As this blog’s resident Toni Morrison expert ( I use the term “expert” loosely here), I found it fitting that my first post be on a Morrison novel. I was telling Lemon earlier today that The Bluest Eye might be my favorite Morrison novel, but in all honesty, I can’t choose. Of the Morrison novels that I love and that have influenced me the most, this one is the one I have spent the least amount of time with, meaning it’s the only one I didn’t write a paper on for my undergraduate degree. However, it is the most recent Morrison novel I have read and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it. Characteristic of early Morrison, she draws on the oppressive nature of the white gaze on African-American women. Specifically, the novel’s protagonist, Pecola Breedlove, recognizes from a young age that she is treated differently, i.e. noticeably worse, than the girls in her community who are considered “beautiful.” She is subjected to horrific treatment by teachers, adults in the community, and her own family. From her experiences she concludes that these things wouldn’t have happened if she had beautiful eyes like the blue eyes of white baby dolls that seem to captivate adults and children alike. Pecola’s quest for blue eyes, for the achievement of the white standard of beauty, leads to her break from reality and, arguably, her demise. Pecola is robbed of love and childhood because of the way she looks that is deemed “ugly” by the standard set by the dominant society. Morrison, per usual, writes a fragmented (rightfully so) and captivating novel that doesn’t just elicit pity from the reader for Pecola but seeks to convict the reader, causing them to reassess their own judgments and actions that perpetuate and uphold unrealistic standards of beauty and worth.
Again, I’m addressing this novel from the perspective of someone who puts Morrison at the top of my list for favorite authors, but I’m confident in my recommendations because her writing is tightly-crafted and she is profoundly talented in the way she addresses difficult subjects with beautiful words and a captivating narrative that is near impossible to put down. She has earned a spot in the American Literary canon and represents a voice that has often, to the disservice of our culture, gone unheard.
Morrison of course is representing the voice of a specific marginalized group, but she is speaking to American culture as a whole. The oppression experienced by the women in her novels is a similar prejudice extended towards those who are marginalized due to their ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and nationality everyday in our nation as precedented in our history and perpetuated by a culture propelled by self-image and societal standards. I think this book is beautiful. Yes, Morrison’s books are typically characterized by haunting scenes of human mistreatment and suffering, but there is beauty in her writing and in the honesty she assigns to these scenes.
I recently reread The Bluest Eye at a time in my life when I’ve been more fascinated than ever with the treatment of women in American culture. Beauty standards are often not thought twice about and just accepted as the level all women must live up to, despite those standards often requiring a specific genetic disposition. I’ve had numerous conversations with my roommates lately about the justification of rape and abuse of women in our culture, not to mention other cultures who face much higher statistics than we do as Americans. Frankly, I find myself in a state of constant frustration about the value and worth assigned to humans based on standards set by a few. Morrison addresses this in her novel with a layered and disconnected narrative that reveals the darkest parts of humanity. Whether you like her style of writing or not, I think a reading of this novel will cause the reader to ask difficult questions of themselves that they otherwise may not, questions we all must address.
"Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion. In equating physical beauty with virtue, she stripped her mind, bound it, and collected self-contempt by the heap. She forgot lust and simple caring for. She regarded love as possessive mating, and romance as the goal of the spirit. It would be for her a well-spring from which she would draw the most destructive emotions, deceiving the lover and seeking to imprison the beloved, curtailing freedom in every way."
-Kansas
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