The variety of passionately displayed themes, interactions, and events presented in The Bluest Eye provide an understanding of Toni Morrison's inner thoughts and beliefs which were highly impacted by her various life experiences. Throughout her writing, Morrison continuously focuses on her readers being emotionally connected to the story, as she believes that it reminds the reader about their heritage and most importantly, place in society. She does an excellent job of pairing the challenges her family has faced being African Americans growing up during the Great Depression with essential life-lessons that are important for every person to understand. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison thoroughly uses her previous experiences in aid to create the feeling of hardship and the melancholy tone of the novel.
Toni Morrison was born as Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio on February 18, 1931, to parents Ramah and George Wofford. She was the second oldest of four children. Her mother's parents, Ardelia and John Solomon Willis, left Greenville Alabama around 1910 after they lost a farm due to debts that they could not repay. Morrison's father's family left Georgia to move north as an attempt to escape sharecropping and the violence against African Americans in the South. The town of Lorain on Lake Erie is where both families settled and is also where Morrison was eventually born. She grew up during the Great Depression, which her father compensated for by working three jobs for seventeen years ("Toni Morrison Biography"). African American folklore, music, rituals, and myths filled Morrison's childhood, and storytelling was an important part of life in the Wofford family. As soon as she learned how to read, it became one of her favorite things to do; she read the works of great authors such as Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, and Gustave Flaubert, who all impressed her in different ways. Their talents helped to motivate Morrison to write about the things that she is most familiar with, such as her African American culture.
