The Bluest Eye

Key Facts

full title The Bluest Eye author Toni Morrison type of work Novel genre Bildungroman (Coming-of-age), tragedy, elegy language English time and place written New York, 19621965 date of first publication 1970

narrator Two narrators: Claudia MacTeer, who narrates in a mixture of a childs and an adults perspective; and an omniscient narrator. point of view Claudias and Pecolas points of view are dominant, but we also see things from Chollys, Paulines, and other characters points of view. Point of view is deliberately fragmented to give a sense of the characters experiences of dislocation and to help us sympathize with multiple characters.

tone Lyrical, elegiac, embittered, matter-offact, colloquial tense Past, as seen by the adult Claudia setting (time) 1940 1941 setting (place) Lorain, Ohio protagonist Pecola Breedlove

major conflict Pecola needs to receive love from somebody, but her parents and the other members of her community are unable to love her because they have been damaged and thwarted in their own lives.