The following schematic outlines the disparate narrations that make up The Bluest Eye. Morrison begins her novel with two fragments resembling a first-grade primer. In each section thereafter, stylistically modified snippets from this fictional primer are interspersed with Claudia’s narration, an omniscient narrator’s narration, and finally, with Pecola’s narration. The outline indicates the placement of these varied texts within the novel’s structure.
Fragment 1
Here is the house. (The Dick and Jane primer)
Fragment 2
Quiet as it’s kept, there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941. (Claudia)
Autumn
Nuns go by as quiet as lust . . . (Claudia)
HEREISTHEHOUSE . . . There is an abandoned store . . . (narrator)
HEREISTHEFAMILY . . . The Breedloves did not live in a storefront because . . . (narrator)
Winter
My daddy’s face is a study. (Claudia)
SEETHECAT . . . They come from Mobile. (narrator)
Spring
The first twigs are thin . . . (Claudia)
SEEMOTHER . . . The easiest thing to do would be to build. (narrator and Pauline)
SEEFATHER . . . When Cholly was four days old . . . (narrator)
SEETHEDOG . . . Once there was an old man who loved things . . . (narrator)
Summer
I have only to break . . . (Claudia)
LOOKLOOK . . . How many times a minute are you going to look inside . . . ? (Pecola)
So it was. (Claudia)
