Essay Database

The Bluest Eye In a film interview, Morrison has stated, "I suppose The Bluest Eye is about one's dependency on the world for identification,self-value, feelings of worth." Toni Morrison has been consistently insightful and helpful critic of her work. With regard to herfirst novel, she has indicated that her plan was to take love and the effects of its scarcity in the world as her major themes,concentrating on the interior lives of her …

…and then escapes her sense of ugliness into madness, convinced that she has magically been given blue eyes. The Bluest Eye illustrates the possible consequences of entirely depending on external conditions for self-image, for in attempting to satisfy a paradigm that differs so radically from reality, African-Americans may destroy their essential nature. And in denying their natural gifts (or, as Morrison calls it, their "funkiness") in order to placate white expectations, African-Americans accelerate their self-destruction.