Book Review: The Bluest Eye review -Toni Morrison

Some odd years ago, I saw the 1998 film Beloved. That of course introduced me to late novelist Toni Morrison, after reading the book, I was in awe of Morrison's depiction of the controversial true story about a runaway slave named Margaret Garner, who was in prisoned for killing her four children. Recently I've been wanting to sink my teeth in another Toni story I picked up her first published book, The Bluest Eye.

The story is partly narrated by Claudia, a quick witted self governed 9 year old who isn't yet affected by the black community’s idealization of white beauty standards. She is a born rebel giving the book a playful supporting character. Then we are introduced to our protagonist, Pecola Breedlove, a sensitive eleven-year-old black girl under the impression that she is ugly and hopes for blue eyes solve life's problems making her beautiful. It's secret that she is constantly sneered at and unappreciated, representing the negative. The excess blackness that the town doesn't want around. She has a vivid imagination but suffers from a variety of abuse from Her family and her classmates. I was rooting for passive Pecola and was hoping she would get a break at some point!

Surely this is one of many reasons why I appreciate Morrison’s use of the collective “we” in The Bluest Eye, which feels hopeful yet ruthless. Morrison writes, “We tried to see her without looking at her, and never, never went near. Not because she was absurd, or repulsive, or because we were frightened, but because we had failed her.” True insight about the unsettling traumas of one's childhood, Morrison explodes the lie of virtue and beauty, revealing the dangerous roots and desires that drain all of us, especially, black women.

American culture has perfected the art of seeing and unseeing, stitching and unstitching the American psyche, putting band-Aids over the wounds that go far deeper than the eye can see. Yet it is primarily the eye itself, untrusted and cursed, through which both pride and loathing reside. This story stimulates sympathy, making us observe the tender parts of each character, including Cholly Breedlove. A drunken father who is given a chance recount the childhood experience that made him this scorned and vile. A thought on Pecola. We don't fully have the chance to get into her head, yet we are constantly reminded about her crave to to become a conventional beauty, aside from that we rarely get the insight into how she digests things that are happening to and around her. Silenced. She is not the only space of violation and vanishing where black bodies are concerned. Morrison emphasizes and reveals to us that it is also the language itself. Being set in the Great depression The architecture of words highlights the fact that in this era, the strength of colonial foundation in the south still prevails. Softly represented in the desirable white “toy” girl dolls; the “long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes”; the refusal of the white hand to accept a black child’s money; the mourning of the black cat by its self-hating owner; Polly Breedlove’s toenail scratching her itching, black ankle; the raggedy tender eyed dog who reads innocence; and the poisoning of a black girl’s fragile psyche. Morrison illuminates Colorism, broken family dynamics, and day to day survival of blacks in the USA. She carefully talks about what people are not. For example, in the description about the prostitutes who live on the floor above Pecola "Whores in whores clothing". Making it easy to sympathy and gives room to bond with even the smaller characters.Yet just like Morrison’s Geraldine, the bitter, cold cat lady. America will need to stop the hatred of herself and her black offspring.

The Bluest Eye, Morrison offers to all of her readers, despite the sympathy or aggression, an opportunity, heartbreaking and raw, to peer beyond what the human eyes consider to be invisible and unbearable. Morrison gives a voice to the underprivileged and oppressed. She allows each character to tell their story that would otherwise go unheard.The deep symbolism of eyes is striking indeed. Your eyes can be tools to show you to yourself deeply with complexity. I am left to acknowledge the very eyes that make me human. After reading this story, I feel seen. In the final passage of The Bluest Eye, Morrisons words ring “Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live.”

Who Was Toni Morrison?

Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. Her most acknowledged novels are known for their epic themes, divine language and richly detailed African American characters who are central to their narratives, include 'Song of Solomon, ' and 'A Mercy.' She led a long respected life from February 18, 1931-August 19 2019. She was from small town Lorain, Ohio, Morrison earned an overflow of book-world accolades and honorary degrees, also receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

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