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The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison

Start date: February 1, 2021

Finish date: February 19, 2021

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Jun 21, 2020 Megan rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It is mind-blowing that this was Toni Morrison’s first novel. It’s expertly crafted and all the characters, even the villains, are drawn with sympathy. Their humanity is understood. The terrible things some of them do are not condoned, but the generational trauma, pain, rage, humiliation, lack of resources and internalized self-hatred that lead to their choices is explained.

This is the story of Picola Breedlove, as witnessed by two neighbor girls. Picola’s fondest wish is to have blue eyes, she It is mind-blowing that this was Toni Morrison’s first novel. It’s expertly crafted and all the characters, even the villains, are drawn with sympathy. Their humanity is understood. The terrible things some of them do are not condoned, but the generational trauma, pain, rage, humiliation, lack of resources and internalized self-hatred that lead to their choices is explained.

This is the story of Picola Breedlove, as witnessed by two neighbor girls. Picola’s fondest wish is to have blue eyes, she thinks this will make her beautiful and acceptable. It’s heartbreaking, the deep belief in their own ugliness so many of the characters have, which is one of the terrible costs of white supremacy and European beauty standards.

Picola is shy and gentle and yearns for love. Her home is full of domestic violence. Her father is an abusive alcoholic and her mother gives as good as she gets, while taking refuge in church-going morality. Picola is contrasted with the two scrappy sisters whose family take her in briefly when her home situation becomes untenable. The story is told from the eldest’s point of view. Their family is poor and struggling, but still has love and self respect, and the girls, especially the eldest, who gets angry easily in reaction to all the injustice and colorism she sees around her, will fight off bullies and mean girls.

We also get to know a variety of neighborhood residents. I particularly enjoyed the unapologetic, man-hating prostitutes that befriend Picola.

The residents of Picola’s Black neighborhood are contrasted with the richer Whites many of them work for, and the differences in situation and attitude are both wrenching and thought provoking. Picola’s mother is a housekeeper for a White family and lavishes all her love, care and organization on them, while doing the bare minimum for her own family. We learn about her girlhood, hopes and courtship, and we watch as young love self-destructs in the face of poverty, racist power structures which steal job opportunities and addiction.

Picola is raped by her father. We know this to start out with, as she’s pregnant in the beginning of the story but looses the baby, and the sisters reflect back on what’s happened to try and figure things out. The rape scene is about 3/4 thru the book and is terrible but not graphic.

The entire story is brilliantly framed with a children’s nursery rhyme, and the lines take on different significance throughout the story.

This is not an easy read but it is an important one. The language, as in all Morrison’s work, is beautiful and gut wrenching.

CW: rape, incest, racism, sexism, racial violence, colorism, bullying, animal cruelty, spoiled children, neglected children, prejudice, Jim Crowe, segregation, poverty, lack of opportunity, armed voyeurism, theft, pedophilia, charlatan minister, anti-immigrant sentiment, classism, elitism, middle class morality, prostitution, absent fathers, sudden death. ...more

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