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KEY LITERARY ELEMENTS SETTING Lorain, Ohio, MorrisonÂ’s home town. It is specifically set around Broadway Twenty-First and Thirty-Fifth Streets. The time is 1939-1941. Past time occurs in Alabama and Georgia. LIST OF CHARACTERS Major Characters Pecola Breedlove Protagonist of the novel, an 11 year old girl who is raped by her father and becomes pregnant as a result. Pecola gets the idea that if she can change her eyes from brown to blue, she will solve all her problems. Claudia The narrator of the novel. She is 9 years old, almost the same age as Pecola during the action of the novel. The narration, however, occurs when Claudia is an adult, remembering back on her childhood. Frieda ClaudiaÂ’s 10 year old sister, who does everything with her and is kind to her when her mother is gruff. Mrs. MacTeer ClaudiaÂ’s mother, an overworked, very poor woman, who has little time for tender care of her daughters, but who does manage to fulfill her duties as a mother, providing shelter, food, and the amount of sick care for which she has the energy. Her dominant parental tool is to shame her daughters for being so much trouble.
Mrs. Breedlove Pauline "Polly" Williams Breedlove, PecolaÂ’s mother, who moved to Lorain, Ohio from Kentucky, but was born in Alabama. She works as a housekeeper for the Fisher family and gets all her pleasure and all her self-esteem out of that work. She belongs to a respectable church and thinks of her husband as the cross she has to bear in life. Cholly Breedlove PecolaÂ’s father, who was abandoned before he was born by his father and as an infant by his mother. He was raised by his great Aunt Jimmy who dies when he is fourteen years old. During his first sexual experience, occurring during his auntÂ’s funeral banquet, he is violated by two white men who force him to perform sex in front of them. He wanders until he meets and marries Pauline Williams and has two children with her. He becomes an alcoholic and an abuser of his wife. When his daughter is eleven years old, he rapes her, then he abandons the family. Minor Characters Rosemary Villanucci An Italian American girl who lives next to Claudia and Frieda above her fatherÂ’s cafe. Her family has more money than Claudia and FriedaÂ’s and she calls their attention to her abundance of food from her fatherÂ’s car. The girls beat her up. Mr. Henry A boarder at Claudia and FriedaÂ’s house for five dollars every two weeks. A bachelor, Mr. Henry is a dandy, very concerned with his looks, he is run off by Mr. MacTeer when he attempts to sexually molest Frieda. Miss Della Jones An elderly woman from whom Mr. Henry rented a room before moving to Claudia and FriedaÂ’s house to be a roomer. She was said to be addled and unable to maintain a house. Her husband left her to go live with Peggy because he said Miss Della used too much violet water and he wanted a woman to smell like a woman. After he left, Miss Della had several strokes. Hattie Sister of Miss Della Jones, who is called "grinning Hattie," and is said not to be quite right. Aunt Julia Miss Della JonesÂ’s aunt. She walks up and down Sixteenth Street talking to herself. The County would not take her in because she was not harming anyone. Sammy Breedlove PecolaÂ’s fourteen year old brother. Mr. Yacobowski Owner of YacobowskiÂ’s Fresh Veg. Meat and Sundries Store, from whom Pecola buys Mary Jane candies. China A prostitute who lives in an apartment above the Breedloves. She spends much time creating new hairstyles and make-up styles. Miss Maria Also called Maginot Line, a prostitute who lives in an apartment above the Breedloves. She tells Pecola long stories that get stuck when she narrates a good dinner. The church women especially scorn her. She was said to have "killed people, set them on fire, poisoned them, cooked them in lye." Poland A prostitute who lives in an apartment above the Breedloves. She sings the blues. Maureen Peel A "high-yellow dream child." She is from a moneyed family and has the light skin admired by other African Americans. Bay Boy Woodrow Cain, Buddy Wilson, Junie Bug, four school boys who taunt Pecola Breedlove with the insult "black e mo." Miss Bertha Reese Proprietor of a small store that stocks candy, snuff, and tobacco, owner of a decrepit old dog named Bob, and landlady to Soaphead Church. Geraldine A woman who moved from Mobile, Meridian, or Aiken. A respectable African-American woman trained to avoid all manner of funkiness. She loves her cat more than anyone else. She calls Pecola Breedlove a black bitch. Louis GeraldineÂ’s husband. Louis Junior GeraldineÂ’s son, who knows his mother loves her cat more than she loves him and reacts to this fact by torturing her cat when she is away and by bullying other children who want to play on the playground. He lures Pecola into his house and then hurts her by throwing the cat on her. P. L. A boy in Louis JuniorÂ’s school whom he admires along with Bay Boy, and then comes to believe is not as good as he is. Ralph Nisensky A boy two years younger than Louis Junior with whom he plays but who doesnÂ’t want to do anything. Ada and Fowler Williams Pauline Williams BreedloveÂ’s parents. The Fishers The white family for whom Pauline Williams works. Among them is a yellow-haired little girl much admired by Pauline. Aunt Jimmy Cholly BreedloveÂ’s great aunt who rescued him when he was nine days old from abandonment by his mother and then raised him until she died. Charles Breedlove Aunt JimmyÂ’s dead brother, after whom Cholly was named. Samson Fuller Cholly BreedloveÂ’s probable father. Blue Jack The drayman who worked for TysonÂ’s Feed and Grain Store, a nice old man who filled the place of father for Cholly Breedlove. He told him "old-timey stories" about the time of the Emancipation, ghost stories about white people, and tales of his sexual prowess with women. He is an alcoholic who is not available when Cholly most needs him. Miss Alice Aunt JimmyÂ’s closest friend, who reads the Bible to her when she gets sick. MÂ’Dear A healer woman who comes to diagnose Aunt Jimmy. She is six feet tall and she works with a cane. Mrs. Gaines One of Aunt JimmyÂ’s friends. Essie Foster One of Aunt JimmyÂ’s friends who brings her the peach cobbler that is said to have killed her. O.V. Aunt JimmyÂ’s brother, who comes to the funeral and helps make arrangements. Cholly is expected to live with O.V. and his family, but instead, he runs away. Jake ChollyÂ’s fifteen year old cousin who attends the funeral of his Aunt Jimmy. Suky The girl who walks with Jake. Darlene The girl who walks with Cholly and with whom he experiences his first sexual encounter. It is with Darlene that Cholly is interrupted by white hunters and forced to perform sex for the huntersÂ’ perverse pleasures. Soaphead Church, Elihue Micah Whitcomb, a man about the neighborhood of whom Claudia is afraid. He poses as a spiritualist in his present life. He is a misanthropist, a person who hates people, and he is a child molester, a man who sexually desires little girls. He acts out his sexual impulses on little girls whom he bribes with candy. He is the man who makes Pecola Breedlove believe that she can have blue eyes. Sir Whitcomb A British nobleman who in the early 1800s had a sexual affair with a woman of African descent and began the family that would culminate in Soaphead Church. Velma Whitcomb A woman who was briefly married to Soaphead Church in his youth. She left him when she realized his intense antipathy toward life.
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