The Bluest Eye

Pecola Breedlove is a little girl that Claudia - the narrator for most of the story - goes to school with. Pecola is poor and abused and has so internalized racism that she wants nothing more than to have blue eyes so she can be beautiful. Interspersed with Claudia's more straightforward narrative, we also get the stories of various adults in this small Ohio town who come into contact with the kids and affect their lives.

What happens when everyone outside of you tells you you're lesser, worthless, ugly, and will never amount to anything? That's what Morrison explores in this book, through multiple characters who have all been affected by racism in one way or another. Claudia and her sister have loving parents and stability, but they show more like all the other kids in their class buy into colorism. Some of the adults, affected by their own pasts, perpetuate trauma on the next generation. We're told early on that Pecola's father rapes her, and a later chapter gives us the perspective of a pedophile. Pecola's story is the most depressing because she has nothing going for her, but everyone is affected to a lesser or greater extent, and no one - or at least no adult - is fully innocent. This is Morrison's debut novel, and you can see the hallmarks of her style, with beautiful language and memorable characters grappling with racism and the difficulties life brings them. It's not an easy or a happy read, but it's worth engaging with. show less

This is the only book of Toni Morrison's that I have been able to read all the way through and it was powerful. It tells the story of young Pecola by telling the stories of the people around her. Morrison's descriptions and insights were nuanced and well-told.

What also makes this book effective is the generational nature of abuse, not just from one generation to the next but also the ways in which abuse happens within a generation. Pecola's parents subject one another to abuse as their lives together break down. She witnesses the abuse and rather than run away like her brother she retreats into herself. She has nowhere else to turn for guidance or comfort.

And I was struck by the insight into how compassion and empathy are luxuries that show more few of the characters can afford. Generations of African-American families have gone through sexual humiliation and degrees of violence, and the scars become visible as harsh words or actions directed towards another. To understand and be forgiven is not an automatic response, and I saw that emptiness as another, larger tragedy for the characters and their tales. show less

This book brought up really strong emotional reactions in me. It's a tragic portrayal of the destructive power of racism and racialized trauma becoming internalized. By the end I felt so moved and also like a burst of renewed energy towards fighting racism however I am able. The writing style makes the characters feel real, the dialogue is specific to the time/place/class of the characters in a way that's very evocative. Idk nobody does it like Toni Morrison.

I first encountered Toni Morrison in college where I read her novels for three or four different courses (including a senior seminar focusing entirely on Zora Neal Hurston, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison) and she quickly became one of my of favorite authors. I first read The Bluest Eye in the summertime, not for a course, and found it a most emotionally devastating novel. I'm not alone if feeling strong emotions about The Bluest Eye. A friend in college said after she read the description of Pecola's rape, told sympathetically from her father's point of view, that she threw the book across the room.

Pecola is young Black girl in Lorain, Ohio in 1941 from a poor and unstable family. Her father Cholly Breedlove is an alcoholic while her show more mother Pauline is distant and more invested in the cleanliness and order of the rich white family where she works as a housekeeper than her own family. Pecola is dark-skinned and even among the African American community she is considered "ugly" and is mocked and shunned. Pecola in turn idealizes whiteness and dreams of getting blue eyes.

When we first meet Pecola she is staying with a foster family because Cholly burned their house down. The MacTeer family, working class but stable, offer a contrast the Breedloves. They have two daughters around the same age as Pecola, Claudia and Freida. The youngest of the girls, Claudia, is a narrator for parts of the novel (alternating with a third-person omniscient narrator) and offers a child's perspective on many unsettling incidents. Claudia is also the only person to show any compassion to Pecola.

The Bluest Eye is not an easy book to read, although it is an important book because it deals with real problems. The cruelty of people and the deep scars of racism that lead to internalized hatred are too prevalent to ignore. The audiobook is especially powerful read by Toni Morrison herself. She makes the excerpts from Dick & Jane stories at the start of each chapter sound chilling.

Favorite Passages:

"So when I think of autumn, I think of somebody with hands who does not want me to die."

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I first read The Bluest Eye in a high school AP English class and (as you might imagine) it packed quite a punch, even for a bunch of white, middle class teenagers in Nebraska. Reading it again 25+ years later I feel like my additional years of experience as a person, a woman, and a reader helped me discover even more in her deep prose, quick dialogue, and sharp observations. The book centers around the rape of a young girl named Pecola Breedlove by her father and the resulting pregnancy. Pecola's story is told by two sisters in her neighborhood that are just a bit older than her, by the histories of her parents, by overheard gossip and interactions with neighbors, and, ultimately, by herself. Through Pecola and her ingrained longing show more for the bluest eyes, Morrison digs into the trauma white society inflicts on African Americans, especially the women and the girls. Class and gender enter into this equation as well, and Morrison spends time with an expansive set of characters that illuminate her argument and deepen and twist the narrative. This isn't an easy read, but Morrison's prose makes it extremely engrossing and impossible to put down. If you haven't read Toni Morrison yet, or if you've only read her later novels, get yourself a copy of The Bluest Eye. show less

I love this book, which may sound like a strange thing to say given the terrible things that Pecola endures. In my opinion, it is a very moving account of discrimination and marginalization, economic enslavement subsequent to literal slavery, and the ways in which humanity abuses one another, but written in such beautiful prose that you can't stop reading it, even if you wanted to.

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3292952.html

This was Morrison’s first novel, a gritty tale of rape, incest and racism, told in an intense mosaic style, with life for black girls in her home town in the 1960s contrasted with Dick-and-Jane fantasies; and narrative layers and personal histories gradually being unpeeled so that you can pretty much understand everyone by the end. In her foreword to my edition, the author says:

"One problem was centering the weight of the novel’s inquiry on so delicate and vulnerable a character could smash her and lead readers into the comfort of pitying her rather than into an interrogation of themselves for the smashing. My solution—break the narrative into parts that had to be reassembled by the show more reader—seemed to me a good idea, the execution of which does not satisfy me now. Besides, it didn’t work: many readers remain touched but not moved."

I was moved; so it worked for me. show less