"The Bluest Eye", By Toni Morrison

While this book is primarily meant to be read by African American women, it is an important read for most everyone else in society. Through out this novel, the read follows through the life of a young, colored girl named Pecola Breedlove and her obsession with beauty. While looking at the tragic life of this young girl, we also learn about the community and culture in which she lives. When looking at the culture we begin to see the many different people and objects that only nurture Pecola’s want for blue eyes and the ideal of American beauty. For exmple, we learn that both Pecola and her mother Pauline have a great interest in the movies or picture films. At the time of the novel, the actresses were all represented the ideal of American beauty which consisted of pale white skin, blonde curly hair, and of course blue eyes. Pecola is haunted with these thoughts and images throughout the entire book, ultimately leading to her self-hatred. Not all of the women of color in The Bluest Eye, feel the need to meet this social ideal.

Claudia, Pecola’s friend, shows the reader that it is perfectly acceptable and almost better for a person to be an individual who is not pressured by the social norms. Claudia helps Morrison to clearly show her purpose in writing this, which is to make women of color realize that they should not feel pressured to achieve the ideal social status that the media portrays. She wants women of color to be strong and confident in what and who they are. Morrison achieves this through the actions of Pecola, showing that if you soul purpose in life is achieving the ideal social status it will ultimately lead to your own destruction.

Throughout the book, you cannot help but to think of yourself and your place in society. Each person, or at least many of people, can see a little bit of Pecola within themselves. I couldn’t help but to think of the affect of media upon many young people in today’s society while reading about Pecola’s struggles. This is what makes The Bluest Eye such an important read for anyone feeling the pressure from the media or the culture in which they live. It brings the reader to the realization that a person cannot reach this ideal status with out some sort of damage, and that in the end that status is not worth your happiness.