The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Available At: Aspen Valley (HS), DCC (HS), Liberty, Pine Creek, Rampart, TCA
Removed from Liberty approx. Nov 2023
Categories: Cursing, Racism, Sexual, Violence, Whiteness
Description: Eleven-year-old Pecola prays for blue eyes hoping that changing her color would change her life.
YA Label?: No
Notes: This book contains profanity and derogatory terms; sexual activities including sexual assault, incest, and molestation; alcohol use; inflammatory racial and religious commentary and references.
Rating: 4
| Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
The above scale indicates whether, in our view, the referenced book violates established and upheld Federal (Miller Test) and State (Colorado Obscenity Test) standards. Books that violate ALL established standards will have a table printed in red. Under Colorado Law, willful distribution of such material is deemed a Class 6 penalty carrying a fine and/or up to 18 months in prison.
Snippets
Page 18: “When she comes out of the car we will beat her up, make red marks on her white skin, and she will cry and ask us do we want to pull her pants down.”
Page 29: “I destroyed white baby dolls. But the dismembering of dolls was not the true horror. The truly horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulses to little white girls.”
Page 41: “Pleading eyes and tightened testicles.”
Page 83: “That must be what it is like, she thinks, but it never happens while he is inside her. When he withdraws, she pulls her nightgown down, slips out of the bed and into the bathroom with relief.”
Page 113: “Nasty white folks is about the nastiest things they is.”
Page 120: “Then I don ‘t want his hand between my legs no more, because I think I am softening away. I stretch my legs open, and he is on top of me. Too heavy to hold, and too light not to. He puts his thing in me.”
Additional Snippets Here