Morrison, Toni: 1931 - 2019

The Bluest Eye, 1970 - Information about the Book

General Information | Facts | Author | Commentary | Articles

General Information
- This is a story about the oppression of women, who not only suffer the horrors of racial oppression, but also the tyranny and violation brought upon them by the men in their lives.
- Information from Wikipedia
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Facts
- Awards: Toni Morrison's debut novel, "The Bluest Eye," didn't win any major literary awards in 1970 when it was first published. However, it's important to note that the novel has since received widespread critical acclaim and recognition.
- The book was banned and challenged in the USA in 2020/2021 because "it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit." ALA, American Library Association
- How the book came to be
  After receiving her B.A. from Howard University in 1953, Toni Morrison continued on to Cornell to pursue graduate work in English. There, she completed a thesis on the theme of suicide in the works of Faulkner and Virginia Woolf. Masters Degree in Hand, Toni returned to Howard University where she took a position teaching English, and where she met and married Jamaican architect Harold Morrison. The couple had two sons before their marriage crumbled. Morrison found solace from the unhappy union in a small group of poets and writers who met informally to discuss their work. It was in this setting that her creative instincts began to stir. A short story she "dashed off" about a little black girl who wanted blue eyes would be her first completed literary work, and the seed of her first novel, The Bluest Eye.
  Excerpt from Toni Morrison, About the Author
- Beginning of the book
  The beginning of the book is taken from a traditional American children's reading book - a Dick and Jane reader, very common in the 1940s and 50s for teaching children not only how to read by using simple sentence structures, but also for teaching children the values of the dominant, European-American culture. (See also the "Reading with and without Dick and Jane" exhibit from the University of Virginia). It represents the standards of white society for beauty: a very nice Mother, a strong Father, a friend, a cat, a friendly dog, a pretty little girl named Jane, and they all live in a very pretty green and white house with a red door. It is just the opposite to Pecola's life. The accepted concept of beauty by society destroys Pecola's life leaving her no chance to survive because it was started from the school primer, from the very beginning of her education.
  This excerpt from the children's book repeats itself. However, this time, there is no punctuation. The sentences run on and on together and capital letters disappear.
  Finally, the paragraph repeats itself a third time. This time even the spaces between the words disappear along with the punctuation, showing the way Pecola goes, blindly trying to copy white society's standards.
- Characters
- Topics
  
  Internalized Racism and Beauty Standards
  The central theme revolves around the tragic impact of internalized racism and white beauty standards on young Black girls like Pecola Breedlove, the protagonist. Pecola's desperate desire for blue eyes symbolizes her longing to conform to white ideals of beauty and be accepted by society. Morrison critiques how these standards are perpetuated through media, advertising, and cultural influences.
  Cycles of Abuse and Trauma
  The novel delves into the intergenerational cycles of abuse, trauma, and self-loathing within the Black community, exemplified by characters like Cholly Breedlove and his family. It examines how racism and poverty contribute to this vicious cycle.
  
  Intersections of Race, Gender, and Class
  Morrison explores the intersecting oppressions of race, gender, and class that Black women face in America. Characters like Pecola's mother, Pauline, internalize societal prejudices, leading to self-hatred and mistreatment of their own families.
  
  Community's Failure and Complicity
  The novel highlights the broader community's failure to protect and nurture vulnerable individuals like Pecola. It criticizes the complicity and indifference of those who allow such suffering to persist unchallenged.
  
  Fragmented Narrative Structure
  Morrison employs a non-linear, fragmented narrative structure, shifting perspectives and incorporating elements like the "Dick and Jane" primer to underscore the fractured nature of identity and experience for the characters.
  
  In essence, The Bluest Eye is a powerful exploration of the devastating psychological impacts of racism, sexism, and societal beauty standards on the Black community, particularly young Black girls.
  
  Developed by AI
- Motifs and Symbols
- Narrative Style
- General Perception
  
  "The Bluest Eye" was met with mixed reactions but generally garnered critical acclaim for its literary quality and bold exploration of difficult themes.
  Critics praised Morrison for her lyrical prose and the complexity of her characters. The novel's narrative style, which includes multiple perspectives and non-linear storytelling, was particularly noted for its innovation and depth.
  
  The novel's explicit content, including its depictions of incest, rape, and child molestation, made it a subject of controversy. Some readers and critics found these themes difficult to confront, leading to discomfort and debate about its suitability for certain audiences.
  
  Over the years, The Bluest Eye has faced challenges and bans in various school districts and libraries. While not immediately a widespread issue in 1970, the novel's graphic content has led to ongoing debates about its place in educational curriculums.
  
  In 1970, The Bluest Eye was seen as a daring and important work that pushed the boundaries of what literature could address. While some critics and readers were unsettled by its themes, many acknowledged its literary brilliance and the necessity of its social commentary. The novel's initial reception laid the groundwork for Morrison's eventual recognition as a Nobel laureate and a central figure in American letters.
  
  Developed by AI
Author
- "I was a member of a writers group and at some point, I was unable to turn in school assignments from the past to read, so the other members required me to write something fresh. This was in 1962. I wrote a short story...put it away. Three years later, I took it out and began expanding it into a novel. "
  Ms. Morrison's answer to "How did you come to write The Bluest Eye?" in the Oprah's Book Club Chat
- Why I wrote The Bluest Eye – An Interview With Toni Morrison
- Toni Morrison discusses the origins of her first novel, The Bluest Eye
Commentary
- This short novel counterbalances two points of view: one, the tragic consequences of racism (in the Breedlove family), and two, agency and resistance to that racism (in the MacTeer family). The story's focus, however, is on the Breedloves, and readers are immediately faced with the dissonance between the realities of the Breedloves'--and especially Pecola's--lives and the chapter headings that begin with excerpts from the white, middle-class Dick & Jane reader. Much as Pecola's world falls apart in the novel, the Dick & Jane passages, repeated three times, degenerate into formless, meaningless print: "seemothermotherisverynice."
  The object of scorn for her "ugliness" from her family and acquaintances, Pecola yearns to become beautiful and, (she thinks) as a result of her beauty, loveable. That beauty is strictly defined by white and unattainable standards; however, a Shirley Temple mug and Mary Jane candies become the emblems of that for which Pecola yearns.
  The same racism that underpins the standards of beauty under which Pecola and her mother, Pauline, suffer, is also at the root of Pecola's father's alcoholism and violence. After he impregnates Pecola and she is beaten by her mother for it, Pecola (with the treachery of Soaphead Church, a "faith healer") goes mad, believing she has obtained her blue eyes. By novel's end she obsessively, repeatedly asks an imaginary other if, indeed, her eyes are "the bluest."
  There is an interesting (and excerptable) scene in the novel when Pauline is in the hospital giving birth to Pecola. The doctors come by her bed as the attending physician says, "these here women you don't have any trouble with. They deliver right away and with no pain. Just like horses." Pauline counters by moaning "something awful" to teach the doctors that "[j]ust 'cause I wasn't hooping and hollering before didn't mean I wasn't feeling pain."
  While the doctors have their "story" about Pauline, she resists their version, retelling it, "talking back" to medicine and to readers. This section raises important questions about assumptions and the ways social factors such as race, class, and gender can get in the way of hearing stories and understanding patients' lives.
  Stanford, Ann Folwell
  Excerpted, with permission, from the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database at New York University School of Medicine, © New York University.
Articles
- Mazes of "Beauty" in The Bluest Eye." The ideal of beauty becomes a dangerous and racist trap into which African Americans are born, and from which they can never entirely escape."
- Genealogy of Rejection in "The Bluest Eye". "The vicious cycle of rejection, this embodiment of supernatural forces of the creator, creation, and the created combined to produce the evil that left Pecola Breedlove barren and unable to know how or why." Joy Wills. 1999
- Amy Hungerford, Yale University discusses the novel
  00:00 - Chapter 1. Morrison's Politics: The Other Side of the 1960s
  07:16 - Chapter 2. Choosing a Form: Morrison's Use of the Novel
  16:40 - Chapter 3. Complicated Sympathy: Cholly Breedlove
  31:15 - Chapter 4. Negativities: The Other Engine of Narrative
  42:56 - Chapter 5. Reading, Rape and Race: Poison in the Canon