Nine at the start of the novel, Claudia MacTeer serves as one of the primary, first-person narrators of the novel. During her childhood, Claudia is confident in her self-worth and explicitly rejects the belief of the adults around her that she is not worthy of attention because she is a child, a girl, and African American. Claudia's belief in herself leads her to defend Pecola when she is bullied and to intercede on behalf of others—Frieda after Mr. Henry assaults her and Pecola when the town rejects her.

Claudia's belief in herself is the result of childhood innocence that does not survive the events of the novel. Looking back as an adult, Claudia recognizes that the winter of 1941 was one of the last during which she rejected society's belief in her inferiority. Even in this early moment, however, Claudia is aware of the pressure to accept society's perspectives on beauty and she indicates that shortly thereafter, she came to treat white dolls and white girls with a certain love, "a conversion from pristine sadism to fabricated hatred, to fraudulent love" (39-40).

Claudia's final evolution is represented in the present moment as she attempts to understand how and why Pecola's life became such a

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now