Toni Morrison’s debut novel immerses us in the tragic, torn lives of a poor black family – Pauline, Cholly, Sam and Pecola – in post-Depression 1940s Ohio. Unlovely and unloved, Pecola prays each night for blue eyes like those of her privileged white schoolfellows. At once intimate and expansive, unsparing in its truth-telling, The Bluest Eye shows how the past savagely defines the present.
Trigger and Content Warnings
- Homophobia
- Racism & colourism (theme)
- Graphic rape of an 11-year-old child (on-page)*
- Sex work mentioned
- Physical, emotional & psychological child abuse
- Alcohol consumption
- Death of an infant
- Housefire mentioned
- Animal abuse, injury & death mentioned
Context: Includes passages from the paedophilic rapist’s perspective.
Trigger Warning Database 