From the Bookshelf of Diversity in All Forms!…

The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison

Start date: February 1, 2021

Finish date: February 19, 2021

Discussion: Author's Pick

Why we're reading this: Author's Pick:

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison…more
[close] Author's Pick:

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 66 topics — 403 comments total

Author's Pick

Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country
By Michaela · 1 post · 15 views

last updated Oct 04, 2023 11:14AM

Future Home of the Living God
By Michaela · 4 posts · 22 views

last updated Aug 09, 2023 11:33AM

showing 2 of 2 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Aug 08, 2013 Cheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mesmerizing, audiobooks, vintage, nobels, afro-american, fiction

“There can’t be anyone, I’m sure, who doesn’t know what it feels like to be disliked, even rejected. Momentarily or for sustained periods of time,” Toni Morrison stated in her author note, as she explained the context of this novel. Imagine a Nobel Laureate reading her work, and then explaining her art. I listened to this via Audible and I was spellbound. Inflections with each character switch and mood, exquisite dialogue performance—I might as well have been in the same room with her.

The bluest “There can’t be anyone, I’m sure, who doesn’t know what it feels like to be disliked, even rejected. Momentarily or for sustained periods of time,” Toni Morrison stated in her author note, as she explained the context of this novel. Imagine a Nobel Laureate reading her work, and then explaining her art. I listened to this via Audible and I was spellbound. Inflections with each character switch and mood, exquisite dialogue performance—I might as well have been in the same room with her.

The bluest eye. Oh what great use of personification. This story, laden with historical and literary context, is narrated by young Claudia and follows three black girls: Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola. Raised in small town Ohio following the Great Depression and during a time laced with blatant racism and segregation, let’s just say, the girls were the bearers of grown folks’ wrath.

Pecola’s parents are indifferent towards her. She must call her mom, Mrs. Breedlove, while the blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl her mother takes care of, calls her Polly. When Pecola sees the same mother who beats and yells at her oohing and aahing at the little girl, the blue eyes become her way of wanting to be acknowledged. Maybe if she had blue eyes… Later, the bluest eye will play a role after Pecola goes through a horrific ordeal and we get to hear from her directly.

Pauline Breedlove (Pecola’s mother) on the other hand, loves her job as a housekeeper because she gets to escape her life with the abusive husband, poverty, and invisibility. In her world, no one notices or acknowledges her: the black woman. Shopping for her family is a pain. But in her white employers’ world where she must purchase items and make decisions on their behalf, vendors respect her duty and title. At these moments within the story, Claudia’s first person narration veers to a third-person narrator once you start to get into the adults’ heads (like crazy Cholly’s, for example) and more mature issues are raised.

Toni Morrison started this story in 1962—working on it while getting her MA. In 1965, it started to take the shape of a book. In elementary school, she had a friend who told her that she wished she had blue eyes. Very blue eyes in a very dark skin? She was repelled by her friend’s desire. With the book she tried to “hit the raw nerve of racial self contempt, expose it, then soothe it.”

I’ve never run across an author who writes like Toni Morrison. While reading two of her works simultaneously this week, (I also read Paradise) I noticed her signature style. It’s the good kind of expectation, like buying a Coach purse knowing that there are certain things about it that will not let you down. The lyrical syntax is prolific, the narrator voice oblique, and the story structure will take leaps and bounds.

The second half of this book was my favorite. In the beginning, there is a certain voice that pierces the narrative throughout and I wondered what it was (the white house and Jane playing). Towards the end, I understood the art as I heard from Pecola (in a weird, artistic kind of way) and it was a deeply emotional moment. ...more

52 likes · Like · see review

Nov 28, 2022 Alana rated it liked it

Shelves: boxall-s-1001-books

It's good, but so, so heavy (not that I was expecting anything different). Mostly, it's just the emptiness of any hope that leaves it so depleting. And while I appreciated Morrison's showing the behind the scenes of ALL characters involved, letting us feel sympathy and relating on some level to each of them, I still could NOT work up sympathy for what Cholly did (not a spoiler, since we know from the prologue the ultimate outcome), because seriously, who the hell does that? Vomit-inducing. But, ...more

Like · see review