The Bluest Eye Summer Summary

Claudia and Freida sell Marigolds in order to buy a bike. In the process of selling the flowers to people, they piece together the story of Pecola. The story is that her father got her pregnant and Cholly is gone. Most people think the baby should just die and blame Pecola for the incident. Claudia seems to love the unborn baby. She seems to feel that everyone else hate the baby, just as she hates everyone's love for white people. As a symbol of love and prayer, the girls plant Marigold seeds to help Pecola and the baby. Pecola miraculously gets blue eyes. We don't know exactly how, but she is talking to someone and she is looking into the mirror at her new eyes. Yet, teh blue eyes have the opposite effect she dreamed of them having. No one will even look at her. We learn that Pecola was raped more than once by Cholly. Pecola becomes angry and wishes her eyes were even bluer. Pecola goes mad and moves to a house on the outside of town. Cholly also dies in a workhouse. The novel focuses on the different variations of love, " Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe." 

The Bluest Eye Spring Summary

Claudia returns home one day to find her mother singing and Freida crying. She learns that Henry touched Freida's breasts. When Freida runs to find her parents, they discover that Henry left. When Henry returned Mr. MacTeer shot at him with a gun. Rosemary alerted Freida that her father was going to go to jail for using the gun, so Freida attacked her. Miss Dunion says Freida may be "ruined", which Claudia and Freida don't understand. They think it means that Freida will get fat so they ask Pecola to get her father's whiskey in hopes that it will keep her from becoming overweight. They find Pecola and ask her about the Maginot Line. She is confused because she thinks she is nice. Claudia and Freida are mad that the little white girl of the rich house called Mrs. Breedlove "Polly". Mrs. Breedlove beats Pecola for knocking a cobbler off the counter, onto the floor. The girls are sent away while the white girl cries. We begin to learn about Cholly Breedlove, who was rescued by his Great Aunt Jimmy when he was abandoned by his mother. Aunt Jimmy becomes ill and M'Dear starts to heal her. However, Cholly finds her dead after eating a cobbler. Cholly and his older cousin Jake take two girls out. Cholly is caught having sex with Darlene by two white hunters. The white men make Cholly continue while they watch, holding flashlights. Yet, Cholly becomes angry at Darlene rather than the hunters. Cholly runs away in search of his father, Samson Fuller. Cholly goes to Macon, Georgia and finds his father who thinks Cholly is a creditor. In his journey, Cholly kills three white men and beats women. When Pauline stumbles into his life, he begins to feel captured and starts drinking a lot. This Spring, Cholly comes home drunka and rapes poor Pecola. We then meet Soaphead Church. He is a "reader, advisor, and interpretor of dreams". He marries Velma, but she leaves him after only two months. Pecola comes to Soaphead to ask him to give her blue eyes. He tricks Pecola into poisoning Bertha's dog so he wouldn't have to do it. He tells her if she does, she will get blue eyes. We learn he is a pedophile and writes a letter to God in which he explains is love for young breasts. He worships whiteness and feels superior due to his mixed color.

The Bluest Eye Winter Summary

When Maureen Peel comes to their school, Claudia and Freida aren't sure what to think of her. They seem envious of her light skin. However, one day Claudia and Freida walk home with Maureen and come upon a group of boys taunting Pecola. The girls defend Pecola and Freida hits one of the boys. Maureen seems to defer the boys and they stop. Maureen comforts Pecola with icecream. The girls start arguing when Maureen brings up sensitive issues such as Pecola's father's nudity. Then, Maureen says the girls are ugly, which hurts them. They come home to Henry with a bunch of hookers but don't tell their mother because she hates these prostitutes. A new character becomes prevalent. Geraldine is not a very loving woman, but she takes good care of the home and family. She has a husband Louis and a son Junior. Junior begins to torment Pecola, throwing a cat in her face. The cat claws her but then rubs against her as she begins to pet it. Junior doesn't like the cat because his mother shows more love for the cat than she does towards him. He picks up the cat and swings it by its legs. The cat dies just as Geraldine walks in the room. Junior blames the already upset Pecola.

The Bluest Eye Autumn Summary

The setting of the book is mostly in the old, run down house of the Macteer's that is renting to a new tenant, Henry Washington. Claudia catches a cold at the beginning of the school year. Comforted by Frieda's singing and her mother's care, Claudia feels the presence of love. At the arrival of Henry Washington, the children love his magic tricks and games. Another new arrival to the household is Pecola, who was put out of her home after her father burned it down. Pecola has a love a Shirley Temple cup, of which Claudia resents. Shirley Temple, just as her baby doll, represents blonde haired, blue eyed white girls. She doesn't understand why those are the standards for "beauty. This hatred turned into a hatred for white girls. One afternoon, Pecola started her period and that night asked Freida how babies are made. Then, she asked how to get someone to love you. The next chapter described the apartment the Breedloves occupy after Pecola's father is out of jail. It was a storefront that was divided by wooden planks. It was an unmemorable home and didn't have much meaning to the family. The Breedloves are a poor black family that has little confidence in their appearance. Pecola wakes up one night to her mother picking a fight with her father in the kitchen. Mrs. Breedlove and Cholly rely on each other, despite the arguments and drunken episodes. The reader learns that when Cholly was young, two white men caught him having sex with a girl and forced him to continue while they watched. Cholly gained hatred for the girl instead of the men. Pecola often lays in bed and listens to the arguments, wishing she would just disappear. One day, Pecola visits the prostitutes that live above her. They tell Pecola all about their boyfriends, who are actually their clients. Miss Marie is in love with Dewey Price, yet the narrator says these women actually hate men. Pecola continues to wonder what love is like.

The Bluest Eye Prologue Summary

The novel starts out with a short children's story of Dick and Jane. First, the sentences are short and brief. Then, the next section has absolutely no punctuation and is just one giant run on sentence. Also, the names aren't capitalized For example, it reads " Here is the house it is green and white it has a red door it is very pretty here is the family mother father dick and jane" and the sentence continues on in the same form.
The next section  has no punctuation, capitalization, or even spacing. It reads "Hereisthehouseitisgreenandwhiteithasareddooritisveryprettyhereisthefamilymotherfatherdickandjane" and once again continues in the same form.When the reader reads these pages, they tend to speed up in each section. It reminded me of a cassette tape fast forwarding.
Next, it reaches italicized writing that talks about how there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941 and how Pecola was having her father's baby. At this point the reader doesn't know who the narrator is. The seed of the marigolds seem to have a significant meaning in terms of the safe delivery of Pecola's baby.