The Bluest Eye

Author: Toni Morrison
Published: 1970
Genre: Fiction
Setting: primarily circa 1941, Lorain, OH
Protagonist: Pecola Breedlove, 11 year old black girl
Themes: Self-hatred; racism; beauty and ugliness; rejection; the myth of white superiority

I finished reading The Bluest Eye on October 24, 2004.

The Bluest Eye was Toni Morrison's first novel. I have read that it was well received by critics in 1970, but did not enjoy commercial success.

The narrative point of view of this novel shifts from person to person. At times, it is a first-person narrative by Claudia MacTeer. It also has portions written from the point of view of Pecola, Pecola's mother and a third person narrator. This is a quasi-stream of consciousness tecnique in the mode of William Faulkner, a writer that I've read influenced Toni Morrison.

The novel is divided into four primary sections named after the seasons of the year, beginning with autumn and concluding with summer.

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One of the saddest parts of this story is the lack of love in Pecola's life. Her mother Pauline values the child of her white employer more than she values Pecola. It is bad enough that white people see black people as inferior. But, it is somehow worse that black people see black people as inferior. The result on Pecola is disasterous as she begins to loathe herself for being black, and wishes at all costs to be white. At least Claudia stands up and shouts loudly that she despises the fact that everyone seems to unjustly praise white children by the simple "virtue" of being white. Claudia dislikes Shirley Temple because so many other people seem to idolize her. In contrast, Geraldine is a black migrant from the south that has tried to become as anti-black as possible. She is ashamed of Pecola because of her "blackness", even though she herself is black. Pauline Breedlove is headed in the same direction as Geraldine, but is never able to cross over the barrier to the quasi-middle class stature that Geraldine achieves. Geraldine thinks that the reason she has a semi-successful economic situation is because she has figured out how to "un-black" herself. Pauline sees the path to success as figuring out how to "un-black" herself.

Cholly Breedlove, Pecola's father and later rapist, is a major character of the story. The presence of this character explores the question of whether a person can be both good and bad, not simply one or the other. This theme pops up often in literature, and reminds me of Robert Penn Warren's treatment of the idea of good and bad in his book "All the King's Men". Cholly is clearly an animal at the end of the story. But, is an animal to be blamed for his actions? Abandoned as an infant, Cholly actually was at least a decent man early in life. However, situations always seemed to work against him. Eventually, he seemed to break to the point where he didn't try to be good anymore. Pauline finds no problem judging Cholly as an unforgiveable monster, but Morrison includes enough information about him to make the reader think twice before judging him in such an unforgiving manner. As one essay I've read notes, the Western tradition of Christianity seems to have an either -or mentality. Either you are good or you are bad. It's a dichotomy. Morrison brings this theological and philosophical question into focus through Cholly.