ld back in her ability to paint a picture with her words was amazing. You can feel the pain that the characters face through their circumstances and it makes you think about your own journey with race. If I look at this story from page 1-224, all I can say is from what I was able to follow was that Pecola deserved so much more and that it is a shame that she was unable to find beauty within herself, always dreaming of having the bluest eyes. She was tortured and made a fool as others continued to abuse her and use her for their own gain. That much of the story was clearly written. From what I could understand, this is a painful story and it can be felt from beginning to end. 2d:T51f, The Bluest Eye is a dark and emotional read, but good. It would have been a five-star, but I feel the metaphor that essentially creates the book got lost in the middle.

My favorite thing about this book is that Toni Morrison doesn't tell you how to feel about certain characters. She gives a voice to the awful people that essentially make Pecola's life hell and doesn't say 'well this explains it' or 'this is no excuse.' She leaves it up to the reader. I'm not going to really delve deep into how I feel about certain characters because my feelings aren't complex. I don't like them. And that's that.

Pecola was a tragically beautiful character who saw the beauty in people even though nobody ever tried to see the beauty in her. Claudia and Freida (both of whom I feel are not talked about enough whenever this book is brought up) are also great. They were really the only faint light this book had.

That being said, this is a harrowing read. Besides some not-really happy, but not awful moments, this entire novel is dark and just straight-up hard to read. Most of the negative reviews I read are just about the events in this novel and how hard they were to get through. And that's understandable. I recommend this book, but not because it's fun or nice.

The Bluest Eye - Likewise Book Reviews

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