Background Published in 1970, The Bluest Eye came about at a critical moment in the history of American civil rights. Morrison began Pecola's story as a short piece in1962; it became a novel-in-progress by 1965. It was written, as one can see from the dates, during the years of some of the most dynamic and turbulent transformations of Afro-American life. One of those transformations was a new recognition of Black-American beauty. After centuries of coveting white dolls …showed first 75 words of 504 total…

…showed last 75 words of 504 total…and what does it do) when a black woman wishes she could look like Jean Harlow? How has this happened? What has been lost? Is there a way out? The Bluest Eye enjoyed some (but far from universal) critical success on its first publication, but the novel was also a commercial failure. In 1993, after Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Plume published a new edition with a new Afterword by the author. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**