"So precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry."  —The New York Times

"A profoundly successful work of fiction... . Taut and understated, harsh in its detachment, sympathetic in its truth ... it is an experience." —The Detroit Free Press

"This story commands attention, for it contains one black girl's universe." —Newsweek

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Rated of 5 by Ditra Coleman
Other Peoples Feelings
I have read "The Bluest Eye" about 15 times since I first read it at 28 years of age..... I am now 49.

It is hard to sum up such a heartfelt piece of literature. The story and meaning of this book goes far beyond the words on the pages. You could say the book is simply about a little black girl that wants to be white with blue eyes because it seems like all is well for the little blue eyed blondes of the world.... but the stories are sooooo much more.

The Bluest Eye is about life, love, and the treatment of others. It is about being ugly in all ways because someone or something always told you that you were. It is about the death of someones spirit. It is about taking a persons happiness and crushing it.

There is a scene where Pecola goes into a small store with a little change to get some candy. She was okay, she was happy and in just an instant the man behind the counter took her to such a low level by treating her "ugly". After she left the store it began to rain and she ended up throwing her "Maryjane" candy into the street. She did not want it after being treated soooo ugly. "I still cry".

I grew up in an upper middle-class neighborhood. Racially mixed yet divided by certain treatment of others. I have 3 sisters and one brother. There was a small store run by a white man and his wife. We went there all of the time to get penny candy and each time this old white man treated us like we were "ugly". Yet, we continued to go there.

I tell everyone I meet to read "The Bluest Eye". Man, woman, child...... read this book. It is in a word "profound".

Thank you!

Rated of 5 by Ditra
TOUCHED
I first read The Bluest Eye about 20 years ago. I have read it about 10 more times since. I grew up in the 60's and 70's along with three younger sisters and an older brother. This book touched home for me on soooo many levels. Though both of my parents were college educated, the little black child experience was the same for all black children during that time.

One of the most touching parts was when the little girl went in the store to buy candy and the way that old man treated her. I still cry every time I think about it.

This is the only book that I have ever read that taught me what self-hatred is and where it comes from.

I recommend this book to every person in this world. No matter your race, religion, financial status or age. Read It! If you don't get it then Read It Again! Please!

Rated of 5 by Julia
At first I did not understand the book, but i soon got into the whole swing of it. I loved how the author looked into the past, seeing all the characters really helped me understand. It is a chilling story of a girl who just wanted to fit in and live a normal life. It is a ouching story, beautifully written, it speaks for all the black people who have suffered and who still suffer today. The author created an amazing story that has changed my life.

Rated of 5 by Angie
A great book with the power of stripping away the innocence of a young girl. A piece of literature that must be read by everyone in order for understanding.

Rated of 5 by English Student
After reading this book, I was moved is so many ways. My mental state was so jolted, the only reaction that I could muster were tears of pain. The suffering endured by an innocent little girl, who was ridiculed for her very existence, has such profound, life altering meaning. The very breath that she took was scorned by her own mother. The color of her very skin was revolting to the social eyes that surrounded her world. She knew of no bliss in her life. Her own self image had been dragged through the alleys of mental dilusion. Her only way of becoming loved and accepted was to become something that not even God could now change. After the physical taunting, the emotional beatings and the pschological distortions, her true salvation had come in the form of insanity. She was now and would always remain "Shirley Temple", with her "Bluest Eyes".

Rated of 5 by Doris Datil
This book has really tought me alot about what went on in our life years ago. I have learned that race and racism has to do with the way you where brought up in life. So, that means that it interferces with our daily lives. Thats why I liked the book.

Rated of 5 by Chevon
It was a very good book. Very detailed, deep, emotions, close to home kind of book.

I would recommend this book

Rated of 5 by Emily
Beautiful and sad
Somehow I’ve never read this book so I jumped at the chance when I saw it on BookBrowse. The book is described as the story of a young Black girl named Pecola who desperately wants the blond hair and blue eyes she associates with beauty. While Pecola is supposed to be the main character, she barely shows up in the book and is not the book’s narrator (who instead is another child, Claudia). Instead, we’re offered the stories of Pecola’s parents, as well as the parents of Claudia and her sister Frieda - and how their parents’ upbringing, experiences, and parenting styles led to the girls’ view on self beauty.

It’s incredibly sad to think of any child (or adult) doubting their own self worth because of societal values, and specifically something as beautiful as skin color. I can relate on other levels and certainly as a parent of a child who similarly struggles.

Morrison’s writing is lovely and poetic though, for me, challenging. I did not understand the ending and ended up spending a bit of time online learning more. It then all came together but I would have liked to have been able to decipher that myself.
All in all, I’m glad to have read The Bluest Eye and appreciate the gifted book.

Rated of 5 by Joshua Lim
The Bluest Eye
A deep read, but beautiful with literary metaphor.

Rated of 5 by Joshua Lim
The Bluest Eye
This book is not easy to read, but those who persist on will appreciate the beauty of language that the author had woven. It has beautiful use of metaphor and for those who like poetry, they will enjoy it tremendeously.

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Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio in 1931. The volume of critical and popular acclaim that has arisen around the work of Toni Morrison is virtually unparalleled in modern letters. Her six major novels - The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Sula, Tar Baby, Beloved, and Jazz - have collected nearly every major literary prize. Ms. Morrison received the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977 for Song of Solomon. In 1987, Beloved was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Her body of work was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1993. Other major awards include: the 1996 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the Pearl Buck Award (1994), the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (Paris, 1994), and 1978 Distinguished Writer Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Ms. Morrison was appointed Robert F. Goheen Professor of the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University in the spring of 1989. Before coming to Princeton, she held teaching posts at Yale University, Bard College, and Rutgers University. In 1990 she delivered the Clark lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Massey Lectures at Harvard University. Ms. Morrison was also a senior editor at Random House for twenty years. She has degrees from Howard and Cornell Universities.

A host of colleges and universities have given honorary degrees to Ms. Morrison. Among them are Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Sarah Lawrence College, Dartmouth, Yale, Georgetown, Columbia University and Brown University. Ms. Morrison was commissioned by Carnegie Hall in 1992 to write lyrics for "Honey and Me", an original piece of music by Andre Previn. The lyrics were sung in performance by Kathleen Battle. In 1997, she wrote the lyrics for "Sweet Talk", which was written by Richard Danielpour and performed in concert by Jessye Norman. Ms. Morrison lives in Princeton, New Jersey and upstate New York.

In a 2012 interview with New York Magazine, Morrison expressed regret for using the name "Toni Morrison" on her first novel, The Bluest Eye, in 1970. She picked up the nickname “Toni” in school (from her saint’s name, Anthony), and Morrison was the last name of her long-ago ex-husband:

"'Oh God! It sounds like some teenager - what is that?' She wheeze-laughs, theatrically sucks her teeth. 'But Chloe.' She grows expansive. 'That's a Greek name. People who call me Chloe are the people who know me best," she says. 'Chloe writes the books.' Toni Morrison does the tours, the interviews, the 'legacy and all of that.' Which she does easily enough, but at a distance, a drama-club alumna embodying a persona - and knowing all the while that it isn't really her. 'I still can’t get to the Toni Morrison place yet.'"

Morrison died in 2019.

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