The Bluest Eye Short Summary

The Bluest Eye is a novel by a prized novelist Toni Morrison who won a Nobel Prize for his works which confront the issue of racism and its consequences in the United States. The novel is set in Ohio. The novel is divided into different sections named after the seasons and has two narrators both the same person but during different times.

The Summarized Plot

Claudia and Frieda live in Ohio. Their parents do not pay much attention to them as they are busy providing for the family. A girl going by the name Pecola, whose father attempted to burn their home returns to her family, and life does not get better. Her father is a drunk and mother is distant, they often fight. Sammy, Pecola’s brother, runs away often. Pecola believes she is ugly because she is not white, and because she lacks blue eyes. Her friend and other boys make fun of her several times. She is even accused wrongfully of killing a cat belonging to a certain boy.

Pauline, Pecola’s mother, is partially lame and often feels isolated. She loves movies, but they make her believe in her ugliness and that only the beautiful deserve love. She is not opposed to her husband’s violence since it makes her a martyr. She cleans a white woman’s home, and it makes her hate her own.

Pecola’s father, Cholly, was an abandoned child raised by an aunt who later died in his teenage years. He searched for his father but got rejected. He later got to meet Pauline while he was a rootless wild man. He hates his marriage and feels trapped.

Cholly goes home and finds his daughter cleaning dishes and rapes her. Pecola’s mother returns to find her on the kitchen floor and fails to believe Pecola’s story. She instead beats Pecola.

Frieda and Claudia figure out that Pecola is pregnant with Cholly’s child. They want the child to live despite other opinions from neighbors. The two use money they had saved to buy marigold seeds that they plant. They believe that Pecola’s child will live in case the flowers thrive. Their flowers fail to bloom, and Pecola’s child dies after being born prematurely. Pecola is raped by Cholly again who then escapes. He later meets his death in a certain workhouse. His daughter, Pecola, becomes mad. She sees everyone staring at her and believes she has received the bluest eyes.