The Bluest Eye: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Claudia explains that winter has arrived and her father's appearance and demeanor has changed. His features take on the characteristics of winter, his brow like a cliff of snow, and his skin becomes pale and cheerless. He works day and night to keep the cold from infiltrating the house, teaching his daughters how to tend to the fire.

Claudia and Frieda persist in boredom, waiting for spring to come, but then the monotony of winter is broken by the arrival of a new girl at school named Maureen Peal. Maureen is a light skinned black girl with green eyes. She comes from a wealthy family, owns nice clothes, and brings good food for lunch. She enchants the entire school—the teachers encourage her, and the other students treat her with the utmost respect.

Claudia and Frieda are "bemused, irritated and fascinated" by Maureen Peal. Her expensive clothing and plentiful lunches shame the girls' ragged clothing and meager lunches. In response to the shame they feel, they search out Maureen's flaws. First they begin calling her "Meringue Pie", and eventually discover that she has a dog tooth and a little bump on each hand where her "sixth finger" had been removed. They use these things to insult Maureen, but do it alone because the other students remain loyal to Maureen.

Maureen is assigned the locker next to Claudia's. Claudia knows she is about to become friends with Maureen, but knows it will be a "dangerous friendship", because she still experiences violent urges when she compares herself to Maureen. Eventually, they get to know each other and Claudia begins to be able to talk to her without wishing violent things upon Maureen. One day, Maureen asks Claudia if she and Frieda want to walk home with her. As they exit the school, they notice a group of black boys surrounding Pecola. As they dance around Pecola, they taunt her for her dark skin and shout that her father sleeps naked. Pecola stands in the middle of the circle crying with her hands over her eyes. Claudia explains that the boys' contempt for their own blackness drives their assault on Pecola.

Frieda steps in and hits one of the boys in the head with a book. When the boy fails to retaliate, Claudia wonders if the boy stops because Claudia is taller than him, because of the look in her eyes, which reminds Claudia of their mother's eyes, or because the boy has a crush on Frieda. Frieda tells the boy to leave Pecola alone or she will "tell everyone what he did". Another boy then responds, telling the girls to move along, but Claudia calls him a bullet head. He steps forward, and drawing his hand back asks Claudia if she wants a fat lip. Before he can swing, Maureen steps forward beside Claudia and stops the violence. Claudia suggests that the boys did not want to harm the girls under the gaze of Maureen's green eyes, so they decide the girls aren't worth their time, and walk away.

After the altercation, Maureen takes Pecola's arm and introduces herself. When Pecola tells Maureen her name, Maureen responds that 'Pecola' is the name of a character from the film, Imitation of Life. Pecola says she doesn't know what that is, so Maureen explains that it is a movie about a mulatto girl who hates her mother because she is black, but cries at her mother's funeral. She explains that she and her mother have seen it four times.

Maureen offers to buy Pecola an ice cream at Isaley's. As they walk, Claudia thinks about what flavor she will get, expecting Maureen to buy her an ice cream too. When they reach the ice-cream parlor, Maureen asks Claudia and Frieda if they are going to buy any. Claudia says no, feeling embarrassed that she expected Maureen to buy her an ice-cream or that she even deserved one as much as Pecola.

As they finish the walk home, they pass the Dreamland Theater, where they see an image of Betty Grable. Maureen asks the girls if they love Betty Grable as much as she does. Pecola agrees, but Claudia says that Hedy Lemarr is better. Maureen agrees with Claudia, and tells them about a black girl named Audrey who went to the beauty parlor and asked the hairdresser to fix her hair like Hedy Lemarr's. Maureen says that the hairdresser told the girl she would as soon as the girl grew hair like Hedy Lemarr, and then laughs.

Maureen then tells the girls that Audrey, who is sixteen, doesn't menstruate yet. She then asks the girls if they menstruate yet. Pecola promptly replies that she does, and Maureen says she does too. Pecola asks Maureen why women menstruate, as if she hoped to provide the answer herself, but Maureen quickly says that babies need blood when they are inside of a woman, so if a woman is pregnant she does not menstruate. Maureen then asks Pecola if she has ever seen a man naked. Pecola responds that she has never seen her father naked. Maureen presses the issue, sensing something strange about the way Pecola brought her father into the conversation. Frieda and Claudia tell Maureen to end the conversation, and Claudia remembers seeing her father naked. She feels ashamed at the lack of shame and strange intrigue she felt at the time.

Maureen continues pushing the issue. "What do I care about her old black daddy?" she says. Claudia responds by asking whom she is calling black. When Maureen says "you", Claudia yells, "You think you are so cute!" and takes a swing at her. When she swings, however, she misses Maureen, hitting Pecola in the face instead. Maureen runs, yelling back that she is cute. She then calls the girls "ugly, black e mos", and goes home. After parting ways with Pecola, the girls walk home, pondering Maureen's insults. Claudia realizes that if Maureen is cute, it means that she is not. She wonders what Maureen has that she lacks. She suggests that at that time, she and Frieda could not fully understand the idea of worthlessness. She knows that Maureen is not the enemy, but the thing to fear was the thing that made her beautiful, and others ugly.

When the girls get home, Mr. Henry comes downstairs in his bathrobe and asks if they'd like some ice cream. He gives them a quarter and tells them to go down to Isalay's. The girls go to a store closer to home and return quickly. They go over to the lilac bushes at the edge of the yard. From the bushes, they hear laughter coming from inside the house. Through the window they see Mr. Henry inside with China and Miss Marie, who they refer to as the Maginot Line. Mr. Henry is sucking on China's fingers while Miss Marie gets dressed. The girls are appalled at the sight of the prostitutes in their house. They have heard rumors that make them perceive the women as dangerous. When the prostitutes leave, the girls go inside. Frieda asks Mr. Henry who the women were. He tells her that the prostitutes are members of his bible class. He tells the girls they better not tell their mother. The girls agree, and after he leaves agree between themselves not to tell.