Welcome back, P.O.U. Fam and Lurkers! I am getting back on track with our book club, since last two weeks were delayed due to the transition of the new website.
The Bluest Eye is the selection that we are reading. Today I am covering the section entitled, “Autumn”.
There are several characters who have been introduced in this section:
Pecola Breedlove– Pecola is described as plain, passive oung black girl who is befriended by Claudia and Frieda MacTeer after county officials place her temporarily in their home.
Claudia Mac Teer– She is one of the novel’s narrators. She is around 8 or 9 years old.
Frieda MacTeer– Older sister of Claudia
Mrs. MacTeer– Mother of Frieda and Claudia
Pauline Breedlove– Mother of Pecola and Sammy
Cholly Breedlove– Father of Pecola and Sammy
Sammy Breedlove– Son of Cholly and Pauline
Marie, China, and Poland– Three prostitutes who live in an apartment above the Breedloves. Claudia and Frieda are fascinated with them. Pecola befriends them.
Della Jones-Mr. Henry’s former landlady
Peggy– A woman who is romantically involved with Della Jones’ husband
Old Slack Bernie– Peggy’s mother
Hattie– Della’s sister and the object of gossip because of her absent -minded grinning.
Aunt Julia– Della’s eccentric aunt
Dewey Prince– One of Marie’s boyfriends
Rosemary Villanucci– Claudia and Frieda’s next door white neighbor
Darlene– Cholly’s first girlfirend
Mr. Henry-Boarding with the MacTeers
Mr. Yacobowski– White Immigrant owner of the neighborhood store
In the section Autumn, we are introduced the Cludia MacTeer, through her narration. She lives with sister, mother and father. She talks about how the marigolds didn’t bloomed. She also discusses how her life, as well as her sister’s and Pecola Breedlove’s will change forever.
Pecola Breedlove comes to stay with the MacTeers after being placed there by county officials after her family burns down the family house and is currently sitting in jail. Also, Mr Henry comes to stay with the MacTeers and pays for boarding.
Pecola, Claudia, and Frieda all share adventures together while Pecola is there. The biggest incident occurs when Pecola starts her menstrual cycle.
Also, there are some flashbacks in the section to Pecola’s life before her family’s house burned downed. They live in an old storefront. Cholly and Pauline Breedlove argue constantly and are physically violent to each other. Pecola believes that she is ugly because she is black. The whole Breedlove family feels ugly.
Pecola has an obsession with having blue eyes and blonde hair, she feels that her life would have been better and people would take her seriously. Whenever her parents argue, she makes herself invisible, she gets picked on at school, she gets mistreated by Mr. Yacobowski at his store, he doesn’t want to touch her, and she is passive.
Pecola obsession with whiteness also manifest n her love of white dolls, Shirley Temple, buying Mary Jane candies and starring at the blond, blue eyed white girl on the wrapper and wanting to have the bluest eyes possible.
Claudia feels the complete opposite about whiteness, she doesn’t like it or white dolls.
At the beginning of the book there is a section that tells the story of Dick and Jane and how they live in a pretty house and a pretty white family, etc. etc., similar to the early books that given to school children to read in the 50’s-70’s.
The first time this is mentioned, the paragraphs are grammatically correct with punctuation, the second time this paragraph shows up , it lacking punctuation and has run-on sentences. The third time this shows up, the sentence is barely comprehensible.
Parts of this paragraph are shown throughout this section and they are incomprehensible. As part of the discussion, do you know why that is? Also, how do feel about Toni Morrison’s writing style? This is her first book.
Discuss about the book as much as you want, about your likes and dislikes concerning this section. The next section to read is Winter and we will discuss that on March 29th.