The Bluest Eye (1970)

Morrison's prose is quite pretty, but I had difficulty connecting to the book. I couldn't identify with the central character and the events in the book are very divorced from my own experiences. I would read Morrison again, but this book wasn't for me. ( )

Morrison addresses so many issues in this compelling yet devastating book, but the dominant one is the effect of entrenched racism on individuals.
The story centers mainly on Pecola Breedlove, a young girl who, when she is noticed at all, is the object of vicious cruelty by her classmates, her neighbors and most appallingly, by her parents. Tormented by everyone, Pecola is convinced that the reason for everyone’s brutality toward her is her ugliness, that is, that she is darker than everyone else. Because of what her skin color and hair represent, Pecola is the family and community target and scapegoat. In her desperation for acceptance, she tries to attain society’s image of beauty. Pecola drinks quarts and quarts of milk in a Shirley Temple mug, hoping to drink in not only the whiteness of the milk, but the blueness of Shirley Temple’s eyes. Eventually, she begins to pray each night for blue eyes.
The book also details the stories of Pecola’s parents and the two girls who are kind to her. Each of these characters has methods of dealing with their own or vicarious experience with racist cruelty, animosity and humiliation. These methods range from immersion in and exclusive love for a white employer to preemptive hostility and in one case criminality and extreme violence. This last instance demonstrates the exertion of power on one who has even less power.
Apart from the story itself, I think that what makes this book so compelling is the writing style. Most chapters begin with excerpts from the old Dick and Jane reading primer. Simple idyllic statements about white families living a comfortable life run into each other and become a driving and ironic counterpoint to the plot and characters’ situations. Most of the story is narrated by the two girls who show Pecola some compassion, but there are several chapters describing various characters and their histories that seem to be in the author’s voice. These different voices might be viewed as distracting and incongruous in another book, but here serve as part of the fluid trajectory of this heartbreaking story. This is a really tough story to read, but is rendered beautifully and powerfully. ( )

morrison's first book...i wonder how she'd write it now if she could do it all again. it's not perfection, but i love this book. she gives a clear look (maybe not so clear to everyone?) into racism and society's hand in perpetuating it, the effect this has on young people of color (self-hatred, redirected hate of whites and the power they wield onto women of color, intra-racism, etc), and into other issues as well, like sexual violence and what that can look like. her language is precise but beautiful. i only wish it was slightly more galvanizing, so readers would put the book down and immediately rise up to fight all the issues she puts on the table. (i remember really liking this book years ago when i first read it, but i'm ashamed to say it didn't move me to fight racism. perhaps i shouldn't fault the author/book for that at all, but merely myself.) ( )

review coming soon ( )