Best Book

This week’s journal entry:

What is the best book you ever read? Why did you like it? Did reading the book change you in any way? What way?

By Laura Black

            The best book I’ve ever read is The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. This is a tragic novel about an eleven-year-old African-American girl that is raped by her father and becomes pregnant. She is hated by her mother as well for the tragic act her father commits. This poor, young girl believes she is ugly and struggles to identify what true beauty and love are because of her circumstances.

As far as beauty, the way society was portrayed for African-American women during the 1940s was that whiteness was the standard of true beauty. Pecola has it ingrained in her mind that she is not beautiful and will never be unless she meets the true standard of beauty as a White girl, like Shirley Temple, white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. Unfortunately, Pecola also connects beauty with love. She believes if you’re beautiful, then you will be loved.

Through the course of the novel, Pecola believes the only way she will be beautiful and be loved is by possessing blue eyes. By possessing blue eyes, she will be able to overcome or rid herself of the tragedy in her life. If she has blue eyes, then she will be truly loved by others. The tragedy will be replaced by affection and respect, which she lacks from her family and community.

The true tragedy of it all is that possessing blue eyes is not possible and unrealistic; however, this poor girl believes it is possible. She believes the cruel acts performed upon her or around her are connected to how she is seen by others. Because she does not possess blue eyes, she is seen as ugly, which allows others to commit such horrific acts upon her. The wish for blue eyes rather than lighter skin shows she wishes to see things differently as well as being seen differently by others. In the end, she can only make this wish a reality by blinding herself.

My overall love of this novel is how it directly shows how easily one can see themselves differently than others see them. At some point, most people self-loathe themselves, which in itself is tragic. What this novel taught me is that we must all learn to love ourselves and find the true beauty in ourselves in order to truly love others. True beauty is not what we see on the outside but what is on the inside, and once that is believed and realized can we learn to love ourselves for who we truly are, and in turn, then we can love others.