Toni Morisson's novel The Bluest Eye is about the life of the Breedlove family who resides in Lorain, Ohio, in the late 1930s. This family consists of the mother Pauline, the father Cholly, the son Sammy, and the daughter Pecola. The novel's focal point is the daughter, an eleven-year-old Black girl who is trying to conquer a bout with self-hatred. Everyday she encounters racism, not just from white people, but mostly from her own race. In their eyes she is much too dark, and the darkness of her skin somehow implies that she is inferior, and according to everyone else, her skin makes her even "uglier." She feels she can overcome this battle of self-hatred by obtaining blue eyes, but not just any blue. She wants the bluest eye. This short novel counterbalances two points of view: one, the tragic consequences of racism, and two, agency and resistance to that racism.
             The Breedlove's constant bickering and ever growing poverty contributes to the emotional downfall of this little girl. According to Heinze, "Pecolas's tragedy is the ultimate expression of an entire community infected with distorted notions of worth"( Heinze 4). Pecola's misery is obtained through the touch of her father's hand and the voice of her community's struggle with racial separation, anger, and ignorance. Her innocence is harshly ripped from her grasp as her father rapes her limp existence. The community's anger with it's own insecurities is taken out on this poor, ugly, black, non-ideal, young girl. She shields herself from this sorrow behind her obsessive plea for blue eyes. But her eyes do not replace the pain of carrying her fleeing father's baby. Nor do they protect her from the shady eyes of her neighbors.
             Morrison is able to use her critical eye to reveal to the reader the evil that is caused by a society that is indoctrinated by the inherent goodness and beauty of whiteness and the...