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1 - Flashforward - Start of novel
The novel starts with a flash forward of Pecola losing a baby. She is a pregnant 12 year old girl and it is alluded that her father (Cholly) raped her. -
2 - Present - Staying at the MacTeers
The story goes to the present, and Pecola is staying at the MacTeers (Claudia and Frieda's family) because he father Cholly burned down the house. In this section, Pecola experiences her first period, giving her the ability to have babies and foreshadowing the incident with her father. -
3 - Present - Parents fight each other
After Pecola returns home, and she is back with her family, Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove (Pecola's parents) fight each other and Pecola wishes they would stop or that she herself would disappear. -
4 - Present (secondary character) - Bullied by Maureen
Pecola gets picked on at school by the most popular girl, Maureen Peal. Maureen Peal calls her black and ugly. -
5 - Present (secondary character) - Picked on by Junior
Pecola is picked on by a kid named Junior who has a racist mother (the mother--Geraldine--is African-American, but hates other African-Americans, the kid Junior is mixed). Junior kils Geraldine's cat and blames it on Pecola. -
6 - Present - Yelled at by mother
Pecola is yelled at by her mother. Mrs. Breedlove, Pecola's mother, is a housekeeper for the Fishers. Pecola accidently knocks down blueberry pie and Mrs. Breedlove yells at Pecola. In the next second, she calms down the Fishers's daughter, demonstrating the difference in affection or lack thereof. -
7 - Flashback - Pauline
The novel transitions to flashbacks. The first flashback is a chapter on Pauline Breedlove. The chapter focuses on her childhood into adulthood when she meets Cholly and together they have Sammy and Pecola. The novel also illustrates the lack of self-esteem Pauline has exhibited throughout her entire life because she has a limp due to a foot that was hurt when she was a toddler, and missing front teeth. -
8 - Flashback - Cholly's background
The next chapter focuses on Cholly's background history. He is abandoned by his mother when he is four days old but saved by his Great Aunt Jimmy. After Jimmy dies, he loses his only moral compass in life and becomes completely free of responsibility and moral principles. The chapter ends in the present when Cholly rapes Pecola. -
9 - Present (secondary character) - Soaphead
The following chapter focuses on a minor character named Soaphead Church. He is the town's "shrink" and "dream reader." He is also a racist, pedophile, and misanthrope. He convinces Pecola that she will have blue eyes if she gives the dog poison (he never tells her it is poison. After the dog dies, Pecola believes she has blue eyes. -
10 - Present - Pecola deemed crazy/insane
Pecola is deemed crazy and insane as she speaks to herself and the town isolates her from everyone else. She has an imaginary friend that tells her she has blue eyes and the story ends on this depressing note.