Reread Book Club: The Bluest Eye
Book: The Bluest Eye
Author: Toni Morrison
Times Read: 4
I went to a book discussion about Morrison’s first novel around the time the author died last year. The book deals with colorism and particularly protagonist Pecola Breedlove’s distorted view of herself through her dark skin tone.
My mother’s favorite book is Imitation of Life, which has a character called Peola (renamed Sarah Jane in both the 1934 and 1959 film versions), a light-skinned black woman who passed for white. Peola is very aware of her white appearance and black identity. It was my mother who pointed out that Morrison’s Pecola was inspired by Fannie Hurst’s Peola, which would make sense as both of them have an identity crisis caused by the racial politics of their time.