The Bluest Eye Book Notes Summary

Here is the house . . .

The section begins with an excerpt from a first-grade reading book. It describes an ideal green and white house, where a white family lives. This house is a strong contrast to the house about to be described, Pecola's house.

Topic Tracking: Culture 4

The tiny store-front apartment where Pecola and her family live is described. Before, it was a gypsy place of operations, a real estate office, a Hungarian bakery, and finally, a pizza shop, all alive with energy and life. Now, the apartment is run-down, with no life or spirit to run through it. It actually hurts people's eyes to look at it. However, it is theirs, the Breedloves, and this is all that matters. It gives them a sense of belonging and ownership.

"They slipped in and out of the box of peeling gray, making no stir in the neighborhood, no sound in the labor force, and no wave in the mayor's office. Each member of the family in his own cell of consciousness, each making his own patchwork quilt of reality - collecting fragments of experience here, pieces of information there. From the tiny impressions gleaned from one another, they created a sense of belonging and tried to make do with the way they found each other." pg. 34

There is absolutely no life left in the house. Even the coal stove, which usually has life in it, burns and eventually dies in the morning.