Plot Claudia and Frieda MacTeer live in Lorain Ohio, they are two African American girls Their parents take in Pecola Breedlove because her father burned down her house. Pecola is a very troubled girl, she believes she is ugly aand that she will become pretty by having blue eyes She moves back with her family, but there are a lot of problems, such as her father’s drinking and her mother’s hate.

Plot One day, Pecola’s father rapes Pecola, but her mother hates her so much that she doesn’t believe her Pecola starts to get obsessed with having blue eyes but feels as if God doesn’t listen to her, so she goes with a priest to ask him for blue eyes. Pecola gets pregnant but loses the child, but later on she is raped again by her father.

Plot Pecola goes crazy and starts to believe she has blue eyes, she even believes of having an imaginary friend She is so isolated that people in town start to gossip and they find out she is pregnant again Pecola has the baby, but she is so mentally ill that she ends up alone

Characters Claudia: African american girl that hates light skinned people Frieda: Claudia’s sister, her family ‘’adopts’’ Pecola at the beginning of the novel Pecola: Main character, she is a very troubled girl who believes that having blue eyes will make her pretty and end her unhappiness Mr Breedlove: Pecola’s father, he is a troubled man who is very violent and hits his wife, he rapes Pecola Mrs Breedlove: Pecola’s mother, she is very unhappy and hates her life, she blames Pecola for her unhappiness

Setting A poor neighborhood in Lorain, Ohio, at the end of the Great Depression All –black neighborhood Violent and racist environment Homes were filled with violence and hate Late 1960s

Climax Pecola is raped by her father and gets pregnant People in town start to judge her and assume she will become a prostitute and have an unhappy life She gets so obsessed with having blue eyes that she starts to imagine them She goes crazy, starts to have conversations with an imaginary friend

Cultural background In the late 1960s, African American people suffered from racism and segregation Black is Beautiful movement Issues such as incest, prostitution, domestic violence , child molestation and racism were very common in black communities

Author Toni Morrison was born in Lorain Ohio in February 18, 1931 She is an American novelist known for the epic themes and realistic characters portrayed in her novels She won a Pulitzer prize in 1988 Nobel Prize winner in 1933 Most of her stories are based on events of her earlier life

The Book In this book, the author wanted to portray typical problems that black girls faced in the late 60s. She was inspired by an event that happened in her childhood, when she listened to one of her school friends saying that she wanted to have blue eyes because they meant beauty The book portrays a cruel reality that was very common in that time, she wrote about things that were real and common