Bluest Eye Lesson Plan

What might be the connection between Frieda’s experience with Mr. Henry and Claudia’s feelings about dolls?

Students will likely recall that Claudia dislikes her blue-eyed dolls so much that she dismembers them. She dislikes them because she has no desire or need for dolls and because they represent the Shirley Temples of the world, the girls who are arbitrarily deemed more beautiful and more worthy. The connection between that and Frida’s experience with Mr. Henry is that in both instances adults disregard the inner lives of black girls. Claudia and Frieda are given very little autonomy and little respect for their own bodies and desires. Students may also add scenes...