The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison’s first novel, published in 1970. It started as a short story; Morrison expanded it into a novel. She said in an interview that she began writing to talk to herself, to grapple with the important questions on her mind. The Bluest Eye was published during a time when the Civil Rights Movement began to morph into the Black Power Movement. One of the hallmark principles of Black Power is that blackness is beautiful. This question of blackness as beautiful or ugly is a core theme in The Bluest Eye.
The omniscient narrator’s tone is explanatory and reflective. Claudia’s tone is cryptic at times and anticipatory at others. It is set in Lorain, Ohio in the...
