The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
Summary
Pecola Breedlove, a poor Black girl growing up in 1940s Ohio, becomes convinced that blue eyes would make her beautiful and beloved in a world that has taught her Black girlhood is inherently ugly, and the novel traces the devastating consequences of that internalized racism within her family and community. Morrison, in her debut novel, uses multiple narrators and fractured chronology to implicate the whole community in Pecola's destruction rather than isolating a single villain. The book announced one of the most significant voices in twentieth century American literature.
Historical Context & Significance
The 1970 National Book Award for fiction went to Joyce Carol Oates's them, a very different novel of urban working class Detroit. Morrison's own debut received little attention on first publication and only found wide readership years later as her reputation grew.