The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0375411550 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0375411550 Global Overview for this book
3 journalers for this copy...
From Amazon.com: Set in Lorain, Ohio, in 1941, The Bluest Eye is something of an ensemble piece. The point of view is passed like a baton from one character to the next, with Morrison's own voice functioning as a kind of gold standard throughout. The focus, though, is on an 11-year-old black girl named Pecola Breedlove, whose entire family has been given a cosmetic cross to bear:
You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.... And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it.
There are far uglier things in the world than, well, ugliness, and poor Pecola is subjected to most of them. She's spat upon, ridiculed, and ultimately raped and impregnated by her own father. No wonder she yearns to be the very opposite of what she is--yearns, in other words, to be a white child, possessed of the blondest hair and the bluest eye.
You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.... And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it.
There are far uglier things in the world than, well, ugliness, and poor Pecola is subjected to most of them. She's spat upon, ridiculed, and ultimately raped and impregnated by her own father. No wonder she yearns to be the very opposite of what she is--yearns, in other words, to be a white child, possessed of the blondest hair and the bluest eye.
Journal Entry 2 by BayAreaBookie at Panera Bread - 7030 Amador Plaza Rd. in Dublin, California USA on Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Released 13 yrs ago (2/9/2011 UTC) at Panera Bread - 7030 Amador Plaza Rd. in Dublin, California USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Brought to tonight's meeting and released to JDT.
couldn't resist this Toni Morrison - the cover art photo, and the sad premise...
Thanks, BayAreaBookie - and bon voyage!
Thanks, BayAreaBookie - and bon voyage!
a disturbing read, sad and thought-provoking.
I esp. admired the author's afterword, where she described her personal angst trying to get this heartfelt story right.
I esp. admired the author's afterword, where she described her personal angst trying to get this heartfelt story right.
Picked up tonight.