The Bluest Eye - Characters

Characters

• Pecola Breedlove: The focal character and possible protagonist of the novel. A poor, black girl, she believes that she is ugly because she and her community base their ideals of beauty on "whiteness." The title The Bluest Eye is based on Pecola's fervent wishes for beautiful blue eyes. She is rarely developed during the story, which is purposely done to underscore the actions of the other characters. Her insanity at the end of the novel is her only way to escape the world where she cannot be beautiful and to get the blue eyes she desires from the beginning of the novel.

• Cholly Breedlove: Pecola's abusive father and an alcoholic. Rejected by his father and discarded by his mother as a four-day-old baby, Cholly was raised by his Great Aunt Jimmy and mentored by a beloved elder called Blue Jack. After Aunt Jimmy dies, Cholly runs away and pursues the life of a "free man" but cannot escape his painful past or live with his mistakes of the present. Tragically, he rapes his daughter in a gesture of madness mingled with affection. He realizes he loves her, but the only way that he can express it is to rape her. The source of some of his sexual violence is explained in a flashback scene at the day of Aunt Jimmy's funeral in which his first sexual encounter with a girl named Darlene is interrupted by two white men, who force Cholly to continue while they watch and sneer.

• Pauline "Polly" Breedlove: Pecola's mother. Mrs. Breedlove is married to Cholly and lives the self-righteous life of a martyr, enduring her drunk husband and raising her two awkward children as best she can. Mrs. Breedlove is a bit of an outcast herself with her shriveled foot and Southern background. Mrs. Breedlove lives the life of a lonely and isolated character who escapes into a world of dreams, hopes and fantasy that turns into the movies she enjoys viewing. After a traumatic event with a foul tooth, however, she relinquishes those dreams and escapes into her life as a housekeeper for a rich white family who give her the beloved nickname "Polly."

• Sam Breedlove: Pecola's older brother. Sammy is Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove's only son. Sam's part in this novel is relatively low-key. Like his sister Pecola, he is affected by the disharmony in their home and deals with his anger by running away from home.

• Aunt Jimmy: Cholly's great aunt, who takes him in to raise after his parents abandon him. She is friends with a Miss Alice and is briefly ill, tended to by the medicine woman whom the locals call "M'Dear." Aunt Jimmy dies suddenly when Cholly is still a young boy during a meal of peach cobbler that was made by a friend, Esse Foster.

• Samson Fuller: Cholly's father who ended up living in Macon, Georgia and merely made obscenities at his son when they were briefly reunited.
• Claudia MacTeer: Much of the novel is told from the perspective of Claudia who is a resilient, self-determined pre-teenager.

• Frieda MacTeer: Claudia's older sister and close companion. The two MacTeer girls are often seen together and while most of the story is told through Claudia's eyes, her sister Frieda plays a large role in the novel.

• Mr. and Mrs. MacTeer: The parents of the MacTeer girls, Mr. MacTeer is usually working while Mrs. MacTeer is a rough-tempered housewife.

• Henry Washington (known as Mr. Henry by the MacTeer girls): A man who comes to live with the MacTeer family, but who secretly brings prostitutes to the house when alone and who is ultimately beaten and thrown out by Mr. MacTeer when he inappropriately touches Frieda.

• Della Jones: An unseen character who was Henry Washington's landlady before the MacTeers. She has an aunt named Julia, a sister named Hattie, and a husband who is said to have run off with Peggy, the daughter of Old Slack Bessie

• "Soaphead Church" (born Elihue Micah Whitcomb): An extremely neat pedophile and mystic fortune teller who "grants" Pecola her wish for blue eyes. The character is somewhat based on Morrison's ex-husband.

• Maureen Peal: A high yellow, wealthy mulatto girl who is new at the local school. She accepts everyone else's assumption that she is superior and is capable of both generosity and cruelty. The MacTeer girls both hate her and wish to befriend her, eventually doing so until she insults Pecola and they chase her away.

• Bay Boy, Woodrow Cain, Buddy Wilson, and Junie Bug: A group boys from school who tease Pecola about the rumors surrounding her father.

• China, Poland, and The Maginot Line (also called Miss Marie by Pecola): A trio of prostitutes who live above the Breedlove residence. China is the skinniest, Poland is the quietest, and The Maginot Line is extremely heavy, boisterous, and bawdy.

• The Fishers: The rich, white couple who employs Pauline as their servant and as the caretaker of their little girl.

• Geraldine: A socially-conscious black woman in the community who tries to exaggerate the fact that she is above traditional black stereotypes and is more "civilized" than other black families in Lorain, Ohio.

• Louis Junior: Geraldine's son who bullies Pecola and, after participating in the accidental killing of his mother's favorite cat, blames Pecola.

• Rosemary Villanucci: The MacTeers' next-door neighbor who constantly tries to get Claudia and Frieda in trouble.

• Mr. Yacobowski: The discriminatory white immigrant owner of the grocery store where Pecola goes to buy Mary Janes.