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Toni Morrison
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The Bluest Eye Paperback – 2 April 1999

by Toni Morrison (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 14,949 ratings
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Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved, Toni Morrison is one of the finest novelists of our times.


Read the searing first novel from the celebrated author of Beloved, which immerses us in the tragic, torn lives of a poor black family in post-Depression 1940s Ohio.

Unlovely and unloved, Pecola prays each night for blue eyes like those of her privileged white schoolfellows. At once intimate and expansive, unsparing in its truth-telling, The Bluest Eye shows how the past savagely defines the present. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison's virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterised her writing.

'She revealed the sins of her nation, while profoundly elevating its canon. She suffused the telling of blackness with beauty, whilst steering us away from the perils of the white gaze. That's why she told her stories. And why we will never, ever stop reading them' Afua Hirsch

'Discovering a writer like Toni Morrison is rarest of pleasures' Washington Post

'When she arrived, with her first novel,The Bluest Eye, she immediately re-ordered the American literary landscape' Ben Okri

Winner of the PEN/Saul Bellow award for achievement in American fiction
Previous page
  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET
  4. Publication date
    2 April 1999
  5. Dimensions
    19.7 x 12.9 x 1.37 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0099759918
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0099759911
  8. See all details
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  1. The Thing to fear was the Thing that made her beautiful, and not us.
    Highlighted by 4,546 Kindle readers
  2. It was their contempt for their own blackness that gave the first insult its teeth.
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  3. So when I think of autumn, I think of somebody with hands who does not want me to die.
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Review

Not only a story but an awe-inspiring poem that confronts beauty itself. ― Guardian

So charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry ― New York Times

I imagine if our greatest American novelist, William Faulkner, were alive today he would herald Toni Morrison's emergence as a kindred spirit... Discovering a writer like Toni Morrison is the rarest of pleasures ― Washington Post

The Bluest Eye is a fine book, a lament for all starved and stunted children everywhere ― Daily Telegraph

Morrison's style rivets the reader...her synaesthetic, often rhythmic, even chanting prose recalls both Faulkner and Emily Dickinson ― The Times Literary Supplement

Book Description

Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved, Toni Morrison is one of the finest novelists of our times.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET; 1st edition (2 April 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0099759918
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099759911
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.7 x 12.9 x 1.37 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 14,949 ratings

About the author

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Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison

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Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She is the author of several novels, including The Bluest Eye, Beloved (made into a major film), and Love. She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize. She is the Robert F. Goheen Professor at Princeton University.

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Top reviews from Australia

david aylward
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!!
Reviewed in Australia on 19 April 2022
Wow, this is an incredible book. It deserves every award it attracts.
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ron thomas
4.0 out of 5 stars No punches pulled on black or white
Reviewed in Australia on 7 June 2021
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Gut wrenching. Naive narrator helps crank up the poignancy. The internalised inferiority is excruciating but totally credibly rendered. The impoverishment made all too real. I could barely continue after the incestuous rape but even that, although unforgiveable, was made explicable.
The big negative- don't read the explanation at the end. Stick with the fiction Toni.
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Xxx
4.0 out of 5 stars BBB
Reviewed in Australia on 20 October 2019
Hhhhooooiiiimmmmppp nnnooogggff&lll
Ji Yu. Opal Hyde ibuprofen huyg Frye
Huuop Olmert unkindly Mc. Kil. Thuja. Jury. Hfrw. Nivcfe. G tar. Ford. Vet.
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AEL
5.0 out of 5 stars the author
Reviewed in Canada on 12 November 2023
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Excellent book.
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfecto
Reviewed in Spain on 1 February 2024
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Muy rapido y todo perfecto
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Sylvia Frandsen
5.0 out of 5 stars A Literary classsic
Reviewed in Germany on 23 September 2023
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Toni Morrisson was great writer.
Amazing when you read about what type of background she came from.
I read the book many years ago and re-reading it made me enjoy it even more.
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Danielle
5.0 out of 5 stars Just read it!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 September 2023
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Wow what a book. Honest, brutally at times this author writes what could of been a memoir. It’s so personal and an in depth look at racism and class. Such a sad read but so very thought provoking. A really good read and I can’t wait to read more from this author.
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Kimberly
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written social commentary about how we value others
Reviewed in the United States on 18 February 2021
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This is the first novel I have read by Morrison, but I was aware of her iconic status as a writer before reading The Bluest Eye. Prior to reading this book, I read and was thoroughly impressed by “Red at the Bone” by Woodson. Woodson wrote that she was influenced and inspired by Morrison, which is primarily what led me to The Bluest Eye.

Morrison’s legendary reputation is well earned. Her writing is superb and original. If someone gave me an excerpt written by Morrison, likely I could guess the author. Her writing is rich in description and raw truth. She does not placate or sugar coat. Morrison instead shocks and assaults the reader by shining a spotlight on the harsh truth. The Bluest Eye is uncomfortable, thought provoking and powerful.

If you are considering reading The Bluest Eye, be aware there are some potentially triggering themes, including: incest, child molestation, one of the characters is a child predator, and some of the characters are sex workers.

The major theme throughout the novel are the effects of pressure on women and young girls to conform to cultural and societal standards of beauty. Using a multi-generational storyline and a cast of female characters, Morrison challenges readers to think about where women get their sense of value and worth, and how that is impacted by the standards of beauty that are programmed into all of society. Morrison assumes the bitter truth that meeting societal standards of beauty results in better treatment and a higher social status. The story tackles how women’s lives are negatively affected if they cannot meet the beauty standard (such as having blue eyes, hence the novel’s title). In short, this novel offer rich social commentary about how we value people. I understand and agree wholeheartedly with the social commentary being made by Morrison.

In summary, the story is about Pecola Breedlove, an 11-year-old black girl. Her mother, who she calls Mrs. Breedlove, works as a housekeeper and nanny for a wealthy white family. Her father, Cholly, is a drunk and does not work. The story begins and ends with Pecola, but Morrison gives extensive background on Pecola’s parents.

Mrs. Breedlove was born and raised in the south and comes from a large family of origin. As a young woman, Mrs. Breedlove is a hard worker who cares for her family of origin despite it not being easy for her because she is born with a deformed foot. When she marries Pecola’s father and starts her own family, they move north. In her new community, Mrs. Breedlove feels isolated and alone. She is not accepted by the northern women who have different accents, clothes, and behavior expectations than where she came from in the south.

When Mrs. Breedlove becomes pregnant with Sam, Pecola’s brother, during her pregnancy she loses two of her teeth. Once she loses her teeth, all hope of fitting in and belonging is lost to Mrs. Breedlove. In this pivotal event, she becomes resigned to the idea that she will never have friends.

Mrs. Breedlove escapes into her work. Her only sense of belonging is with the family that pays her to clean their home and care for their daughter. There Mrs. Breedlove feels she has acceptance, appreciation, and control. In her own chaotic and unstable home, she feels out of control. In her employer’s home, she can adequately provide a safe, comfortable, organized, and orderly life. As a result, she comes to feel her own family and home are a nuisance to be endured, rather than a blessing. She sees her family as a burden and prefers caring for the white wealthy family’s home and daughter over her own home and children.

Pecola’s father, Cholly Breedlove, had a traumatic childhood. His mother abandoned him on a trash heap when he was nine days old and likely was mentally ill. His father likely never knew about his existence, until Cholly seeks him out later when he’s a young adult, but his father summarily dismisses him with cursing. Spoiler alert - Cholly commits incest with Pecola while drunk and impregnates Pecola.

With Pecola’s mother and father largely absent from her life and abusive when they are present, Pecola befriends and regularly visits sex workers that live nearby. They treat her to outings and food. The sex workers and some of her peers are her friends through whom she temporarily finds some comfort. However, through a mixture of media, friends, family, and cultural messaging Pecola is programmed to believe that she is “ugly.” She absorbs the cultural messaging that blue eyes are the prettiest eyes, and that hers do not meet the beauty standards. She learns to hate the way she looks.

Woven throughout the story it is indicated how desperately Mrs. Breedlove and Pecola desire to possess the societal standard for physical beauty. Each are convinced it would change their lives if they could achieve having blue eyes and perfect teeth, for example. At one point, Pecola even approaches a former “Reverend “who is rumored to have a special connection with God, to request that she be given blue eyes. In what is arguably the weirdest scene in the book, the “Reverend” instead gives Pecola some poison, and tells her to feed it to a dog. When Pecola does this, the dog dies causing her even further trauma.

Morrison does not spare Pecola and drives her point into readers until the end. Pecola eventually becomes unhinged and disengages from reality. Pecola’s former friends abandon her. She can no longer tell what is real and she creates a pretend friend who eventually abandons her too.

Morrison is relentless in making her point and the tone of this novel is sad, hopeless, and desperate. She does not show her characters mercy in her pursuit to illustrate how the standards of beauty effect women and young girls. There are few redeeming characters, and no characters are spared the impact of the damage of not meeting societal beauty standards. Some characters that start out with some redeeming qualities are stripped of them by the end of the novel. This is not a light read but it is a literary wonder and may expose readers to new ways of seeing the world if they are brave enough to consider the raw perspectives of the characters.
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