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1. Describe the narrative style of the novel. Who narrates the opening passages before “Autumn”?

The point of view in The Bluest Eye is dominated by first person through the mind of Claudia MacTeer, sometimes narrating as a nine-year-old child and sometimes as an adult. The instances in which Morrison uses the adult Claudia as narrator serve as points of reflection for Claudia. There is a third-person omniscient narrator who relates the “Dick and Jane” segments.

2. What is the primary setting for the novel? How is the author connected to this setting?

The setting of The Bluest Eye is Lorain, Ohio, in the 1940s. Morrison grew up in Lorain, the daughter of Southerners who had moved North to find employment, much as the Breedloves and MacTeers have done in the novel. Of course, schools are still segregated, and everyone is trying to recover from the Depression.

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