In the following excerpt, Lee interprets Morrison's The Bluest Eye as a failed quest for self.

One of the more interesting characteristics of Toni Morrison's four novels-The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1974), Song of Solomon (1977), and Tar Baby (1981)-is that each is a part of a whole. They reveal a consistency in Morrison's vision of the human condition, particularly in her preoccupation with the effect of the community on the individual's achievement and retention of an integrated, acceptable self. In treating this subject, she draws recurrently on myth and legend for story pattern and characters, returning repeatedly to the theory of quest as a motivating and organizing device. The goals her characters seek to achieve are similar in their deepest implications, and yet the degree to which they attain them varies radically because each novel is cast in unique human terms. Moreover, the theme of quest is always underscored...