Toni Morrison| Fiction, 1970
216 pages
I watched the PBS special on Toni Morrison, which is excellent, and it inspired me to reread The Bluest Eye. This is the story of Pecola Breedlove, a Black girl In America who has learned racial self-loathing at a very young age, and yearns for the pretty blue eyes that so many White girls have. While sad and insightful, rereading it was not as powerful or profound as I anticipated. If you have never read this first novel by Morrison, I do suggest it. As with all her novels, she tells the stories of being Black from the perspective of being Black. Black readers confirm they see themselves for the first time in literature when they read Toni Morrison.
I was moved to read this book for the first time after watching the PBS special on Morrison. I found it quite moving and a wonderful piece of writing.
I found the message of how societal conceptions of beauty meaningful. Pecola wanted blue eyes thinking it would make her miserable life (and was it ever miserable) better. So many, and woman probably more than men, have sought to change things about their appearance in misguided expectations that these changes will make a difference. Perhaps they do on the surface but deep down inside, probably not. The results for Pecola were profound. Think of those who go to extremes with plastic surgery, bulimia, etc.