"This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live. We are wrong, of course, but it doesn't matter."

An incredible work. Similar to Richard Wright’s [b:Native Son|15622|Native Son|Richard Wright|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1627788308l/15622._SX50_.jpg|3159084], Morrison unveils the horrors of racial self-loathing steadily, building the picture round and round before pulling it into stark focus. Like a nail growing out and then under to re-pierce the flesh, the hatred impressed from without gets turned within. Whiteness as a concept is emptiness; it is defined only by what it is not. It is void, and it maintains its strength by dividing and devouring real things - culture, tradition, beauty - and sterilizing them, homogenizing them, stratifying them. Every character reacts to the oppressive malaise of White-ness; Sam, by hating what he was powerless to protect; Mrs. Breedlove and Soaphead Church, by purging all humanity from themselves in a futile grasp for purity; Geraldine, by wistfully loving only the unattainable gloss of Hollywood and forgetting how to love real people in the process; and Pecola by losing herself in ultimate delusion. Only Claudia and Frieda seem to recognize this beguiling pressure as an enemy, although they are ultimately powerless against the destruction it carries into their communities.

Toni Morrison says, in the author’s note:

"[I was interested in] the far more tragic and disabling consequences of accepting rejection as legitimate and self-evident...
Couple the vulnerability of youth with indifferent parents, dismissive adults, and a world which, in it's language, laws, and images, enforces despair and the journey to destruction is sealed. The project, then... was to enter the life of the one least likely to withstand such damaging forces because of youth, gender, and race.”

She has more than succeeded. An absolutely phenomenal work; possibly the best of Morrison’s I’ve read. 5 stars.