The Bluest Eye

Claudia resumes the narration in this section. Looking back to that time, Claudia realizes that she tends to confuse the summer of 1931 when a tornado destroyed much of Lorain (according to Mrs. MacTeer) with the summer of 1941.

Frieda and Claudia sold flower seeds that summer in an effort to earn money for a brand-new bike. They sold seeds to their neighbors, and as they went from house to house, they began to hear snippets of cruel and judgmental gossip about Pecola's pregnancy. The prevailing feeling was that it would be best if the baby died, both because of the incest that produced it but also because both Pecola and Cholly were perceived as ugly.

The girls were surprised and angered by the response of the adults, and they felt sympathy for Pecola. Claudia thought of the baby as tucked away "in a dark, wet place, its head covered with great O's of wool, the black face holding, like nickels, two clean black eyes, the flared nose, kissing thick lips, and the living, breathing silk of black skin” (190)—everything the blue-eyed and blonde-haired dolls and white girls of the world were not.

The girls were convinced that their judgment was the right one and that the adult's reactions to Pecola were accepted only because the adults were bigger.