The Bluest Eye

Morrison, T. M. (1970). The bluest eye. New York City: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.




The Bluest Eye was written by Toni Morrison. First published in 1970. 
Every night Pecola, unlovely and unloved, prays for blue eyes like those of her white schoolfellows. She becomes the focus of the mingled love and hatred engendered by her family's frailty and the world's cruelty. This novel is a coming of age, tragic tale. This story reminded me a lot of Judy Bloom's "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret" This novel is very tragic and probably would not be used in any education lower than high school. The content that it deals with is hard for some readers to understand at a young age. This book also dealt with a lot of controversy if it should even be allowed in the schools, because of the topics that are discussed in it. There are no illustrations in the novel. This book is an contemporary realistic fiction. The story engages readers. The characters are real and the situations are real. The main character grows and learns about herself. This novel gives a very optimistic view into the eyes of a young black girl in an all white community. Some activities that the students could do is to have a class discussion on what they like or do not like about the book. Also for the students to put themselves in the main characters shoes and write an essay on how they would feel if they were in her situation. Some questions the teacher could present to the class are why do you think the  main character felt the way that she did? What do you think she could have done to make herself feel better? Why do you think Toni Morrison wrote this book?  I really enjoyed this book. At times it was hard to read, because the things that were happening were hard to read. I did enjoy this book. It offered a different view of how young African American women felt back then in a time where white was the only beautiful thing. I feel that this book would be wonderful for students that are having trouble with their own feelings of their own appearance. This book is a classic, and I believe it will be around for a long time to come.