The Bluest Eye

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. How do Miss Marie, China, and Poland contrast with the other characters of Lorain?

A) They practice sexual abuse on their customers.

B) They engage in self-hatred over their culture.

C) They love themselves and seem to enjoy their lives.

D) They feel shame over their condition.

2. Why is the name Breedlove ironic?

A) The family does not multiply love.

B) The family does not love anything.

C) The family loves only material things.

D) The family loves white families.

3. Why do Claudia and Frieda like Mr. Henry when he moves in?

A) He is the only adult who shares their love of movies.

B) He is the only adult who shows them kindness.

C) He is the only adult who likes China and Miss Marie.

D) He is the only adult who thinks it’s ok to skip church.

4. What does the blue and white Shirley Temple cup symbolize?

A) It symbolizes an act of kindness between Frieda and Pecola.

B) It symbolizes the sophistication of using cups.

C) It symbolizes the silliness of white people.

D) It symbolizes an unreachable standard of beauty.

5. When the boys taunt Pecola in the schoolyard, what part of the teasing upsets her most?

A) Her daddy’s sleeping habits

B) Her Blackness

C) Her misunderstanding

D) Her vulnerability

6. Why do Claudia and Frieda alternately hate and love Maureen?

A) She is alternately kind and unkind toward them.

B) She represents everything they want but will never have.

C) She helps the boys tease Pecola in the schoolyard.

D) She refuses to walk all the way home with them.

7. Why doesn’t Frieda want the ice cream Mr. Henry offers?

A) The parlor is the site of her humiliation.

B) She prefers Miss Bertha’s potato chips.

C) She wants to support Black-owned businesses.

D) The parlor doesn’t serve Black children.

8. Why does Junior try to kill his mother’s cat?

A) It is old, smelly, and mean.

B) Junior’s mother loves the cat more than him.

C) The cat reminds Junior of Pecola.

D) Junior has repeatedly begged for a dog.

9. Why does Miss Marie laugh when Claudia and Frieda decline her invitation to visit her apartment?

A) She is angry at the girls’ rudeness.

B) She prefers to visit with Pecola anyway.

C) She suspects the girls’ mother is the one who is “ruined.”

D) She pities the girls and their obedience to their mother.

10. What thing of value does Pauline’s white employer give her that she has never had?

A) Wages

B) A nickname

C) Cooking privileges

D) A uniform

11. Which character has the most in common with Cholly?

A) Soaphead Church

B) Pauline

C) Sammy

D) Pecola

12. What does Claudia mean when she says, “We looked for eyes creased with concern, but saw only veils”?

A) The women are unable to see Pecola’s true condition.

B) The gossiping women are worried over Pecola’s marital status.

C) The gossiping women hide any genuine concern for Pecola.

D) The women see Pecola as a corpse living among them.

13. Why does Claudia want the baby to live?

A) The death predictions show concern for Pecola.

B) The death predictions show concern for Pauline.

C) The death predictions show a love of white baby dolls.

D) The death predictions illustrate self-hatred fulfilled.

14. Why does Pecola have a mental health crisis?

A) The lack of real friendships leaves Pecola yearning for a friend.

B) The internalized hatred of the Black community destroys her.

C) The abuse from her mother and father will never stop.

D) The wish to become Maureen will never materialize.

15. Why does Cholly’s love prove fatal to Pecola?

A) It comes from self-hatred.

B) It comes from a hatred of white people.

C) It comes from his inability to please Pauline.

D) It comes from his sense of hopelessness.

Long Answer

Compose a 2-3 sentence response, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. Who do you believe plays the greatest role in Pecola’s irrationality at the end of the novel? Why?

2. Morrison remixes the Dick and Jane primers throughout the novel. Why do the words of the children’s primer run together?