I wouldn’t be completely honest if I didn’t say what prompted me to pick up The Bluest Eye. First reason, of course, was the fabulous experience reading Song of Solomon where Toni Morrison took this external search for gold and turned it into something much more valuable and intrinsic, one’s own character, I wanted to experience that level of literature again.
But perhaps the most important reason was its description. The Bluest Eye is about a black girl who prays for beauty every day. She wants blue eyes and blond hair because she is mocked by other children for her dark skin and curly hair. I can relate to that. Growing up I was the darkest child and members of my extended family never missed a chance to tell my mother how dark I was and that I would grow up to be an ugly woman. Obviously, hurt I would ask my mother why I wasn’t pretty and she would tell me give yourself a few more years and you will be the prettiest girl in this family. Whether that came true or not is irrelevant but when my mother told me so, I was definitely excited and looking forward to growing up when I could shed this ugly duckling image and become a beautiful swan where no more could I be mocked but praised instead. Even at that age, I could see the overpowering love society has for light skin and light eyes. The conceitedness of my family was so extensive that they didn’t mind hurting the feelings of a small child simply because she wasn’t as light.
In the preface, the author talks about reasons for writing this book – one of them is her surprise admission of hatred for a young friend when she said she wanted blue eyes (she was black) and Toni Morrison couldn’t get it out of her head how ugly her friend would look with them. The biggest admission she makes in the preface is her disappointment of how the book didn’t do what she set out to do with it. When she started it in 1962, up until 1965, when she was done there was a profound “reclamation of beauty” and it was those thoughts that stirred her to think about the “necessity of this claim.” She set out to move the audience with the central character but was utterly disappointed when the reader was only touched but not moved.
I have to admit, so far I have been neither. The Bluest Eye has started very slowly and though I am not too far into it, so far Pecola has made no indication of wanting blue eyes and blond hair. But Toni Morrison did the same thing in Song of Solomon and half way through the real purpose of the book jumped out. So we’ll see how this shapes up.
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1 Response to The Bluest Eye
holy goodness. that is awful that your family said that about you, to your mom, or at all. ack ! some people are so unbelievably unkind, without thinking much.
i haven't seen your siblings, but i am hoping it's safe to say it came true, what your momma said !
i became exposed to the idea of the light skin / light eyes thing late, but still very seriously. my african american novel class was a bit part of that, but so were a lot of other classes and tiny experiences.
also, my friend sarah from clarion taught in china for a year or two, and people would stop in the street, pointing and loudly saying, "LOOK, A WHITE PERSON !" she found it annoying as hell and irritating. then in her classes, sometimes her students would gawk in amazement at her, and she could tell they weren't paying attention to what she was teaching. one finally asked, "do you bleach your skin ?" and they were in awe of her green eyes with her black hair.
i was definitely ''moved'' with this book. pecola breedlove. that says all too much at once. it's beautiful and tellingly sad at the same time, given the implications from the symbolism. i think the paper i wrote about poor pecola was the longest ever of my writing, ha.
i felt like i had no trouble reading "the bluest eye," but i am struggling through "a mercy." often i wonder if it's timing-- if it has to do with our attention spans in the moment. i don't know ?
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