“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” is a truly heartbreaking story. The story of Pecola Breedlove is told by both Claudia, a young girl in Lorain, Ohio, and an omnipresent third person narrator. Claudia and her sister Frieda friend Pecola when she is forced to move into their home after Pecola’s father burns down their house. Claudia and Frieda look at Pecola lovingly, yet without truly recognizing Pecola’s personal agony. Pecola is the daughter of Cholly and Pauline, two parents who recklessly abuse one another and their children. Cholly convinced Pauline to move to Ohio, yet lost interest in her once they arrived, and instead became an alcoholic. Pauline, desperate to fill this void became pregnant with two children that she despised from birth. While Pecola’s older brother plays nearly no role in the novel, Pecola constantly prays for blue eyes so that she may be loved by her parents. While living with Claudia and Frieda, Pecola compulsively drinks from Frieda’s Shirley Temple glass in order to longingly stare at the little girl with blue eyes. During a drunken night, her father comes home and rapes Pecola, leaving her pregnant and ultimately unaware of her surroundings. She goes to the local self-proclaimed medicine man in an effort to seek blue eyes, only to become more deceived by his greed. He pities her supposed ugliness and convinces her that poisoning his land lord’s dog will grant her blue eyes. From this point on in the story, Pecola walks about town in a haze, suddenly convinced that the townspeople are jealous of her blue eyes and beauty.

I feel that there is an infinite amount of analysis that can be completed in relation to this novel. Pecola and her family’s self hatred is all derived from a belief that as African Americans, they can not be beautiful or fully loved. I would like to teach this as a whole class read, yet I might face controversy as “The Bluest Eye” is among "55 books that parents in Fayetteville, Arkansas are petitioning to have removed from school libraries. The parents, who formed Parents Protecting the Minds of Children, object to the profane language and depictions of sexuality in many of the books and have accused the librarians and other opponents of their efforts of promoting a ‘homosexual agenda’. PPMC also objects to these novels because of their profane language and depictions of sex & violence" (Banned Books Week Handbook Online). Regardless, I feel that this would be an invaluable book to teach to my future students. This was the one book that I chose to repeat after reading it once in high school, and I think that there are an infinite amount of lessons that can be planned around this particular text. I think that it would be valuable to tie in background information when teaching this text and I would certainly like to discuss self-image and how this has been modified over the years. It is valuable for students to recognize the way that beauty is portrayed within their society, and this is an excellent jumping point for this discussion.