The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison is characterized as a major, twentieth century black writer. Growing up in Lorraine, Ohio, a pre-dominantly black part of town, Toni Morrison never truly experienced racism or the "Western standards of ideal beauty" until she attended Howard University (Muhi 551). As a child, her parents, though struggling to provide for their children, financially, taught Morrison and her siblings to appreciate and value the rich, timelessness of black culture. In fact, for much of Morrison's childhood, her mother, who was an avid gospel Christian as well as a lover of jazz, would often sing about life in the past which went on to influence her writing greatly. By the time Morrison had entered elementary school as a first grader, she had already learned to read; in a class of all white students, Morrison, solely, was asked to tutor other students, especially those that were of foreign descent. 

 

By the time Morrison reached high school, she had already developed her love for reading French, American, and Russian novels; her favorite authors ranged from Leo Tolstoy to Gustave Flaubert and, by the time she reached college, Morrison narrowed her interests after unearthing her love of literature (McKay 414). In 1949, Morrison went on to attend Howard University where she graduated with an honors and received a B.A. in English as well as a minor in classics. Six years later, she received her master’s degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Morrison started off her career at Texas Southern University where she taught English. She soon returned to Howard University to teach English which is where she met her husband, a Jamaican architect, Harold Morrison; Morrison married him in 1958 and had two sons with him until they divorced in 1964 when he decided to move back to Jamaica.  It was after this that she began working on her first novel with a group of other upcoming writers at Howard. As a single, pregnant mother, Morrison decided to go back to Ohio and live with her family until the birth of her second son; soon after Slade was born she sooned moved to Syracuse, New York, where she worked for a textbook publisher as a senior editor.

 

Toni Morrison's literary career did not begin till 1970 with her publication of The Bluest Eye which describes a young girl driven to a state of mental  instability because of her flawed fascination with blue eyes. In this novel, Morrison addresses the standards of beauty that are created by the African American community while also pointing out the detrimental effects of such ideas and values . Through Morrison's novel, she demonstrates that nature of beauty is relative and manages to criticize the standards of beauty during the 1900s. However, even though Morrison's arguments were relevant and recieved well by critics, the novel, itself, failed commercially because of its inability to attract the public's interest. Despite this minor setback, Morrison continued to write novels about the unique, individuality of black experience which led her to publish Sula about three years later. This novel not only sold more volumes than The Bluest Eye but it was also nominated for the American Book Award (Duvall 236) which allowed Morrison the opportunity to gain popularity amongst the public. With this said, Morrison's most popular novel, Beloved described the story of African American slaves in the United States through the flashbacks of various characters. 

 

 Overall, Toni Morrison's writing style brought forth a new perspective in sensitive subject matter. Through her works, she wrote about the psycological impacts racism, slavery, and white supremacism had on people outside and inside African American communities. Morrison concentrated a majority of her efforts on pointing out the specifities of her own life and adding it into her writing.