Each and every one of us at some point in our lives has wished that all or part of us was different. I had a “I wish my hair was straight” phase for years when I was younger before embracing the mop of curls that inhabit the top of my head and attacking it with modern day frizz ease products. Lately it’s been an “I wish I was thinner” phase as my love for the restaurant experience has plonked itself on my waist. Then there’s always the “Oh I wish I was tanned and not milk bottle with red patches” phase that pops it’s ugly head up every summer.
We all wish to be something we are not at some stage in our lives even if that is merely a child wishing to be an adult long before their time. The vast majority of us are lucky that our wishes to change ourselves do not extend beyond the superficial but unfortunately there are many out there whose hopes for personal change are rooted in cultural context and the skin they find themselves in.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is a fictional book that communicates the horrors of these wishes in the heart-wrenching story of Pecola Breedlove. While this novel is fictitious it embodies a reality that fits so many people even in western society today. Pecola is a young black girl who yearns for white skin and blue eyes as they are considered the essence of beauty.
This book begins with the ending, thrusting the reader into the turmoil that is Pecola Breedlove’s life. It’s a novel that forces you to take a look at how other races experience self-loathing as a result of skin tone and the treatment the receive in turn. As Pecola suffers at the hands of her father because she is the blackest, the ugliest child, Morrison highlights the frightening effects of racism.
While this novel is set in 1941, it was written in the late 60s and published in 1970. Morrison did so as the message still applied as it does today. It pained me to listen to a friend from India speak of her longing for white skin, as it would offer her opportunities to transform pipe-dreams into realities. Another friend changed his surname to a more English version in order to land an interview for his dream job. These are two fabulous people who have turned their back on their own race because they view it as a hindrance, the factor that has prevented them from getting where they wish to be in life.
The Bluest Eye captures this side of racism a side many of us will never encounter in real life. I strongly recommend this book to anyone whether your interest is in the depths of cultural division or the intricacies of human nature there is something in here for everyone.
Word of warning, have the Kleenex ready if you’re that way inclined.
