The Bluest Eye Characters Analysis
Character Summaries
Claudia MacTeer - She is the youngest daughter of the MacTeer Family and one of the primary characters of the novel. Unlike the other girls, Claudia has a deep dislike for the white physical features that everyone around her adores. She confesses that she eventually stops having a violent reaction to the white baby dolls, and begins to assimilate her views to the contemporary beauty standards of her time. Claudia regrets Pecola’s fate and believes tragedies like Penola’s life cannot be prevented.
Frieda MacTeer - She is Claudia’s elder sister, and on par in age with Pecola. She is more informed on matters of feminine health than either Claudia or Pecola, as she recognizes Pecola’s menstruation and attempts to aid her. Frieda experiences sexual abuse at the hands of Mr. Henry, the family’s tenant, who fondles her while her parents are busy. However, Frieda is protected by her family, and comforted by her family unlike Pecola, who receives neither of these things from anyone around her. Frieda feels just as guilty about Pecola’s fate as Claudia.
Pecola Breedlove - The youngest child of Pauline and Cholly Breedlove is involved in the inciting incident of the novel. She grows up in a morally and materially impoverished home, which leads her to have an extremely low opinion of herself. Pecola wishes for blue eyes because she believes that having beautiful blue eyes would shield her from the horror in her world. Pecola is raped by her father on two separate occasions and becomes pregnant with her child. No one attempts to help Pecola deal with her horrific fate, and she becomes isolated. She has her father’s child, but the child soon passes away after birth. Pecola loses her sanity and lives out the rest of her life roaming the garbage dump.
Cholly Breedlove - Cholly Breedlove is the principal antagonist of the novel’s main plot. He is a deeply disturbed individual who often comes home drunk to beat his wife, Pauline. Cholly was raised by his grandmother after she rescued him from the trash, where his mother had left him to die while he was still barely a few days old. He suffered terrible humiliation at the hands of white hunters who found him with a girl and forced him to continue having sex at gunpoint. Cholly was rejected by his father and grew to become a free man. He experienced no real emotion for his children, and when he felt love for Pecola, he expressed it by raping her. Cholly dies in the workhouse.
Pauline Breedlove - Pecola’s mother grew up in extreme poverty in Southern America. She had a lame foot and was neglected as a child, but she found love in Cholly. They moved to Ohio, but she could not assimilate into this world. She began to have problems with Cholly about money, and they eventually became very bitter with one another. Pauline felt like a martyr as she bore Cholly’s horrible behavior, and dedicated all of her energy to work by being the ‘ideal servant.’
