Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Schultz
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Deeply poetic novel explores racial and sexual feelings.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
In THE BLUEST EYE, two preteen sisters, Frieda and Claudia MacTeer, live with their parents in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. MacTeer take on a lodger, whom the girls call Mr. Henry, and for a brief period they take in a quiet, unhappy 11-year-old classmate of Frieda and Claudia's named Pecola Breedlove. The girls befriend Pecola, who comes from a very troubled household; her father, Cholly, is often drunk, and he and her mother, Polly, fight physically and verbally. Pecola considers herself ugly and unworthy of love, and believes that if only she could have blue eyes, she would be pretty and happy. Readers learn the life events that have shaped Polly and Cholly, led them to marry, and led them ultimately to their unfortunate state.
Is It Any Good?
This is a poetic and complex investigation of racial, personal, and sexual feelings. The doomed characters in The Bluest Eye are both beautifully realized as individual characters and richly representative of the concepts Toni Morrison explores with her story. As the point of view shifts from character to character, the reader comes to understand what drives them, and will be deeply engaged in their experiences and moved by their fates.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Pecola's wish for blue eyes. Why does she think having blue eyes will change her life?
Why are Cholly's feelings about sexuality bound up with anger?
Why does Claudia feel rage toward Shirley Temple, toward Rosemary and Maureen?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Literary Fiction
- Topics : Friendship
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Publication date : January 1, 1970
- Number of pages : 224
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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