Thursday, April 12, 2007

#29 The Bluest Eye

by Toni Morrison

Another sad book, that's two in a row. This is a shorter book mostly about a girl named Pecola. Pecola isn't loved by anyone. She is poor and isn't pretty. Her one wish is for blue eyes, because she thinks everyone will love her if she had blue eyes. Her father is a drunk who dispisses his children and wife. Her mother is resentful of her husband and delights in only beautiful things. Because she wishes for beautiful things, she enjoys working for a rich white family, and taking care of their beautiful little daughter.

Pecola is picked on by the kids at school, and just about everyone she meets. I was suprised at the fact that young black children used derogatory black terms against each other, as if they were not black themselves. Let me clarify that a bit. I'm not talking about the way black children and even adults use derogatory black terms to their friends in present time. In this book they use them as insults and ways to hurt each other's feelings. It's really sad that the world had showed them such disrespect for black people that they felt they should treat each other with that same disrespect.

Pecola is rapped by her father and she gets pregnant. I was suprised that whole community shunned her for this. They gossiped about her and how horrible she was to get pregnant by her father. It was a really eye-opening book to the ways of life for blacks around the 1950s and 1060s. There were many lines in this book that stood out to me. If I had been reading it and not listening to it, I would probably have 10 or more quotes to put in this review, but in stead I have none.

6 Comments:

At Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 7:48:00 PM MDT, Blogger Framed said...

I don't think I've heard of this book. Who recommended it to you? I probably need to read a book by Morrison sometime so I will keep this one in mind.

 
At Friday, April 13, 2007 at 8:26:00 AM MDT, Blogger Cassie said...

Sounds interesting yet depressing. It's sad the lives that some people lead or have led.

 
At Sunday, April 29, 2007 at 9:51:00 PM MDT, Blogger Booklogged said...

This is one of only two books my middle daughter has read. She didn't think I would like it, but I think I might. What do you think? I'll need to read it in the summer when I won't get too depressed. I know it'll make me cry. I'm saving Angela's Ashes for some summer in the future, too.

 
At Sunday, April 29, 2007 at 9:53:00 PM MDT, Blogger Booklogged said...

BTW, my feed reader is definitely broke. You've had two new posts up for 2 weeks and it never even registered. I've been suspecting something was wrong so I have just started clicking on blogs. That feed reader is so convenient when it works, but

 
At Monday, May 7, 2007 at 3:04:00 PM MDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This was the first book I read by Toni Morrison. Very depressing book, but so good.

 
At Friday, January 11, 2008 at 12:43:00 PM MST, Blogger chelsea said...

This is why I think it's so important to read books about other cultures from your own. Some blame slavery (only light-skinned Blacks could work in the house-and treated kinder- while darker skinned Blacks had to work outside-and treated more harshly), but this continues to this day. I love Toni Morrison, but this is one I've had on my TBR list forever. Maybe it's time to find that box this book is hiding in.

 

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