There are many children in the neighborhood who have dark skin, but Pecola’s ugliness is a result of what she represents. But, as Morrison writes, “Try as she might, she could never get her eyes to disappear.” Pecola’s ugliness is portrayed as going deeper than just her skin and eyes.

She prays every day for a pair of blue eyes. She comes to the conclusion that if she had eyes like Shirley Temple the bullying would stop. Pecola is ruthlessly bullied for her dark skin and plain features and grows to wholeheartedly believe that she is ugly. The story revolves around the complex relationship between these three characters and Pecola's deep desire to cure herself of her 'ugliness.' After some time Pecola moves back home and the MacTeer girls observe her life from afar. Pecola comes from an abusive home and goes to live with the MacTeer family while life in her own home settles down. The novel tells the story of three girls: the narrator, Claudia MacTeer, her sister, Frieda MacTeer, and their housemate, Pecola. 'The Bluest Eye' is set in the town of Lorain, Ohio in the 1940s. An ugliness that goes beyond the surface of the skin and permeates into the soul still shapes our world today. Of course, the idea of a racialized ugliness never will go away, but the ways it manifests itself can change. However, re-reading the book in the last couple of weeks, it struck me how the ugliness Morrison talks about in the novel has changed since its publication. There is not much that can be said about Toni Morrison’s classic 1970 novel, “The Bluest Eye,” that has not been said before. “Beauty was not simply something to behold it was something one could do.”

The bluest eye novel