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This book is a hard read, and it did a bit too much towards the end for me personally. I don’t think there was a reason to show the rape of Pecola considering we already know from the very beginning of the book that it happens. I also really didn’t understand the point of the POV of “Soaphead” except to be gratuitously disturbing.
This book covers so many extremely important topics and themes, and I would definitely recommend, but PLEASE check the trigger warnings before reading!
A few other things I had issues with. The way fat characters are treated and described are pretty fatphobic, but I’m not surprised considering the time it was published. There’s also a character who doesn’t enjoy sex with her husband, and finds comfort in her cat. There’s really weird descriptions of her experiencing “pleasure” from her cat sitting on her lap and stuff like that ??? Weird and once again, gratuitous.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Classism
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Classism
Moderate: Slavery, Religious bigotry
Minor: Gun violence, Miscarriage
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Incest, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Classism
Minor: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Excrement, Abandonment
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Classism
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child death, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol
The dark moments are handled with grace imo - although, if I can have one complaint keeping this from being a 5 star book it’s the fact that the poetic flow of the book doesn’t let up even during these horrific moments, making them seem a little less horrific to a more subjective eye?
In the edition I had, Morrison talks in an afterword about how she doesn’t just want people to pity Pecola, she wants them to reexamine themselves and the world around them and I think that was clear to me. Pecola Breedlove is one of the saddest characters I have ever read about, but a world in which a little girl isn’t protected from pain just because of how she looks is far sadder.
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Child death, Fatphobia
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Classism
Long hours she sat, looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness, the ugliness that made her ignored or despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike . . . It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights-- if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different.
It has been so long since I last read The Bluest Eye that I was really approaching it almost from a blank slate-- other than the concept, I had largely forgotten the plot (even very major and disturbing plot points). I am very glad I re-read this novel because it brilliantly explores internalized anti-blackness, or as Morrison puts it in her foreword, "the damaging internalization of assumptions of immutable inferiority originating in an outside gaze." It is a heartbreaking and tragic novel that, like every book by Toni Morrison I've read, is expertly crafted.
Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Racism, Rape
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia
Minor: Fatphobia