The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel, a book heralded for its richness of language and boldness of vision. Set in the author's girlhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio, it tells the story of black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedloves' garden do not bloom. Pecola's life does change—in painful, devastating ways.

What its vivid evocation of the fear and loneliness at the heart of a child's yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. The Bluest Eye remains one of Toni Morrisons's most powerful, unforgettable novels- and a significant work of American fiction.

My Verdict

If you've never read a Toni Morrison book, you should.

Morrison focuses the reader's attention on character in this book and on how the stories we tell about and to one another often are the story.

We first meet Claudia and Frieda when a white neighbor taunts them. Given white dolls for Christmas, Claudia destroys them. But, she says, “The dismemberment of the dolls was not the true horror. The truly horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulses to little white girls. The indifference with which I could have axed them was shaken only by my desire to do so.” Claudia has already learned to hate; she knows that the world doesn’t admire and validate her the way it does white girls, and she compensates for her vulnerability by fighting for attention and respect.

In this short, intellectually expansive, emotionally questioning, and spiritually knowing book, the act of looking—and seeing—is described again and again.

Despite all this looking, few people, aside from Claudia, bear witness to much. To do so would be to think critically about the society that formed them and be moved to effect change. Instead, there’s a great deal of condemnation and disapproval. And it’s mostly aimed at black women—especially those mothers who don’t keep their home or their children clean.

This is a profound and unrelenting vision of what life can do to the forsaken. I give this novel 4.5 stars.