LANDSCAPE

The Bluest Eye takes place in Lorain, Ohio, a small town on the shore of Lake Erie. The play begins in 1940, at a time when Lorain's economy is based on industry.

Many of the citizens work in the town's steel mill or at the port, loading and unloading ships from other port towns on the Great Lakes, including Detroit, Toledo, and Chicago.

The town has a beach, a park along the lake, a famous lighthouse and a movie palace. It is large enough to have a varied population, but not so big that Claudia and Frieda cannot walk from their house to the wealthy lakefront neighborhood where Mrs. Breedlove works as a maid.

SOCIAL CLIMATE

While the school that Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola attend is integrated and the town is racially diverse, the population of Lorain is socially segregated along lines of race and class.

In the book, there is a distinction drawn between rich white families, poor white families, black families that own property, and poor black families. Poor black women like Mrs. Breedlove often work as maids in the homes of wealthy white families.

The beautiful park along the lake is segregated, so only white people are allowed to use it. In Lorain in 1940, being a black person automatically meant you were lower in class than a white person, and being a poor black person meant that you were lower in status than everyone.

- From the Steppenwolf Theatre study guide