Morrison prefaces The Bluest Eye with a Foreword about what prompted her to write the novel. Morrison was first of all inspired to write the book by a conversation in which an African-American friend's desire for blue eyes repulsed Morrison and led her to think about what was beautiful. She wondered about the origin of the desire for blue eyes.

Years later, Morrison decided to write a story about "racial beauty" and the impact of "racial contempt" (xi) on the most vulnerable person Morrison could imagine—a little black girl. Morrison felt challenged by the task of representing the people responsible for this character's "psychological murder” (x) without dehumanizing them as well.

Finally, Morrison also embraced the challenge of writing a novel based on "reliance for full comprehension on codes imbedded in black culture" (xii) to create a work to "transfigure the complexity and wealth of Black American culture into a language worthy of the culture” (xiii).

[Morrison does not use traditional chapters and subdivisions in her novel. Aside from the four seasons, section names and numbers have been assigned for ease of reference only.

The Bluest Eye opens with two untitled, Prologue sections.