The Bluest Eye: Toni Morrison

"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 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 brilliant 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."

You might have noticed that this is different from the other reviews I've been posting lately.  This was one of the assigned books for my graduate Topics in American Literature course I'm just finishing up (this is the last week!).  I ended up writing my final paper on this book by Morrison, and Langston Hughes' poem, "I, Too;" I used these works of American literature as evidence of continued oppression of African Americans.  I will be entirely honest and tell you that I have not cared for Morrison's writing in the past.  I struggled to "read" (when I say "read," I really mean "began to read with earnest and good intentions, then fought terribly to maintain interest, and then skimmed for important parts when I could no longer stomach it) "A Mercy" and "Tar Baby" during my undergraduate work.  (I actually went back and read my review of "A Mercy;" contrary to what I just wrote, it doesn't seem like I hated that book, though I did struggle through some very difficult portions from the point of view of Florens).  "The Bluest Eye," for me, was the easiest to read.  It was easier for me to fall into the story than with Morrison's other works I've read.  Also, this book was obviously interesting enough to me that I chose to use it as the basis of my final essay for the course.  As social, cultural, and historical commentary, I thought this book was moving and it really made me think more deeply about racism (even racism within a race, which is not something I'd considered before) than I had in the past.  I really love literature that makes me think (yes, I do enjoy more of a mental challenge than my typical romance novels...).  I feel like this book is yet another example of why Morrison is a Nobel Prize-winning author; she exposes new facets of African American life and makes us question our lives and history.  She confronts harsh issues that are difficult to stamen, but - at the same time - are extremely important and need to be discussed.  Pecola is a tragic character.  As Morrison writes in the book's forward (which I also saw turned into an afterward in another copy of the book), "I focused...on how something as grotesque as the demonization of an entire race could take root inside the most delicate member of society:  a child; the most vulnerable member:  a female" (Morrison xi).  Pecola is this personification, stemming from Morrison's own childhood conversation with a classmate when she was growing up in Loraine, Ohio.  That girl, too, wanted blue eyes.  Blue eyes were the personification of beauty; while anything seen as a traditionally "black trait" is ugly or undesirable.  It is heartbreaking when anyone hates themselves for something they cannot control, and this is part of what makes Morrison's work so powerful.

I do recommend this book.  It made me think and it touched me.