Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Review: The Bluest Eye

Pecola Breedlove is an 11 year old black girl living in a small town in Ohio. Her family is poor and life is tough, but Pecola still has a dream. She dreams of one day having blue eyes, so she can be seen as beautiful and have all of the advantages she knows blue eyed little girls have.

This is my first time reading a book by Toni Morrison. It's difficult to read about the horrible things, both subtle and overt, that happen to these young girls. But it also makes me understand why Morrison is a legendary writer.

While the writing is excellent, the genius in this story is the point of view. At first it seems strange that we get this story from multiple narratives, instead of from Pecola herself. But while this book is brutal in many places, it would be crueler still to sit in the midst of every bad thing that happens to her and the pain that follows. Starting and ending the book with the perspective of Pecola's peers shows us just how damaging it is when children aren't given the full story and their stories are ignored.

Ms. Morrison manages to do something incredible. When adults do terrible things to children, our natural instinct is to call them evil. And perhaps they are. But in this book, everyone's stories are told so the reader understands that abuse is cyclical and that people who are wounded are most likely to wound others.

This book is dark and painful and incredibly difficult to read, but I'm glad that I did.


The Bluest Eye
By Toni Morrison
Knopf December 1993; originally published in 1970
216 pages
From the library

8 comments:

  1. It's been years since I read The Bluest Eye, but I remember it being a very powerful book. I hadn't thought about the effect of the point of view. Good review!

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    1. Thanks Rachel. It seemed like a strange choice of narration until I thought about it for a while!

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  2. Toni Morrison is a master at creating such heartwrenching and raw, but real stories!

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    1. Yes, she is! Do you have a favorite book of hers?

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  3. I just read Toni Morrison for the first time last year (Beloved) and it was incredible. I have a copy of this and it sounds like I need to get to it soon!

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    1. We should compare notes after you read this one and I read Beloved!

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  4. I read Beloved in high school but I think I was too young to really get it, so I'd like to give Morrison another chance :)

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    1. I can't believe I didn't read Morrison in high school or college. Sigh. So many authors to catch up on!

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