2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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