Book Review: The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye, written in 1970 is a carefully crafted story of Pecola Breedlove, a young African-American girl living in Ohio after the Great Depression. She lives with the MacTeers, who have taken her in after they learned of her difficult childhood. Pecola has abusive parents: a distant mother and a drunken father. Pecola sees herself as an ugly black girl and believes that her entire life would be better if only she had blue eyes.
This book has recurring themes such as racial insecurity, rape, incest and poverty. The themes of The Bluest Eye relate to modern life in the sense that, even though segregation and slavery no longer exist, there is still racial discrimination. Also, rape continues to be an extreme problem in America- incest is not as common but still occurs.
This book will cause readers to sympathize with Pecola through it's horrifying description of her account of rape. Toni Morrison also uses her impeccable literary technique to make readers feel as if they are experiencing Pecola's trials right alongside her.