The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity that asks questions about race, class, and gender with characteristic subtlety and grace.
THEMES:
Black, Coming of Age, Race, Gender, Racism
Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.
Publication Date: June 1st, 1970
Audiobook? Yes
Age Range: 13+
Read Time: 3 hours, 43 minutes (at 300 WPM)
ISBN-13: 9780307278449
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford) was an American author, editor, and professor who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature for being an author "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality."
Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed African American characters; among the best known are her novels The Bluest Eye , Song of Solomon , and Beloved , which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. In 2001 she was named one of "The 30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies' Home Journal.
Toni Morrison returned to Cornell for a conversation about literature, politics and, especially, language. (March 2013, Cornell University)
Toni Morrison gives insight into her works "Paradise" and "The Bluest Eye," criticizes sloppy criticism, and explains the challenge of writing about race for African-American writers. (January 1998, Charlie Rose)
IN THE NEWS
Toni Morrison Novels Get at Root Cause of Health Care Disparities, Professor Writes (The University of Kansas)
How diverse book selections highlight a collective look into history for students (The Tennessean)