The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison has been on my to-read pile for several years. It appeared on a list of banned books, and I decided I would read it. I would highly rate it but I have mixed feelings about the story. I felt sad as I read.
The story told from different points of view, which threw me off a little but once I got it, I was able to absorb what happened to each character. The main characters were Pecola, who was about 12, and her foster sister, Claudia, who was a little younger. Claudia appeared both as a child and adult narrator as she recalled the events of the year 1941-42.
What saddened me:
The very realistic portrayal of poverty
The misogyny of the day, where men had all the power and women’s rights were limited
The self-hatred some of the characters felt. For example, Pecola wanted blue eyes because she felt they would make her feel beautiful. She and the characters in the book were all black. Her mother worked for a white family and lavished attention on the family’s blonde, blue-eyed daughter while ignoring or abusing Pecola. Pecola felt she was ugly by white standards. Tragic.
It was the Jim Crow era. Awful.
Domestic violence and sexual abuse always sadden me to the point of deep melancholy. I am empathic so scenes like that hurts me because I envision what the victim must have been feeling and going through. I also think about the too many victims of abuse all around us.
Still, I think it’s an important book to read, especially by school kids. I think the bullied kids would strongly identify with the isolation and loneliness Pecola must have felt being rejected everywhere. Hopefully, the kids would also realize that self-love and acceptance are absolutely vital.
I would like to think that, in an alternate universe, Pecola’s story may have been told very differently.
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