Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” is a novel that deals with black girls who wish to have blue eyes. Morrison studied English at Howard University and later earned an M.A. from Cornell University. Her thesis focused on the theme of suicide in the writings of William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf. After graduation, she taught at Howard University and Texas Southern University. She later joined a writing group and began writing short stories. This experience prompted her to write “The Bluest Eye.” While her novel is not autobiographical, the story of a black girl in the early twentieth century is based on a woman Morrison knew in her native Ohio. She married the Jamaican architect Harold Morrison in 1958 but divorced him seven years later. She raised her two sons by herself, while working as an editor at the L. W. Singer textbook company in Syracuse. In the course of her employment, she encountered a neighbor who called her a tramp in front of her two boys. After the incident, she filed a lawsuit, but dropped the case. The Bluest Eye is a novel about the coming of age of an African-American girl. The protagonist, Pecola Breedlove, is born into circumstances that make success unlikely. Throughout her life, she struggles to fit into the small spaces of her community. She struggles to find acceptance from both blacks and whites. The book focuses on the effects of internalized racism, which can affect a person’s self-worth.
Why did toni morrison write the bluest eye?
Updated: November 28, 2022
Toni Morrison wanted to write a novel that would deal with the issue of racism in America. She also wanted to write about the experience of being a black girl in America.
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