Toni Morrison - The Bluest Eye

Rookie Season: Debuts | Week 2º

Mar 21, 2024

Extra seasoning for your everyday food for thought

Genre: Coming-of-Age, Bildungsroman

“There is a difference between being put out and being put outdoors. If you are put out, you go somewhere else; if you are outdoors, there is no place to go.”
— Toni Morrison

Trigger Warning: This article will discuss experiences with PTSD as a result of sexual assault. This may be triggering to readers with similar experiences.

Back Cover (Washington Square Press):

“Each night Pecola prayed for blue eyes. In her eleven years, no one had ever noticed Pecola. But with blue eyes, she thought, everything would be different. She would be so pretty that her parents would stop fighting. Her father would stop drinking. Her brother would stop running away. If only she could be beautiful. If only people would look at her. When someone finally did, it was her father, drunk. He raped her. Soon she would bear his child . . .”

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison’s haunting debut novel, first published in 1970, was a first of its kind, choosing to focus on the plights and perspectives of young Black girls. Set in Lorain, Ohio, (Morrison’s hometown) the novel takes place shortly after the Great Depression in 1941—the same year of America’s involvement in the Second World War. Morrison once remarked, “I realize that there is some book that nobody has ever written and I am determined to read it. So the only way I can read it is I have to write it.”

Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford (February 18, 1931), Toni Morrison began reading at age three. A virtuoso with a pen and pad, she would later fulfill her calling (earning an English degree at Howard University, an MFA at Cornell University) and eventually become one of the world’s best-known novelists throughout a storied and celebrated literary career, stockpiling a myriad of prizes, including: the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction1, the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature2, a 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom3 (presented by President Barack Obama), the 2014 Ivan Sandroff Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle4, and the 2016 Edward MacDowell Medal5, to name a few.

“And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive, we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life.”
– Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye*
*BTW - This quote inspired a rap song by legendary hip-hop duo, Black Star:

Did You Know?

Did you know that Toni Morrison was a Black Catholic? And “Toni” wasn’t the author’s real name, but rather a pen name?

Tell Me More . . .

“That’s right. And I have separated those people. Myself is kind of split. My name is Chloe. And the rest is . . . that other person. Who is able to feel, or pretends to feel, or maybe really feels, or at least reacts to celebrityhood.”6

Toni Morrison was born Chloe Wofford.

“Toni” (short for Anthony) was a nickname chosen as a result of her Catholic baptismal at age 12, named after one of the Catholic Church’s most popular saints of the 13th century, Saint Anthony of Padua—a Portuguese priest and friar—noted for his extensive knowledge of scripture, devotion to the sick and poor, and powerful preaching (even to fish!).

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! “**Saint Anthony** preaching to the fish” - Arnold Böcklin, 1892

Some Food For Thought:

Toni Morrison was briefly married to Harold Morrison, an architect born in Jamaica. The couple had two sons together (Harold Ford Morrison and Slade Kevin Morrison). Pregnant with her second son (Slade) during the couple’s divorce, she ultimately decided to keep the surname “Morrison” because of her sons.

“I meant to put my maiden name in the first book I wrote, as a matter of fact. But I called the publisher and said, oh, by the way, I don’t want Toni Morrison to be on the book. And they said, it’s too late. They’ve already sent it to the Library of Congress. But I really would have preferred Toni Wofford.”7