The Bluest Eye

I just finished another audio book, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. I'd never read any of Toni Morrison's books, but I've wanted to. The subject matter of the book (incest), is disturbing, but it was well written. The book dealt with many important themes, particularly perceptions of beauty. I thought I'd just post a quote from the book. This is referring to Mrs. Breedlove, the mother of the subject of the book.

Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another -- physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion. In equating physical beauty with virtue, she stripped her mind, bound it, and collected self-contempt by the heap. She forgot lust and simple caring for. She regarded love as possessive mating, and romance as the goal of the spirit. It would be for her a well-spring from which she would draw the most destructive emotions, deceiving the lover and seeking to imprison the beloved, curtailing freedom in every way.