Mary Jane candy. Pecola can read in his eyes the impatience and disdain that he feels for her, and she internalizes all of it.
Rosemary
a girl who lives next door. A tattletale. Claudia and Frieda dislike her immensely.
Miss Dunion
A nosy neighbor who lives next door. When she insinuates that Mr. Henry might have "ruined" Frieda, she incites the wrath of Mrs. MacTeer.
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.
M'Dear
An old wise woman who comes to give Aunt Jimmy medical advice. She is a tall woman, and her authority is considered infallible. Sure enough, when Aunt Jimmy violates one of M'Dear's prescriptions, she dies.
Samson Fuller
Possibly Cholly's father. When Cholly is a young man, he tracks Samson down. Samson humiliates him and tells him to go away.
Blue Jack
The closest thing to a father figure in Cholly's early life. He shares a watermelon heart with Cholly and it's one of the happiest moments Cholly ever knows.
