Book Review: The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye

by Toni Morrison

206 pages





I kind of had to drag myself to the computer to write this review. It's not that I didn't like this book...I just didn't LOVE it. I totally get why it won awards, how Toni Morrison is brilliant, and why I should love it but, I guess it just wasn't my cup of tea.

The Bluest Eye has a very serious topics within it. The title comes from the way that the black girls in the novel are shown that the standards of "beauty" are white characteristics like blond hair and blue eyes. This is addressed by one of the young girls in the book when she receives a baby doll with blue eyes and blond hair and ends up tearing it up out of anger and frustration. The main character in the book, a young girl named Pecola, is raped by her father, becomes pregnant, and the baby dies. I found it interesting that Pecola is the main character, yet none of the chapters focus on her, while they do focus on the lives of the children around her, and her mother and father's childhoods.

Overall, I see that the novel is beautifully written but I just couldn't enjoy the characters like I want to when reading. Although, I don't think that I was really suppose to in this one.

I have to say 6 out of 10 stars. I have one more of her novels sitting on my nightstand that I'll get to eventually. Maybe I'll like that one more.