Bluest Eye Quiz 1

1. Who and what is Claudia talking about when she says “So when I think of Autumn, I
think of somebody with hands who does not want me to die,”?
Claudia is talking about her mother Mrs. MacTeer. Despite her anger at times, Mama would do
anything for Claudia. At the beginning of the play Claudia is ill, and even though Mama is angry
about it, she's Moreso angry at the sickness itself. She doesn't want to lose her to that sickness.
Claudia says that after her sister started singing for her song with sorrowful eyes, she remembers
the conversations that her mother was having with her friends about Mr. Henry, Claudia says that
they cannot understand the meaning of the conversations So we watch their faces, their hands,
their feet, and listen for truth in timbre.
2. Why does Pecola come to stay with the MacTeers and what does she do to make Mrs.
MacTeer mad?
Pecola went to stay with the macTeers after her father Cholly Breedlove burnt their house and
left them homeless and as a result everyone was now outdoors which was the real terror of life,
after this the county placed her in MacTeers house for a few days until they could decide what to
do, or, more precisely, until the family was reunited. Pecola was fond of the Shirley Temple cup
and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet Shirley’s face but
when Mrs. MacTeer came, she became mad with Pecola thinking that she had drunk three
quarters of milk out of greediness since Frieda and Claudia does not like milk.
3. Who is the other new addition to the MacTeer household (besides Pecola) and why is
Mrs. MacTeer happy about that one?
Mr. Henry is one of the new additions to the MacTeer household. He moves in after his landlady,
Della Jones, becomes incapacitated from a stroke.

4. Why do Claudia and Frieda look at Pecola with more respect at the end of the first
chapter? What has changed?

5. How does Claudia feel about her first blue-eyed baby doll that she gets for Christmas?

6. Add your vocabulary list of five words with definitions.

Fragmentary- consisting of small disconnected or incomplete parts.
Macadam- broken stone of even size, bound with tar or bitumen and used
in successively compacted layers for surfacing roads and paths.
Furtive- attempting to avoid notice or attention, typically because of guilt or a belief that
discovery would lead to trouble; secretive.
Languid- weak or faint from illness or fatigue.
Impotent- (of a man) abnormally unable to achieve an erection or orgasm.