Bluest Eye

Point of View and Narration

Dick and Jane

Each section has a heading taken from a reading primer's Dick and Jane story. The use of the primer is a comment on the distance between Pecola's life and the pink-skinned bourgeois world in the Dick and Jane story. Each heading is a clean, straightforward match up: the section about Pecola's house is headed by a Dick-and-Jane sentence about their house, the section about Pauline is prefaced by a Dick-and-Jane sentence about their mother, etc.

Point of View
One of the key narrative techniques used by Morrison in The Bluest Eye is the incorporation of multiple points of view. This allow multiple perspectives of the stories and context of the main characters and environment. It also allows a roundness of characters

The point of view in The Bluest Eye is dominated by first person ("I") through the mind of Claudia MacTeer, sometimes narrating as a nine-year-old child and sometimes as an adult. This shift allows the narrator to both empathise with Pecola, and reflect on the story

The narrative as a whole is the adult Claudia's flashback, framed by her adult musings and interspersed with scenes presented by the third-person narrator.

A third-person omniscient, anonymous narrator also exists in the novel. For example, this narrator presents to us the childhoods and early adulthoods of Cholly and Pauline, providing a means for the reader to understand the path which has taken Cholly and Pauline to such depths of self-loathing.

The novel is divided into four parts to correspond with the four seasons, an appropriate structure since the main characters, nineyear-old girls, would measure time by passage of the seasons. Each section is frames by the first chapter being Claudia as a first person narrator

Point of View
Prologue 1: Third Person Unknown Prologue 2: Adult Claudia, POV of Adult

Point of View
Autumn

Chapter 1: Adult Claudia, POV of Child

Chapter 2: Third Person Narrator Chapter 3: Third Person Narrator: Breedloves-Pecola

Point of View
Winter

Chapter 4: Adult Claudia, POV of Child

Chapter 5: Third Person Narrator: Gerladine--Junior--Pecola

Point of View
Spring Chapter 6: Adult Claudia: POV of Child Chapter 7: Third Person Narrator: Polly Breedlove - First Person: Polly Breedlove Chapter 8: Third Person: Cholly Breedlove Chapter 9: Third Person: Soaphead Church, First Person: Soaphead letter to God.

Point of View
Summer

Chapter 10: Adult Claudia: POV of Child

Chapter 11: Dialogue: Pecola and Imaginary Friend- Adult Claudia, POV of Adult

Point of View
Prologue 1: Third Person Unknown Prologue 2: Adult Claudia, POV Adult

Autumn
Chapter 1: Adult Claudia, POV of Child Chapter 2: Third Person Narrator: Breedloves Chapter 3: Third Person Narrator: Breedloves-- Pecola

Winter
Chapter 4: Adult Claudia, POV of Child Chapter 5: Third Person Narrator: Gerladine--Junior--Pecola

Spring
Chapter 6: Adult Claudia: POV of Child Chapter 7: Third Person Narrator: Polly Breedlove - First Person: Polly Breedlove Chapter 8: Third Person: Cholly Breedlove Chapter 9: Third Person: Soaphead Church, First Person: Soaphead letter to God.

Summer
Chapter 10: Adult Claudia: POV of Child Chapter 11: Dialogue: Pecola and Imaginary Friend- Adult Claudia, POV of Adult