The Bluest Eye is a great American novel. A great American novel serves as a storehouse of values, issues and beliefs most central to the American culture while also helping to understand it. A great novel has the following characteristics: it connects to culture, addresses issues that affect a whole group, it is outside of the master narrative, contains memorable characters, includes universal themes, and applies to a larger community. The main issues in the culture in The Bluest Eye are poverty, violence, sexual abuse, escape and hopelessness. Within poverty the idea of beauty, friends, and homes are included. The idea of beauty surrounds Pecola’s life. For example, Pecola believes that she is the ugliest little girl and that “if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (46). She measures her beauty by only physical characteristics. No one else sees beauty in her either. For example, one day when Pecola goes to Mr. Yacobowski’s store, Mr. Yacobowskisees her but there is a “total absence of human recognition” (48). Another piece of culture is homes. For example, the Breedloves lived in a storefront that was divided into two rooms. Their home had all of the necessities except for a bathroom. They lived in a small space all together so there was no way to actually get away from their family.
The novel does a good job at showing what real life was like back then. For example, even though the war was happening there is almost no mention of it because it didn’t affect the community. A great novel includes universal themes like beauty, love and power. As children Frieda and Claudia do not know what real love is. They have no real example of what it could be. As children they use child logic in order to come up with an explanation about what love is. Pecola asks Frieda and Claudia “How do you get somebody to love you?” but Claudia does not know (32). Love is not present in their lives. The Bluest Eye is not a great American novel because it only focuses on one part of American culture. It only introduces in deepness the black culture. The novel is outside of the master narrative. For example, it separates the novel into seasons so it is very predictable. At the beginning of the book the author says that Pecola has her father’s baby. The author tells us what is going to happen at the end of the book which takes away the reader’s ability to guess.
The novel changes from first person in the first part of the book to third person in the second part of the book. It is ineffective because as you read the book it is confusing at first to be able to differentiate between all of the different characters that are introduced and end up getting lost between the different points of views. A great novel has to contain memorable characters. The way that the author introduces many characters doesn’t give the reader enough time to actually invest time into the development of the characters. The only character that is memorable is Pecola. The universal theme of love is included in a negative way. There is no hope for any of the characters especially Pecola. Although Toni Morrison includes issues that contribute to culture she includes issues that are uncomfortable like sexual abuse. As she includes different sexual abuse scenes the main scene is about Pecola and her father Cholly. Pecola is raped and as she “[regains] consciousness (she tries to connect the pain between her legs with the face of her mother looming over her” (163). After Pecola tries to tell her mother what has happened her mother does not believe her. When Claudia tells us about what the woman have been saying about Pecola’s case they blame her even though she is just a child. Writing about sexual abuse is writing outside the master narrative. Another example is the characters China, Poland, and Miss Marie whose names are not those of humans.
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