The Bluest Eye Review (contains spoilers part of the way through)
(This is my first proper book review I’ve ever written that isn’t just a few sentences, so my apologies for any errors or inconsistencies. I am no expert in review writing, this is all from the heart. OP is white)
It’s no surprise why The Bluest Eye is considered one of Morrison’s best works (alongside Beloved, which I will definitely be reading soon if I can finish my endless TBR list.) The Bluest Eye is probably one of the most interesting and in-depth explorations into racism I’ve ever read. Morrison explores so many different aspects of it; the psychological effects on children, the destruction it brings to black communities and family.. Morrison even explores interracial discrimination.
Every word had me wanting to read on, to the point where I’d be reading well into midnight with my tiny clip-on lamp, hiding amongst my bed covers — when it gets to that point, I’m truly engrossed in a book; and I devoured it in only a few days.
As someone who’s new to Toni Morrison’s work, I definitely understand now why she’s considered one of the best — there were so many instances while reading where I was blown away by Morrison’s incredible way of words; elaborate, unique metaphors and descriptions of the different characters, their feelings and the environment, which were often cryptic yet somehow made sense as well. There wasn’t a single thing about the writing I disliked.
This 1970 novel follows the lives of a dysfunctional black family — Pauline, Sam, Pecola and Cholly — during the 1940s post-Depression climate of Ohio, as well as Frieda and Claudia, two sisters from Pecola’s temporary foster family. The novel is split into separate chunks, the seasons of the year, each chunk following a different character in the family. It’s a hard-hitting, intense, tragic story for everyone involved; and trust me, you’re really going to find your opinion of each character changing as you read.
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Firstly, I want to talk about Cholly. Even one of the most unlikeable and controversial characters — Cholly — ended up being the most memorable to me due to Morrison’s incredible character-building and storytelling. His backstory was one of my favourite parts of the book because you get to understand, somehow, why he became the way he did; you can really feel his pain during moments such as when he gets rejected by his biological father who he’s been searching for his whole life. Due to being raised by his Great Aunt after being abandoned by his mother, he never really understood how to properly raise a child of his own — couple that with the really hard to read but excellently written rape scene with Darlene.. Morrison never presents Cholly, or any other character in the novel, as two-dimensional, providing every detail in how they developed as a person in the racist landscape of post-Depression 1940s Ohio.
Of course, I have to talk about Pecola. Morrison’s inspiration for writing Pecola came from her own experience as a young girl — a black girl who wishes to have blue eyes like those of her privileged white peers.
It quickly becomes clear that Pecola is the personificafion of racial self-loathing. Throughout the book she is repeatedly beaten down, abused and harassed, not only from her white peers at school but even her own family; these traumatic events in her life continuously build and build; my view is that, she desperately wants to escape this endless torture purely for being black, so she directs the hatred inwards, searching endlessly for an escape through acquiring the attributes of those with privilege; white people. And by the end of the book, foreshadowed in the first chapter, she becomes a shell of a person. Not only is her fate tragic on its own, but it feels worse due to the realisation that Frieda and Claudia couldn’t help her. You can feel their regret, too.
I also find it interesting how we never get Pecola’a direct point of view until the last part of the book, before the epilogue; where we get a bittersweet sequence of her talking with an imaginary friend about her finally having her ‘blue’ eyes, yet not being satisfied as they’re not the ‘bluest’. It’s one of the most tragic parts of the book, as we know as readers that this is an impossible goal to achieve. Of course, for Morrisons overarching message to be most effective, Pecola’s story must be a tragedy. I swear, every chapter of this book, my heart just gets tied into tighter and tighter knots.
I like to end my reviews with my favourite line(s) of the book I’ve read. In this case, it’s impossible for me to choose my favourite line of The Bluest Eye, but there was one that I highlighted as soon as I read it, pertaining to Pecola:
“Beating the air, a winged but grounded bird, intent on the blue void it could not reach—could not even see—but which filled the valleys of the mind.”
If you read this far, I’m really grateful for you taking the time to do so. I will be posting more book reviews in the future, which I will post in the tag #apollo‘s book reviews.
For my next review, I will be doing Osamu Dazai’s novella Schoolgirl.
Hope you enjoyed! I am open to critique.
