Should The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Be Considered a Great American Novel?

I believe that The Bluest Eye is a very good piece of literature, but it should not be considered a “Great American Novel”. I do believe that the novel is eye-opening to the horrors of being an African-American child during the 1940’s, but that these awful situations are not enough to make it a “Great American Novel”. This novel is supposed to become reality for the reader, which is successfully done, except when there are coincidences that occur seemingly to drive whatever plots, if any, that the novel contains. In Huckleberry Fin by Mark Twain, the writing becomes the reader’s reality, and there are minimum coincidences that do not take away from the writing’s greatness. The coincidences in The Bluest Eye seem to be extremely lazy writing that is utilized in an attempt to progress any sort of plot that the novel has, if it even does have one.

In addition, this novel can drag on quite extensively in summaries or scenes that are seemingly page fillers. A teacher brought this to my attention by asking posing the questions “Is this novel boring? Do you think they put Pecola’s pregnancy by her own father is included in the beginning so that it would not be” (Works)? While I did not edit this book, this suggestion does seem to be very possible, and if true, a great amount of the novel’s integrity is lost. Yet, Morrison’s writing does captivate readers at times in the novel that are ruined by coincidences such as Geraldine returning home right after her beloved cat is killed by her son Junior.

Leading up to the cat’s death, Morrison gives readers a summary of Geraldine’s life, who only truly loves her cat and nothing else, and her son Junior’s response to his mother’s lack of love by tricking Pecola into coming over and essentially to...

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...oincidences seem to surround Pecola for a reason. Maybe she is just plain unlucky, but I believe that these coincidences are just examples of lazy writing that allows the writer to more easily make conclusions. The Bluest Eye is certainly different from any other novel that I have read which could be why I believe that it should not be considered a “Great American Novel”. I feel that I fairly assessed the novel, because it is very good, and its breaking of the ‘Master Narrative’ only helps its case for being considered a “Great American Novel”. Despite Toni Morrison’s writing savvy, the seemingly lazy coincidences that surround Pecola discredit the novel.

Works Cited

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. May 2007 Re-Publication ed. New York City: Vintage International, 1970. Print.

Works, John. "The Bluest Eye." St. Andrew's Episcopal School. Austin, TX.

Lecture.