January Book Club – The Bluest Eye by

My book club selected this book for discussion for our January get together.  This is a story of racism in the black community.  It is a story about a black child raised in a black community who believes that she is ugly.  But is she really ugly……She believes that if she had white skin and blue eyes that she would be beautiful.  Pecola is a sensitive child whom absorbs all the ugliness and abuse from her family and community instead of getting angry about it.

The children in the playground make fun of her. One of her own classmates hurts his cat and then blames it in Pecola.  Her father rapes her and she becomes pregnant. The black community ostracizes her. Pecola decides that she needs to seek help. She goes to  Soaphead Church for help.  Soaphead Church uses her to kill a dog he does not like and then tells Pecola her eyes will turn blue. The end result –  Pecula goes mad.

All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us.

I felt many emotions while reading this story.  Sadness how her mother cared more for the white child than her own child. Outrage how she was treated by her peers and horror when raped by her father.

It was a good story…..