The Bluest Eye

“It is the story of a young, very, very disadvantaged black girl in rural Ohio in the years following the Great Depression. She has no power, a horrible life, is abused, and voiceless. Pecola looks at another little girl who is the daughter of her foster parents, a child with white skin and blue eyes, and in her child’s mind she thinks: If I only had blue eyes, people would be nice to me. She doesn’t see it as white people having one life and Black people having no rights or agency. She sees it as a very simple thing: If only I had differently coloured eyes, I’d be okay. It’s an incredibly painful novel to read. It’s about dislocation, it’s about tragedy. It’s about the impossibility of certain people being able to lift themselves out of the position they’re in, because they genuinely have no power.” Read more...

Historical Novels with Strong Female Leads

Kate Mosse, Novelist

“The best way to get introduced to Toni Morrison as a novelist is to discover the themes, narrative styles, and ideas that were top of her mind at the beginning of her career as an author. She began The Bluest Eye as an undergraduate student but did not complete it until she returned to her writing after her divorce. The Bluest Eye captures some of her early concerns about the intersection of race, class, and gender. Part of the attraction of the novel is that it resonates with the concerns of Black women and girls, how we navigate our lives with an acute awareness of the disregard and disrespect directed toward Black individuals, families and communities. “ Read more...

The Best Toni Morrison Books

Marilyn Mobley, Literary Scholar