The Bluest Eye Summary
Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison One of America's most celebrated African American novelists, Toni Morrison has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was born Chloe Anth... Read more

Biography EssayToni Morrison is one of America's most important writers of fiction. She has received critical acclaim, most notably the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987), the 1978 National Book C... Read more

"When they say I'm a great American novelist," Toni Morrison commented to Gail Caldwell in an interview published in Conversations with Toni Morrison, "I say, 'Ha! They're trying to say I'm not black.... Read more

One of the most prominent contemporary analysts of the black experience, Toni Morrison has, within a decade, established herself as a significant American novelist. As a senior editor at Random Hous... Read more

[This entry was updated by Catherine E. Lewis (University of South Carolina) from the entry by Denise Heinze (Western Carolina University) in DLB 143: American Novelists Since World War II, Third Seri... Read more

Critical Essay by Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is a novel portraying in poignant terms the tragic condition of blacks in a racist America. In her criticism of Ameri... Read more

Critical Essay by Phyllis R. Klotman Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye (1970) is a female Bildungsroman, a novel of growing up, of growing up young and black and female in America. The stor... Read more

In the following essay, Byerman compares the use of grotesque literary conventions in The Bluest Eye and Gayl Jones's Eva's Man, highlighting its suitability to African American literatu... Read more

In the following essay, Kulkarni interprets Pecola's fate in The Bluest Eye through Jacques Lacan's theory of the mirror stage of psychosexual development, tracing the origin of Pecola&#... Read more

In the following essay, Napieralski compares and contrasts the narrative elements of The Bluest Eye with those of the classical myth of Oedipus. In addition to the popular myths that she uses in Th... Read more

In the following essay, Scott correlates Michel Foucault's theories about the workings of power in modern societies with Morrison's exploration of American racism in The Bluest Eye, demo... Read more

In the following essay, Malmgren studies the multicultural and polyphonic structures of The Bluest Eye with respect to the novel's concern with victimization and its causes. The Bluest Eye r... Read more

In the following essay, Rosenberg discusses several aspects of The Bluest Eye that differentiate Morrison's novel from earlier fictional accounts of African American girlhood, including descrip... Read more

In the following essay, Harris examines the influence of African American folk traditions in The Bluest Eye with respect to the relation between communal patterns of survival and coping and the shapin... Read more

In the following essay, Dickerson analyzes the “doubled” identity of fathers—characterized as at once both “familiar” and “unknowable” to their daughte... Read more

In the following essay, Mbalia traces the narrative development of racism as the primary focus of The Bluest Eye in order to account for the novel's structural limitations. In The Bluest Eye... Read more

"We are wrong, of course, but it doesn't matter. It's too late. At least on the edge of my town, among the garbage and the sunflowers of my town, it's much, much, much too late"(206).... Read more

In the third chapter of The Bluest Eye, entitled "Autumn", Toni Morrison focuses on Pecola's family, the Breedloves. Morrison goes in depth about the family dynamic of the Breedloves and how it affect... Read more

Have you ever seen an attractive person that makes you notice a sudden flaw in your appearance? A person may think that their life is unfair because they do not have what they want. In the novel, The ... Read more

Contemporary Lit Jessica Greene The Bluest eye essay 03/05/05 Whiteness; the standard of beauty The novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison. Morrison provides us with an ex... Read more

In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses a tone of frustration and mild anger towards dolls, but more specifically, towards racial differences. Morrison is frustrated as she is trying "too see of what i... Read more

Plot: The story begins curiously with a little girl's description of marigolds and dead hope for a child about to bear her father's child. It's difficult to interpret the meaning of the opening and t... Read more

The Bluest Eye Book Notes is a free study guide on The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Browse the summary below:   Author Biography / Context of the Work   One-Page Plot Summary   Ch... Read more