No marigolds bloomed that fall in Lorain, and Pecola’s baby did not survive. Claudia recollects how she and her sister Frieda planted marigolds in hopes that their success would signify the health of Pecola and her baby. That fall, her young friend Pecola was having her father’s baby. Set in Lorain, Ohio, in 1941, the book begins with narration by Claudia MacTeer, a woman describing events that happened around the time she was nine years old. So when she read “The Bluest Eye,” she was only privy to her own interpretations. It would strip her of the enjoyment of these books and discourage her reading habits. She couldn’t ever derive the deeper meaning of what she thought to be insignificant details, and she did not care to delve into the motifs of revered classics. She didn’t like the analysis of the books, much like her disdain for the analysis of poetry. I asked her why she never actually took these literature classes, especially when I realized that numerous books left to me were a result of her bookstore prowl, and her answer was simple. This was how she came across Toni Morrison and “The Bluest Eye,” and how I came to find it in my bookshelf. She would spend her money buying other people’s mandatory reading, and later would fall in love with the books she found. She would browse the stacks of books assigned for literature classes that she was not taking. When my mother was in college, she would spend hours at the campus bookstore. I promised myself when I read them I would read them all at once, and the opportune moment arrived when quarantine began. On the inside cover of each book, she inscribed my name on Winnie the Pooh book plates, and waited for the day when I would read them.
A book lover and librarian, she hoped that I would be a reader like her and love the books she cherished throughout her life. After I was born, my mother bought me timeless editions of her favorite books for me to read.
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