The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye Summary | Autumn Summary

It is the fall of 1941 and sisters Claudia and Frieda get new brown stockings and cod liver oil to start school with. There is some talk among the grown ups about what's going on at Zick's Coal Company and they pick up coal pieces at night along the railroad tracks. Their house is old and drafty; lit only by one kerosene lamp. The two girls seem to be objects in the house rather than human beings. When the cold weather comes and Claudia gets a cold and her mother chastises her for being inconsiderate. Nonetheless, Claudia's mother covers her in Vicks and flannel and puts her to bed under a pile of quilts to sweat it out. When Claudia thinks back on that autumn, all she remembers is that somebody didn't want her to die.

Mr. Henry comes to stay with them that August. Mr. Henry is the new boarder who had been staying with Miss Della Jones until the woman went addled so Mr. Henry's arrival is quite an event. He smells of lemons and Sen-Sen and does magic tricks. Most importantly, Mr. Henry speaks directly to the girls; he does not ignore them like most adults do.

Pecola also comes to stay with them. The county has placed Pecola in their home because her own family is in trouble and the authorities need a safe place to put her until things get straightened out. The girls hear the adults say that Pecola's family is really outdoors now. Claudia knows all too well that outdoors is different from being out. If you are put out, you just go somewhere else, but if you're outdoors, there is nowhere else for you to go. Outdoors was the very last resort and you did not want to go there.

It was the fear of being outdoors that drove black people to property ownership. All the time they were renting, they talked about the day when they would have their own homes. Pecola, having come from a renting family, arrived at their house with nothing. Pecola did not even a change of clothes so the two sisters tried very hard to keep her from feeling outdoors.

Frieda and Pecola struck up an instant friendship because they both thought Shirley Temple was so cute. Claudia didn't share their enthusiasm. She though that she didn't like Shirley Temple for the same reason that she hated dolls. Every Christmas, she would get some hard headed, blue eyed baby doll with clothes that scratched you when you tried to hold her. Claudia didn't think that dolls were entertaining; she preferred to dismember the dolls and explore their insides. The way she treated her dolls didn't discourage the adults; every year they brought her another one.

Claudia wished that the adults would ask her what she really wanted. She wouldn't have said she wanted a doll. She would have told them that she wanted nothing more than to sit on her little stool in Big Mama's kitchen with lilacs on her lap and listen to Big Papa play the violin. Sitting in the kitchen would satisfy most of her senses and she would eat a peach at the end just to make sure that all her senses were attended to.

She transfers her hatred of the dolls to the little white girls who think that they are so cute. Claudia rests the fact that white girls think they are cute but that Claudia isn't cute.

A few days after Pecola arrives; the girls are sitting on the back porch trying to avoid their mother's ranting. Suddenly, Pecola half screams and she stands up while blood gushes between her legs and stains the back of her dress. Frieda was the voice of reason and she figures out what is happening right away. Frieda sends Claudia inside for water to wash off the steps. The girls then take Pecola back behind the shed and Frieda tends to her with the materials that her mother had given her pending her own first menstruation. Everything would have been under control if their despicable neighbor, a girl named Rosemary, hadn't yelled out that they were playing naughty. Rosemary's yell brings their mother outside and she starts swatting at them with a switch. The girl's mother realizes the nature of the situation and she takes Pecola inside with her for some female attention. That night, the girls lay in bed in awe of the mysteries Pecola is now a part of.