During Cholly's first sexual experience, two white men stumble upon him and the girl he was with and force him to continue the sexual act as they watch. Her father, Cholly Breedlove, was abandoned as a baby and later turned away by his father after searching him out.

The reader learns that Pecola's parents have both had tragic lives, which has led to their dysfunction as adults. She prays for blue eyes because they will make her beautiful and allow her to see the world differently. She believes she is fated to live her sad life because she is ugly, which is confirmed by the way she is treated in the community. Pecola's brother, Samuel, copes with the violence by running away, but Pecola, being a young black girl, is unable to escape. Her parents fight on a regular basis, and these altercations lead to physical violence. Her father is an abusive alcoholic, and her mother is neglectful and self-righteous. Pecola and Frieda love Shirley Temple because of her beauty, which stems from her white features, but Claudia disagrees with them.Įventually, Pecola moves back into the storefront apartment where her family lives, and her life continues to be hard. Claudia and Frieda like Pecola, but feel sorry for her.

They later take in a young girl named Pecola Breedlove because her father, Cholly Breedlove, burned her family's house down and ended up in jail. To help financially, the MacTeer's take in a boarder named Henry Washington, who the girls call Mr. Their father works hard to keep the family afloat.

MacTeer, is strict and punishes them often, but out of a sense of concern and love for her children. Although there is a tremendous sense of love in their home, their mother, Mrs. It is 1941, near the end of the Great Depression, and their family struggles to make ends meet. Nine-year-old Claudia MacTeer and her ten-year-old sister, Frieda MacTeer, live in an old house in Loraine, Ohio.

The blue eye toni morrison