Morrison, Toni. (2000). The Bluest Eye. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 224 pp.

Grade range: 10-12

Genre: historical fiction

Summary and Critique

The Bluest Eye is a heart-wrenching fictional piece about a young African American girl, Pecola Breedlove, who is impregnated by her father and has the deepest desire to have"the bluest eyes." Pecola believes that with blue eyes, referring to the blue eyes of Caucasian girls, everything in her life would be better. She would be more beautiful, her father would stop drinking, and people would look upon her in a brighter light. This story unfolds through the four seasons, with each season bringing us closer to Pecola's madness and uncovering the history behind Pecola's desire to have"the bluest eyes."

This story depicts innocence and madness, stereotypes and unconventional families. All are heavy themes of the story, but these are many themes adolescents can relate to. The book is difficult to follow, yet easily ignites the readers'emotions. Morrison has laid before the readers honest descriptions of every object or event, which are truly poetic and thought provoking.

Themes/Topics

Families

Friends and Enemies

Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

Challenges and Triumphs

Author Information

Toni Morrison was born February 18, 1931 and grew up in Lorain, Ohio. She earned a B.A. and an M.A. in English from Howard and Cornell, respectively. In addition to writing, she has taught for numerous universities. Morrison is the first African American woman to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

For more information on Morrison:

http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html Biographical information.

http://www.time.com/time/community/pulitzerinterview.html Time Magazine interview with Morrison.

Media Connections

Movies

Identifiable Qualities (1989) In this documentary, Morrison discusses the events of the sixties that led her to write The Bluest Eye. She also talks about the use of personal experience as a source for her strong African American female characters, and the advantage to publishers of placing African American writers in the mainstream.

The Color Purple (1985) The film is about the life of Celie, an African American girl who was impregnated by her father at an early age. The film takes you on a journey through her difficult life.

The Joy Luck Club (1993) Based on the novel by Amy Tan. There are many themes to this novel, but one of them is how Ni kan's mother believed that because they were in America, they could be rich, and most of all her daughter could be a prodigy. In The Bluest Eyes, Pecola believes that with blue eyes everything is different and better, just like Ni kan's mom believes being an American makes everything different or better for their family.

American Beauty (1999) One of the main themes of this film is how we have preconceived notions of things. For example, Carolyn believes that if you have the right house and car and even the right garden, then somehow your life will turn out all right. Other themes involve domestic violence and dysfunctional families.

Online Resources

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html Provides information about the Library of Congress's exhibit, The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship.

http://endabuse.org/ A family violence site with facts, statistics, hotlines, essays and poems, and links to other sites.

http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/tonimorrison/toni.htm Has a synopsis of each book written by Toni Morrison and includes links to reviews, essays, and interviews.

http://www.colorado.edu/ftep/diversity/div02.html A helpful site about fostering diversity in the classroom.

Related Texts

Angelou, Maya. (1969). I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings. New York: Random House. 281pp. The book is a fictional piece about growing up black in the American South in the 1930s and 40s. The book explores a wide range of themes: child abuse, race relations, and issues on adolescence such as tension between the children and their parents and friendship.

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. (1899). "Sympathy." The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. 396p. A poem on how the caged bird endures distress, which inspired Maya Angelou's story.

McKay, Nellie Y. (1997). Approaches to Teaching the Novels on Toni Morrison. New York: Modern Language Association of America. 179pp. Great for teachers to come up with ideas on different ways of teaching the novels of Morrison.

Morrison, Toni. (1992). Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. 91pp. Morrison uses literary examples to demonstrate how the presence of black is often conflated with evil and lurking metaphors, while white is typically reduced to all that is pure.

Teaching Ideas

(1)"A Lesson on Stereotypes." Students should view a variety of shows (comedy, drama, and so on) and record which characters are generally represented as criminals, as wealthy or poor, as CEO's or top managers, smart or dumb, etc. For a few days students can record their findings and then present their findings to the class. A good book to find television facts is The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America (2000) by Robert Entman and Andrew Rojecki. This book points out how television mostly projects peoples'stereotypes rather than working to change them and shows how African Americans are over-represented on television as criminals, men as CEO's, plus many more findings.

(2) "If Only…" Students should view pictures of fancy cars, large homes, pictures of men with large muscles, women with small waists, or even watch a segment of Cribs (MTV) that shows famous people's homes. Then they should view pictures of contrasting items such as run down homes or beat up cars. After they view these pictures, they should discuss which lifestyle they think would make them happier. Then they could write a journal entry on"If I could change one thing about myself, I would change __, or If I were __ , I would be happier." The point is to show that everyone, like Pecola Breedlove, always wants something else or believes something different would make them happier. They can also watch segments of American Beauty or read a segment from The Joy Luck Club. As a closing activity, have each student share one thing they love about themselves.

(3) "Musical Interpretation" Form groups of two or three and have students choose a scene, character, season, or anything they want from the novel to interpret by using music. The song can have lyrics that relate or a mood, and then they are to give a two-minute presentation on why they chose the song and its relation to the b4teens_book.

(Review written by Shannon Aycock and edited by Jennifer E. Moore)