The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison · 1970 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

Lorain, Ohio, 1941: Claudia MacTeer and her sister take in Pecola Breedlove, a girl whose family has been persuaded by everyone around them that they are ugly. Pecola prays for blue eyes like Shirley Temple's, buys candy printed with a blonde girl's face, and carries the request to a rooming-house tenant who advertises miracles. Morrison's first novel, told against a Dick-and-Jane primer that disintegrates as it repeats, and among the most banned books in America.

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