The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Published: June 1, 1970
Publisher: First Vintage
Format: via audiobook
Rating: 5/5
Synopsis
Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison's virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.
My Thoughts
In The Bluest Eye, we met Pecola who is sent to live with some neighbors after her house was ravaged by a fire. During this time we slowly see her life unfold, she has lived a hard life, to say the least, told through multiple POV’s we get to know Pecola and how she sees herself. Pecola is raped by her father and her mother doesn't give much thought to anything or anyone else. However, Pecola sees herself as ugly and unwanted thinking that if she was another race these things wouldn't happen to her. The topics and themes of this novel are heartbreaking but at the same time very real. Race plays a great part in the world and society has this image of beauty that is so untamable that many of us think if we don't look a certain way then we aren't beautiful. This is a sad novel all about a girl who didn't have a chance in this world. She has so much stacked against her from the beginning that it just got worse as life went on. Toni Morrison is a brilliant writer who gives us tough subjects that stir up conversations that we have to have.
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