This is my third Toni Morrison book, and this is one of the most devastating books I've ever read. We follow a black girl named Pecola, who grew up after the Great Depression, and she feels she's ugly due to the perceptions of others as well as her own. She desires having blue eyes which she equates with "whiteness." The book is told from Claudia MacTeer's POV, daughter of Pecola's temporary foster parents.
One of Morrison's strengths as a writer is her prose. Her prose is visceral and requires the reader to participate in the story instead of just passively reading. I had to reread several passages because the writing was so powerful, it needed to be re-read to fully understand. She explores the brutal realities racism has on the psyche of Pecola. Her constant desire to look like her classmates is heartbreaking.
During the book, we flashback to Pecola's parents, Cholly and Pauline. Pauline believes romantic love is for beautiful people and since she considers herself to be ugly, she passes the behavior on to Pecola. Cholly, as a young man was humiliated during a sexual encounter by two white men. He met Pauline and loved each other but the relationship deteriorated over time. During present time in the book, a drunk Cholly commits rape against Pecola.
Morrison describes this as an act of love and hate. It's one of the most brutal scenes I've read in a book. This is one of the saddest books I've read. The whole book is filled with scenes of racism, the poverty Pecola's family experiences. Sometimes fiction is not meant to be a comfort but to disturb us and showcase realities we may not want to see. This book is the definition of that.
I'm curious what people thought of the book and I know I left out some characters and scenes but despite how small this book is, it packs a huge punch.
by DaleJ100