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Summary

The novel relates the "how" if not the "why" of the rape of Pecola Breedlove and her subsequent descent into madness, characterized by her fantasy of her having blue eyes. To do so, it traces each of the characters through their experiences of racism and the internalized self-hatred produced by racism, and shows how each of these leads to Pecola's abuse by the entire community of Lorien, Ohio and her rape by her father. The novel, in so doing, peels back the curtain on the devastating impact of internalized racism.