In an effort to expand my reading to incorporate black voices, I decided I’d start off Black History Month 2024 with Toni Morrison’s first novel. I knew almost nothing about it going into it. But I did know that Toni Morrison is prolific author. I wonder how this book will stack up for me…
The Bluest Eye
Author: Toni Morrison
Pages: 206
Format: Paperback
Published: June 1, 1970
Publisher: Vintage International
View on Goodreads
Date Completed: February 4, 2024
My rating: 
Synopsis
The story follows a young black girl named Pecola Breedlove and her desire for beauty. When she sees another girl with blue eyes, Pecola thinks she finally knows what beauty is. And from that point forward, she wishes she had the bluest eyes of anyone. Just so she can be beautiful.
In examining her life, we also learn about the life of her parents, Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove, and her schoolmates. Throughout lives of tragedy, pain, and suffering, Pecola holds on to her one wish. A wish for a better life. And the way to that better life is having blue eyes. The bluest eyes.
Thoughts
Back in high school, I was assigned Song of Solomon in one of my English classes. I actually read it! I hated it. And I carried that with me well into adulthood. But I have recently realized that I’m looking at that book, and Toni Morrison as an author, through the lens of a high school boy. What would adult me think about Toni Morrison.
In the foreword to the edition I read, Toni Morrison talks about her intentions behind this book as well as her perceived failures of it. After reading the book, I can see where she’s coming from. However, I wish that her words had been in an afterword rather than the foreword. I wonder if my views were somewhat tainted by her own.
Morrison’s intentions when writing this were to break up the story and for the reader to put it back together themselves. This worked well in some ways, but not in others. For example, it was really interesting that the book was broken up into seasons of the year. In that way, it follows a somewhat linear look into the lives of these people.
In the various seasons, mostly summer, we get a kind of flashback, or look-back, into the lives of Cholly, Mrs. Breedlove, and even Soaphead Church. These really helped to set the stage for where we’re at in Pecola’s life. How everyone got to where they are now. This kind of non-linear storytelling is something that works really well, even for a book like this.
What I didn’t really care for is that we seemed to learn about and get points of view from just about everyone but Pecola. Morrison didn’t want the reader to merely be touched, but moved by Pecola’s story. It was hard to do that without really getting into Pecola’s head. We can sit and read as outsiders and try to put ourselves into her shoes. We can pity her and hate the world she’s in.
And we can be saddened and understanding at her escape into insanity in the end. Her belief that she really does have blue eyes. And forgetting, or maybe just not fully understanding, the rape by her father; her desperation for beauty that she’d go to any lengths to get them; and the constant reminders of her ugliness. Not just from the white kids, but also from other black kids. And if the other black kids are mean to her because of her skin, she must be ugly, she thinks.
Although the story does look at racism from the lens of black people, it tries to focus on what beauty really is. But more than that, it seems to be telling the heartbreaking story of young girl, a young black girl, who either doesn’t understand or shuts out all the bad things in her life. Her only thought being that maybe if she was beautiful, life would be better.
Conclusion
I gave this 3 stars on Goodreads, although I’d kind of say it’s more 3 1/2. But I can’t quite give it 4 stars. The book was just lacking something and seemed like it couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be. Again I harken back to Morrison’s foreword and remarks she’s made about this book. I wish that I hadn’t read that until after reading the book. I worry that it led me to unfairly pre-judge it. However, I do agree that although I was touched, I probably wasn’t as moved as much as the author was wanting. It probably would have only taken a scene or two from Pecola’s point of view prior to her insanity. As a white man, it is difficult for me to get into the mind of a young black girl. I can, however, see that her life was tragic and I can’t help but pity her for all she had to endure at the hands of others.
