ScavengerAngel

I just finished this for my AP Literature class, and thought it was brilliant. Written in the early 70's, it's set in the early '40's, and discusses a young black girl, Pecola, who wants more than anything to have blue eyes, because she thinks blue eyes will solve the troubles in her family (her parents will say, "Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn't do bad things in front of those pretty eyes."), and cure her of her "ugliness."

Morrison weaves the novel masterfully, switching points of view between the character as, instead of talking about racism, she talks about the effects of racism, and of the innate human desire for acceptance. Pecola's descent into madness is simply and clearly done, without the excessive adjectives or the flailing of the mentally insane, and the response from the town (set in Lorain, Ohio) is the repulsion and fear one would expect.

Overall, brilliantly done, which isn't much of a surprise, I suppose, considering it's Toni Morrison.

Anyone have similar, or differing, thoughts?

~ScavengerAngel

Finduilas

I haven't read this book of Toni Morrison's but I did read "Beloved" a while back. My mom heard that "The Bluest Eye" got banned somewhere and is wary of me reading it... My opinion on "Beloved" was that it lacked the ability to make me empathize with the characters. I just thought that they were being foolish and also a bit racist. I thought her style was very interesting because it was sometimes ambiguous but on the whole I didn't enjoy it much. Perhaps her other books are different?