Anna Franklin

Anna FranklinThis book was spectacular. Honestly, it might be my favorite book of Toni Morrison's that I have read. It was such a raw examination of wanting something that you can't have, especially as a person of color. "The Bluest Eye" spoke to me because, as a young mixed girl growing up in a predominantly white town, I grew up just wondering what I would look like with blue eyes and blonde hair. I didn't think I was ugly, like Pecola Breedlove, but I didn't think I was as pretty as all those girls with lighter features. So right from the beginning, the concept of this novel interested me. I also liked how this novel took place through the eyes of an empathetic peer whom the audience got to learn about. I think the second and third-person approaches were effective here. Additionally, I loved how different chapters began with random characters or ideas that led back to the main story. Morrison did a wonderful job of giving reason and understanding to a person's actions, but also acknowledging that there is no excuse. We can understand why someone might choose to do something, but it doesn't make that thing okay. I don't think any other author has ever truly understood humans better than Toni Morrison. The imperfections, the hypocrisy, the inconsistencies all of her characters share, yet the empathy that we are still inclined to feel for them drives us. I was going to give this book a 4.5/5 due to the ending, but (without spoiling), I will just say that it reflects what a little girl might go through if she were consistently traumatized and told she was ugly. This book had the aesthetics of Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine", but the more personal topic of a black community within a white-loving world.

Anna FranklinI thought that this book was amazingly written and a lovely story. It was so interesting to read about how people often rely on how others may view them to act a certain way. Many of the townspeople became kinder and more empathetic after seeing how unkind and lacking empathy Sula was. I think it also explored the relationship between female friendship expertly. Many female characters in the work focused on men and their relationships with them, but in the end, Sula and Nel realized that the only people they truly understood and loved were one another. Sula only felt a true connection with Nel; Nel only felt a sense of loss once she realized her best friend turned enemy was no longer with her. The only reason I didn't give this a 5/5 was because I couldn't empathize with Sula and Nel that well, but I still thought it was a beautiful story.