inst the taunts of their classmates and truly pitying her after the rape. They try to save Pecola's baby by planting the marigold seeds they had been selling to earn a new bicycle, but the flowers never bloom and Pecola's baby dies after being born prematurely. After Pecola goes insane, they avoid her out of shame and guilt. Claudia and Frieda sense how much Pecola's sensibilities have been shaped by the standards of white American culture: Pecola confides that she prays every night that God will give her blue eyes, which she considers the epitome of beauty. Pecola retreats further and further from the real world into madness, finally coming to believe that she has attained her wish for blue eyes....
