Sethe's Tension

The article Revisions, Rememories, Exorcisms argues that Sethe’s actions reveals her inner tension, and that reveals the general theory of peace through music . I agree with this article. First, Sethe has been through several life experiences which formed her opinion about whites; her family’s experiences have also allowed her to form this opinion. However, she doesn’t want Denver to be exposed to these opinions, so she limits her talks to Denver. As the article states that “life-supporting fictions can easily be destroyed by facts which shatter the protective formulations”, Sethe wants tprotect the innocent Denver. However, the article says something which I disagree with; the passage says that a “in a classic slave narrative...the pathos of separation receives attention rather than personal relationships themselves”. In my opinion, this isn’t true. The personal relationships create the bonds and deeper themes of the story, and not really the “pathos of separation. The psychoanalytical lens allows us to observe this relationship between close characters, such as Sethe and Denver. From a mother-daughter relationship, it appears that Sethe cares for her daughter and doesn’t want Denver to be influenced by the dirt of the world. The article seems to agree with this, stating that “the sensitivity and complexity of human interaction”, causes certain bones to be left undug for the best. The truth might set someone free from a burden, but the truth may also push someone over the edge of life, causing overwhelming feelings. This article helped me better understand sethe and her character through a psychoanalytic lens. Through this article, I saw that sethe was internally broken and misunderstood. With her family's past at sweet home, she was left scarred and broken. Also, I understood that Denver was broken because of this past, but Paul d was there to help guide Denver away from her mother's pain. Since Denver and sethe are so close, it makes sense that their feelings are almost synchronized. This helps ys understand the mother and daughter bond, as the article says. Throughout the book, we see non verbal relationships such as Denver and sethe. They both share the pain and happiness, but this raises the question. Is Paul d simply interrupting a relationship?

No love like a mother's love

I chose to analyze “Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: A Psychological Reading”. My interpretation through the psychoanalytic lens of what she wrote was that she believes that mothers are powerful. I agree with this: our mothers represent the core of our lives. In Beloved, Denver learns that her life is centralized around her mother.  There is purpose in being a mother because of how the instincts of a woman can change when she reaches that point in her life when she wishes to bare a child. The emotional attachment to a child from her mother is extraordinary, and it hurts to break. In Beloved, Denver shares an interesting bond with her mother.  From the reading, I was able to deduce the general idea and perspective of the author. Sandra Mayfield believes that the presence of motherly love is derived from behavioral traits that contribute to the human perception. Living most of her childhood as a slave has a genuine impact on her future as a human being and will continue to change the well-being of her decision making. This argument that Mayfield makes can be seen in the actual text of Beloved. Sethe admits to killing her daughter, which ultimately made her children fear her. The text suggests that the supernatural being of Beloved was the reason people were afraid of 124. But from what Sethe suggests, it can be argued that Sethe was the reason that people feared 124. The motherly love that Sethe exhibit on her children is considered sinister and cruel.  I agree with the analysis. But I also disagree. Though Sethe is "sinister", she is only providing for her daughter. She's trying to escape the pain of sweet home. Then Paul D enters, bringing his PTSD into the aura of the house. Sethe, though defeated, still remains strong. This shows me a valuable lesson: when life becomes tough, we have setbacks. Then, we set step forward.

Never Forget

When I was reading Beloved through the Psychoanalytic Lens, I paid close attention to the thoughts of the characters. Using the psychoanalytical lens, I was able to use this lens to know why characters use certain lenses. The thoughts are influenced by not only through their actions, but also through their past. Since Sethe and her family were traumatized at Sweet Home, from mental, sexual, and physical abuse.  I noticed that many of them tried very hard to forget about their past, but the most interesting thing I found was that they seemed to NOT detach from their past. It was their identity. It was a part of their heart that they grew into. The world became gray to them: nothing was same and nothing was different. Because they were all slaves, their pasts were filled with painful memories. Their painful memories got in their ways of being happy. They were killing themselves with depression, and they embraced this death.  So what they tried do was bury the memories in their unconscious minds, but they couldn't. They tried to completely erase their past from their memory which is not possible. It is impossible because memories are forever in our minds or brains unless they are physically taken away. I have experienced this in my own life. I think we all do. Just like Sethe and Paul D, I try to forget all the bad things that has happened in my life. But sometimes things come up and they remind of the bad things I tried to forget. For example, deaths. I try to forget the deaths of my loved ones so that I can be happy. The pain I felt when I lost them was hard to handle. So, when I am thinking positive, I become happy and I can live my life being HAPPY! But when I'm stressed and tired from work: I become negative. A quote that I found from Chapter 1 was from Sethe: "My first-born. All I can remember of her is how she loved the burned bottom of bread. Can you beat that? Eight children and that's all I remember." This showed me how Denver, a symbol of innocence, was definitely her mothers blood. Like her mother, Denver learned to overcome pain, and make the most of life. The burned bread represents the trauma of Sethe, and Denver is learning to live with this dark history. In our lives, we do the same. We adapt and overcome hardships, no matter how hard it gets.

Hard to do right when wrongs so easy

“Come on. Come on. You may as well just come on.”

The sideboard took a step forward but nothing else did.

“Grandma Baby must be stopping it,” said Denver. She was ten and still mad at Baby Suggs for dying.

Sethe opened her eyes. “I doubt that,” she said.

“Then why don’t it come?”

“You forgetting how little it is,” said her mother. “She wasn’t even two years old when she died. Too little too understand. Too little too talk much even.”

“Maybe she don’t want to understand,” said Denver.

“Maybe. But if she’d only come, I could make it clear to her. (5)

In this passage, Sethe and Denver are trying to talk to the baby ghost that they think is haunting their house. Sethe says that the ghost would stop haunting them if she could talk to her and tell her the reason why she took her life. She would understand if she knew the reason behind Sethe’s decision to kill her.

Analyzing this passage through the Psychoanalytic Lens, looking at Sethe’s character, we start to understand the reason for killing her baby. Sethe says that if she could tell the baby ghost her reason for killing her then the baby would understand. Her motive for killing her baby was so that her baby did not have to go through the pain and suffering that she did. When she thinks of her baby’s future, Sethe thinks of her past and knows that the pain and struggles she went through and faced will be the same that her baby will go through. So, she decides to save her baby from that and kill her.

Also looking at Sethe’s character through the Psychoanalytic Lens, we see guilt and desire. The ghost may just be her imagination. When we imagine something, we imagine it because we want it to happen. We also imagine things when we feel guilty or bothered by something that happened in the past. Sethe could be imagining the baby ghost because she knows that what she did (killing her baby) was not right. Deep down she knows that taking her baby’s life was not right because it is murder. Because she committed murder, her sin is back to haunt her. On the other hand, if her imagination is what she wants, what she wants would be her baby girl. She wants her child to be alive and her unconscious mind is creating this thought that her baby is not gone and is here with her.

Horrible Memories

“Beloved.” He said it, but she did not go. She moved closer with a footfall he didn’t hear and he didn’t hear the whisper and the flakes of rust made either as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave he didn’t know it. What he knew was that when he reached the inside part he was saying, “Red heart. Red heart,” over and over again. Softly and then so loud it woke Denver, then Paul D himself. “Red heart. Red Heart. Red Heart.” (138)

In this passage, Beloved is forcing Paul D to have sex with her. This is known as rape. During his years of slavery, Paul D was raped or sexually assaulted by the whites a number of times. Beloved is a person in the book that brings back the past to every character especially the bad memories. While Paul D is having sex with Beloved, he is reminded of the rapings he had to face years ago and he is frozen by it. Beloved brings back this bad memory to him and he is frightened by it. The memory of his rapings cause him to go unconscious and he repeats the phrase “Red Heart.” The bad memories of being mistreated are brought back when Beloved rapes him because he experiences the memory again. Experiencing rape again causes all him to go into shock because it refreshes his memory and the pain from the past returns.

Like Sethe and many of the other former slaves, Paul D tries to forget the past. He tries to forget his past of being a slave because it reminds him of when he was abused and mistreated. He tries to bury his memories of slavery and completely forget about them because when he starts to think of these memories, he starts to feel pain. He doesn't want to feel pain anymore because he is free and wants to be happy. Without these memories, he is happy and is pain-free and that is why he tries to erase the memories.

Symptoms of PTSD

Throughout this novel something that truly stuck out to me was the trauma that all the characters faced. The character in particular that seems to suffer the most from her past is Sethe. She started off living at Sweet Home which was a place for slaves, and at Sweet Home she was beaten, sexually and physically abused. Also she was whipped, beaten by school boys before they robbed her of her breast milk. Sethe was then forced to give birth while running away. She traveled many miles to get to 124. She raises Denver on her own. Her two sons run away due to ghosts. Her baby died as well as Baby Suggs. It is incredible that one person can continue living their life when so much has gone terribly wrong. Paul D and Denver have also gone through a lot. For instance, Paul D was forced to wear a iron bit and was beat repeatedly at Sweet Home. Denver is forced to live with a ghost in her house and her mom being unstable. Since I am analyzing this book through the Psychoanalytic Lense, I can really pay attention to the way characters think and act. I can sense PTSD in Sethe and maybe some personality disorders in Denver. Paul D also has some symptoms of PTSD by how ridiculously high his stress levels seemed to be. Sethe's past has shown me that she is broken but strong, reminding me of the movie unbroken. Sethe is interesting. She closes herself up to the world, but acts as if nothing is wrong. Sethe seems to put her family before her own needs: she makes sure Denver doesn't have to complain about anything, and allows them both to live a comfortable life. But then Paul d comes in, in the middle of the book. It appears that Denver doesn't like Paul d, and doesn't respect his PTSD background, and simply sees him as a disrespect to the bond between 

Sethe and her. I think Denver acts this way because she doesn't know what Paul d went through. She thinks Sethe's life is cut and dry, but it's not. Denver hasn't seen the horrid life of sweet home, where countless rapes and assaults occurred. Denver represents innocence of the world, protected by her mother. In my opinion, this shows us Denver's opinion internally. We're able to psychoanalyse Denver and see who she truly is: a flower unexposed to the dirt she rose from. The dirt that her family was thrown into is the same dirt that she will rise from. 

Phychoanalytic Lens

 The lens I chose is the psychoanalytic lens. I chose this lens because I wanted to focus on the characters’ thoughts and emotions. During the time of slavery many good people were oppressed. These people were mainly african american. I look forward to analysing the characters in this book. Shethe seems like she has a lot of emotional trauma, as well as the people around her. Being a slave for many years, Sethe can never forget the harsh treatment and abuse she faced. Now she is cursed with a disease that i believe is PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder. This causes her to have constant flashbacks whenever she is reminded of something that resembles Sweet Home. Now, Sethe has to deal with the haunting of her dead child, which I am interested in knowing if this has to do with her terrible mental state or if she is actually in contact with her child.  This trauma might even cause her to make bad decisions. Many people shouldn't promises when they're happy and bad decisions when they're sad, according to Bob Marley. Sethe's sadness might cause her to be blind to logic: she doesn't know where she is going In life but she does know that she needs to provide for the only family she has: Sethe. She may be hallucinating the entire thing. Overall, I am very excited to be able to read this text through a Psychoanalytic Lens, because Psychology is something I find very interesting! I think psychoanalysis is really cool because it lets me understands the characters. Psychoanalysis also allows us to see why characters act the way they do. Reading other books allows me to see why characters act and think certain ways, without seeing or reading their actions directly. The psychoanalytical lens allows us to use historical context to understand the actions of characters. In what I read so far in Beloved, I saw that sethe is really broken internally. 

What I have learned from Beloved-reflection

Malcolm X once said “America preaches integration and practices segregation.” After reading this quote, I still believe that it applied during the time period of Beloved in 1873, and still applies today. I think this book really highlighted the emotional impacts of slavery, and really illustrated the effects on the people. In APUSH last year, we learned about the emancipation proclamation, and all of the consequences of the slavery and the civil war had on society, but until I read Beloved, I never pictured how horrible it was even after slavery was illegal really puts the reader in the perspective of the African Americans at this time. In a way, these millions of “freed” slaves, were still enslaved by the prejudice and inequality that African Americans suffered through. This book doesn't just tell the story of one family, it captures the struggle many families went through and represents years and years of oppression.

Recently in government class, we have been studying current events, and one very common issue that has been brought up is police brutality. As I have mentioned in a past blog, this seems to be a reoccuring event and the racism and prejudice that is left over from slavery, still seems to affect our daily lives. In a recent event in Baltimore, after arresting an African American suspect who suffered many fatal spinal injuries from an arrest, died of unknown causes from the car ride with the police. Police had handcuffed him, and neglected to buckle his seatbelt, which caused even more severe spinal injuries, and resulted in his death. After hearing about this event, it reminded me of a part in the book, when Paul D and other prisoners, were chained up in boxes and treated like animals, beat up by the slave owners. Though this is an entirely different situation, it seems just as inhumane to do this to another human being. Just in the last couple months there have been countless incidents that involve violent attacks from the police, which cannot be a coincidence. This book really made me think about the long term effects of slavery and how it has affected present day. When reading about the past, it is easy to just think about what it was like back then, but there it is still so influential even today. There is still so much inequality of education, socioeconomic status, and discrimination.  More than 100 years later, as a society were still suffering from slavery’s horrific consequences.

Being Free responding and reflecting

“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another”(112). After reading this book, this quote really stood out to me. Like I have said in my earlier blog, it was one thing to be free, but to be able to own yourself and your emotions, and struggles is something else. Throughout the story, characters struggle to bring up the past, and have a hard time dealing with the traumatic experiences. In Sethe’s case, she fears that bringing it up, will bring herself and her children back to Sweet Farm, where she had no freedom, where it was so demeaning. A recurring theme I saw in the book is facing the past head on instead of hiding it and being fearful of it, because that is when it can be troubling. A message that I interpreted, that I believe Morrison was trying to convey is as a society, we cannot forget our mistakes and we have to change for the better. Slavery will forever haunt our society, but we have to learn from the past mistakes and not forget what millions of people suffered through.

This also really stood out to me because after her escape, she believed she would be able to live out her life in peace. But even after she escaped, she was almost constrained in a way. After she killed her daughter, she still lived a life of trauma, and is always haunted by Beloved. As a result of this she lived a life of completely isolated, and though she had her freedom, she was an outcast in her own community, wasn't necessarily “free”.

Throughout the book, Morrison conveys the message that in order to be completely free, you have to let the past in and “own it”. Sethe never truly “owns” the experiences she went through which is understandable. She tries and hides from it which causes her more fear in her present.

I also think that when Morrison says, “claiming” she is saying that with freedom also means claiming our mistakes. After Sethe kills her baby, it haunts for the rest of her life. In 124, she is alone, and doesn't seem to except what she did to her baby. When Denver starts to ask questions about the past, this brings up the guilt Sethe pushed away, and brings Beloved back. Morrisons underlying messages of in order to find freedom, you have to own yourself, your emotions, and your past to be completely free.

Baby Suggs and the Clearing Critical Lens

“Cry, she told them. For the living and the dead. Just cry. Women stopped crying and danced; men sat down and cried, children danced, women laughed, children cried until, exhausted and riven, all and each lay about the Clearing damp and gasping for breath…Here, she said, in this here place, we flesh; that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard”(103).

In this passage, Sethe is thinking about the times when Baby Suggs would gather people in the clearing and join as a community. She would shout and sing inspirational words, and as Sethe is reminiscing about this she thinks about Baby Suggs’s words, when she feels more alone then ever.

This passage has great significance because as a community these former slaves and their children are owning their pain, and in a way celebrating it, and celebrating the fact that they are not just free physically, but they can now start to grieve their pain and let it out. A reoccuring theme throughout the book is suppressing past experiences and trauma won’t undo any of the horrific actions that happened, which is something that Sethe and Paul D struggle with throughout the book. This passage illustrates as a community, African Americans owning their issues and not letting it haunt them anymore.

When they are in the clearing and Morrison describes, “men sat down and cried, children, danced, women laughed.” This is a very powerful statement in many ways. The ways blacks were treated were so dehumanizing, and this signifies one of the most human things possible, emotion. After being “owned” by someone and finally being free, this illustrates such an empowering moment. Baby Suggs is saying that they should own their own emotions and not what happened to them control them, and let their emotion be free. Being held as a slave is so demeaning, and this reminds everyone as a community that they are human, they are free, and they should celebrate the overcoming adversity. For the most part, Beloved is a very dark story showing the experiences and the severe outcomes that slavery caused on millions of African Americans. But in this passage, it is uplifting and is showing African Americans as overcoming slavery, and facing it.

Post Colonialism, Beloved and Ghosts

In Ruth Van Den Akker’s Hush, Little Baby-Ghost: The Postcolonial Gothic and Haunting History she analyses the ways Toni Morrison demonstrates the horrific actions of slavery through gothic style literature, and is able to “speak about the unspeakable”. In this article, Akker claims that trauma is an “injury to the mind”. This influences the way in which Morrison is able to write this story and view it as post colonialism. Because the ghosts in this story are a result of guilt and trauma Sethe faced, as a consequence of slavery. The “gothic” literature used throughout this story are all symbols used to represent the pain and guilt coming back and haunting Sethe. Akker claims that the death of Beloved as a baby represents the silencing of slavery and the years of oppressed people, who’s humanity and freedom were taken away. The return of Beloved as an adult ghost, brings up oppressed memories for Sethe and therefore represents these horrific things that she tried to let go, are brought up again and making both former slaves and slave owners face the awful things that happened.

In addition, Akker brings up the idea that the past can never be left behind. Beloved is greatly influenced throughout the story, shown with Sethe’s fear for her children going back to Sweet Home, not wanting to talk about her experiences as a slave, but still knowing that the events that happened will always be there. Morrison shows this when Sethe is describing to Denver about her experiences on Sweet Farm she states, “What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don't think, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened” (43). This quote signifies the fact though slavery is now illegal, it will always haunt those were affected, and even the generations after.

Sethe’s fear of having her children return to Sweet Farm is so strong, she kills her baby, Beloved. The power that slavery had over her, even when she was free, drove her to insanity to try and protect her children. Though this is a very extreme and most people would see this as a deranged way to protect her children, this illustrates how Sethe believed that nothing is worse than being a slave, not even death and, was trying in her own way, to protect her kids, and her fear of returning to the past. This is just another example in how Morrison illustrates through the post colonial lens the effects of slavery, how it has haunted not just Sethe, but millions of others African American families like her.

Prompt:
Read at least one article/essay of academic literary criticism about your text or lens (as provided by your teacher). Ideally, the article should be a reading of your text through your chosen lens, but if such a thing is not available, other types of essays will suffice.

Heather Duerre Humann explained that in Beloved the type of racism that occurred throughout the book and how Morrison deliberately showed when exactly characters were being racist. Humann Explains that Morrison uses scientific racism, an example of this is when the school teacher made Paul D and all the other slaves feel like they were "trespassers among the human race". This degrades them and makes it seem as if they are not human and just an animal. Morrison uses scientific racism a great deal and is very powerful and showed the hatred towards the African American race. The white people made themselves superior to all the slaves and did so by treating them like animals by buying and selling them.

If I did not read that essay I would be very much unaware that there actually was different types of racism, but after it was clear to me that what Humann was saying was very obvious. They made them feel like animals, as if they weren't worthy to be considered humans. And this was very clear in the book, when Sethe was rapped and was milked like a cow. Being assaulted like that and being handled like an animal shows that they have no respect for another human being, because she is black she is treated like trash and thrown to the side once they were done violating her. Along with that there was a part in the book when Paul D was in a cage chained up like an animal, being in really bad conditions. This is also a very obvious that in this book, the African Americans are treated like animals and given the least amount of respect given to them.

Humann's point of view on this book helped me see the disrespect is much more than seeing them as objects but how they treat them is obvious that they are seen as animals. Which was very noticeable when they would be abused like as if they weren't living humans.

Beloved and the "Slave Narrative Song"

 

In Peter J. Capuano’s interpretation of Beloved, he claims that Beloved was greatly influenced by Frederick Douglass's Slave song in 1845, but differ in “political and historical objectives”. Because Morrison’s goal was not to abolish slavery since they were written in different time periods, she had more ability to show the severe emotional effects slavery had on African Americans, whereas Capuano relies more on facts to state his ideas, because it was written during a time when slavery was legal, and he was writing it with the objective to show why it needs to be ended. However, Morrison uses the song as an underlying theme throughout the story, and also uses song to symbolize hope for her characters. Capuano claims that because Beloved was written after the emancipation, instead of writing about the crimes in which whites committed, or “oppressor” she writes about crimes and faults former slaves committed or, the “oppressed”. Morrison does not only illustrate how slavery was inhuman, she also uses the characters to show them overcoming adversity of physical, and psychological abuse. Capuano states that Sethe, Paul D, and Sixo sing, and is based off of “sorrow songs” from Frederick Douglass, and claim they use it to give them hope and fight against adversity. When they cannot read, or write about their experiences as slaves, this lets them express their struggles.

After reading Peter J. Capuano’s article, it gives a different view on what Toni Morrison’s songs mean. The idea of what the songs symbolize throughout the story, is like the character’s way of grieving, and overcoming the obstacles they have faced. We see this in many different forms. One example of this is when Baby Suggs would go to the meadow, and join as a community with other African Americans. As she gathers people together she would say, “Here,in this here place, we flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet ingrass. Love it” (103). This is written as Sethe’s memory, and as she thinks about it she says she “wanted to be there now. At the least to listen to the spaces that the long-ago singing had left behind”(104). Baby Suggs was able to create a community that almost celebrated their greif and shows their endurance to be able to get through anything. The songs allowed for them to be free, because though they were “legally” free, in a way they were still being held by the horrible consequences slavery had caused.

In another example where songs are used as hope for the characters, is when Paul D sings when he was chained up.  He and the forty six other chained up men, “sang it out and beat it up, garbling the words so they could not be understood...They sang the women they knew; the children they had been ,the animals they had tamed themselves or seen others tame”(128). This moment signifies how powerless the men felt, but this singing gave them power. When they were like animals, the songs gave them humanity and made them remember the people and the things that gave them strength to escape.

Attachment disorders and PTSD

The book Beloved by Toni Morrison explores many psychological disorders. The main character, Sethe, experiences extreme PTSD from her past life as a slave. Other characters as well have PTSD, but not to the degree of Sethe’s due to how she acts on it. In this book the main shocking thing the reader finds out is that Sethe had killed her baby and tried to kill her other children to keep them from a life of slavery. Although this is meant to shock the reader, I personally am not surprised. The signs of PTSD are seen early on in the book with Sethe. She gets flashbacks consistently and is triggered by certain things and events. An example of this is at the beginning of the book when Sethe has a flashback of Sweet Home before Paul D shows up.  She shows intense feelings and reactions to things as well as a lack of maturity at times when she shuts down. This is seen when she is giving birth to Denver and she is being taken care of by the white girl. She rubs her feet and takes care of her. 

Beloved also shows signs of having an attachment disorder. She feels the need to be with Sethe and feels as if she cannot live without her. She says that Sethe “is the one. [Sethe] is the one [she] need[s]. [Denver] can go but [Sethe] is the one [she has] to have” (pg 89). This shows her lack of ability to form normal relationships. She obsesses over people which is not healthy. Towards the end of the book the reader sees the unhealthy relationship between Sethe and Beloved as Beloved begins to assert control over Sethe. She starves and whips Sethe, and Sethe submits to this treatment out of guilt. This is sadistic behavior on Beloved’s part and displays an intense example of an abusive relationship. Denver also has issues due to her isolation throughout the years. She obsesses over Beloved. She expresses her fear of Beloved leaving them in the beginning of the book. This is logical because she has no one aside from Sethe to spend time with. All of the disorders in the book Beloved I am familiar with. I also see the less intense thinking errors within the book in my day to day interactions with people. I personally struggle with a few of the issues in the book however they are obviously much less intense than the characters in the book. The books character interactions closely follow psychological realities.

Prompt:
Select a passage from your text that you think is particularly relevant to your chosen Lens and integrate it into your own writing. (Cognitive Skill: Integration of Evidence)

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Critical Lens: Marxist

“He stood up then, and, shuffling a little, brought the chain tip to the next prisoner, who did likewise. As the chain was passed on and each man stood in the other's place, the line of men turned around, facing the boxes they had come out of. Not one spoke to the other. At least not with words. The eyes had to tell what there was to tell: "Help me this mornin; 's bad"; "I'm a make it"; "New man"; "Steady now steady." Chain-up completed, they knelt down. The dew, more likely than not, was mist by then. Heavy sometimes and if the dogs were quiet and just breathing you could hear doves. Kneeling in the mist they waited for the whim of a guard, or two, or three. Or maybe all of them wanted it. Wanted it from one prisoner in particular or none-- or all. "Breakfast? Want some breakfast, nigger?" "Yes, sir." "Hungry, nigger?" "Yes, sir.’” (63)

Paul D was sentenced to go to prison in Georgia earlier in his life, and spent his time chained up to 46 other black men like himself who were worked to the bone. Paul D remembers clearly his life as a prisoner, such as how they would all get their moment of freedom only when they absolutely had to separate for work and then literally have to chain themselves back together at the ankles. Here, he describes the silence, the solidarity, and the suppressed pains and internal struggles. This is an intense example of the dynamic between those who have the money and power to be abusive, and those who have no status and can do nothing about it. In the era of slavery, slaves were not even considered human, and could thus be disregarded from any social conduct required between normal societal classes.

The significance of this in terms of the Marxist lens is to not only illustrate a direct interaction between the guard and the slave, but also to show the tension rising in the group of slaves. Marxism acknowledges the necessary presence of tension between class groups and their attempt and turnovers. In this particular passage, Paul D suggests that this group of prisoners has been together for awhile, at least long enough to expect sexual manipulation and have seen various applications of it, and to have an unspoken bond aside from their chains as shown when he describes the conversations they had with their eyes, how no one spoke but he could still tell.  His tone suggests that this routine has created a bond between the men, that they all have their days when they feel new or when they feel like they just can’t make it another day. In terms of Marxism this would be the group dynamic best suited for the lower class to rise up together and take down the guards as one unit.

While it’s evident, from historical analysis of slave runaways and from Paul D’s description of a fleeting moment of quiet beauty when he can hear the doves, that his goal is escape, not once does he mention it. This is because it is ingrained in him, all humans want to be free of constricting authority and constant abuse, and slaves have been pushed down so far in the social ladder that they do not even need to fit in with the social norms, they just want to escape from under the crushing oppression.

The unavoidable presence of the group benefitting from slavery, the guards and suggested their commanding officers, represents the Marxist idea of whom the economic construct of the time benefitted and how that shaped their actions against other people in the same society. This idea is not seen as the novel mostly focuses on Sethe and her family, rather than the slave and slave-owner relationship seen in most other slave narratives.  

Select a passage from your text that you think is particularly relevant to your chosen Lens and integrate it into your own writing. (Cognitive Skill: Integration of Evidence)

"[A]nybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn't like yourself anymore. And though she and others lived through and got over it, she could never let it happen to her own. The best things she was, was her children. Whites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing, her beautiful, magical best thing -- the part of her that was clean." Chapter 26

This passage and most of the narrative throughout Beloved attempts to show the obvious social differences and separation that whites and blacks experienced during this time in American history. Here, Morrison explains in detail how much the whites made the blacks feel different, and more importantly, like less. They were constantly degraded. Through looking closely at this quote through a Marxist lens, it is clear and bluntly stated that black people in the slave class were nothing but ground that they walk on, the lowest of the low. Having never received any kindness or respect from the upper class whites, the only thing Sethe can possibly protect from the pain, humiliation, and constant degradation are her children, since she has already been “dirtied.”  At this point she has already been beaten down, treated like an animal, and taken advantage of physically. She knows that she or any other African American could not do anything to stop this social norm, because the whites constantly stripped away everything that made the Africans human so that in the end they barely could consider themselves human. This is why she chooses not to fight it, but accept that she has been abused by the social system already and now only wants to protect her beloved children from experience the same kind of shame and dehumanizing.

First and foremost, this passage shows the huge social difference that the slaves and whites experienced as a result of the enslavement and dehumanization of the blacks in America. The only purpose that the blacks served in society was to be a source of labor for the whites; the blacks were owned like objects and stripped away from all that makes them human. By making them for work hours on end, day after day with no hope of becoming more than a piece of property, many slaves felt like their life had no meaning. Therefore, this social structure made it so that their only hope for freedom of themselves was in death, whether by their masters or themselves. This is very relevant to the Marxist lens in that it shows exploitation of a majority group, by the higher or dominant class which in this case is the slave-owning whites. It also shows the extreme conditions that formed an oppressed slave population which eventually, as Marxism says, would revolt through their struggle, which we know historically is what happened. This quote shows the severe mental condition that slaves lived in that deeply separated them from the upper class, a theme that comes up throughout Beloved, making them feel inhuman so much that they wished death on anyone who might experience it, while the upper class would do anything to keep their free labor alive and captured.

Prompt:
Reflect on what you, personally, have learned from Beloved so far as the result of reading it through your particular lens, and how that connects (or does not connect) with your own previous knowledge or beliefs.

It has always been painfully clear what divides society, and history has only proven the roots of these divisions. While slavery is not a legal institution in this society any longer, that does not mean that it has not left a huge mark on the progress of society’s function. From only reading the first few chapters of Beloved, it is clear that slavery left a permanent scar on all those involved, on all of the 19th century, and caused conflicts too deep and inhumane that people could never forget. Beloved made it clear that no normal person would be able to forget being slave, nor erasing the memory of owning a slave. This classist divide is quite obvious, but what was not as obvious to me before was the extent to which these seemingly horrific roles would continue on to form today’s social ladder.

I had always believed that Marxism mostly referred to the times after industrialization when classes all moved to the city and agriculture was considered its own entire sector. However, reading through Beloved, although not direct there are some very vivid descriptions tying back to Marxism. I’ve been able to have a fresh perspective on the deep impact of slavery, not just on the past, on history, but also on the evolution of society afterwards. Imagining the abuse, sexual, emotional, and mental that slaves such as Sethe and Paul D underwent completely coincides with the unflattering truth the lowest class is generally considered the least human. And they recognize it and consistently and naturally desire to rebel against that norm.

Marxism claims that tension in the lower class attempting to rise up and revolt against the lower class is a cycle, and while the primary content of  slavery is race it can be closely tied to class as slaves were considered the lowest class in all of society at the time, they struggled and struggled to gain freedom and therefore gained a large amount of resentment from upper class whites. Sethe is a runaway slave, she was put at the bottom of the barrel, abused and used and even if she was freed, she would never in her lifetime be looked upon as equal to her upper-class counterpart. It’s ironic how those with money are able to control the world, but the power of dirt poor slaves across the country were able to change national law. That is the basis of Marxism at its prime, a build-up of conflict until a new society is formed.

Essentially, Beloved helped me see that while the lower class always suffers the worst conditions of society, such as slavery, child labor, homelessness or whatever it may be, conflict between all classes exists in every age and time, even today.

Prompt:

Reflect on what you, personally, have learned from Beloved so far as the result of reading it through your particular lens, and how that connects (or does not connect) with your own previous knowledge or beliefs.

While reading Beloved I couldn't help but notice what Sethe and all the other characters had to go through, which was piece by piece revealed throughout the whole book.  All  because of their social class.  Being a slave or even a  free African American in that time, there was still present danger that they faced, from being raped and beaten, to not having equal legal rights such as not being able to have a wedding.  I noticed more and more that what I knew about class separation was true, only the upper class get the proper and “equal” treatment.  Although they might have been free, their color is what made them "different" and somehow less deserving of fair treatment.  I knew about slavery and the whole idea of  it and how extreme it was, but this book made me see the depth of it in society.  I knew slaves didn't have any rights as free people, but Beloved showed their personal struggles as individuals not just as a whole group. I saw what the broad theme and establishment of slavery, but the story also talked individually about each character and what they went through personally in an in depth psychological view.  Now I am able to see that there was a huge gap between those two social classes, which changed how each group saw each other and how each individual saw themselves.  My current beliefs are very biased because of the fact that I live in this day and age where there is not as much class separation or segregation. I know people that are wealthier than others and that barrier has slowly started to disappear and there still is a separation, but not as bad as it once was.  People of every class and race are able to find help when we need it and be treated more fairly. Even though it was difficult to change what was so popular and seemed permanent back then, it now seems  insane that something like that could happened.  It can't be said that there is no longer that separation of class, because there definitely is, but it has improved drastically.  It was difficult to read, because of all the brutal and violent things that occurred but  through the book I had a different set of eyes while reading, and what this did was illustrate things that would happen to a slave, because they weren't considered people, they weren't treated like people.  This is never a healthy state of mind  to put on someone else, that they are lesser than someone because of their social class. It is inhumane and everyone should be treated with the same respect and fairness.  Although the Marxist lens talks about the separation of class, the social class of one person does not make them more or less than another.

Prompt:

Read at least one article/essay of academic literary criticism about your text or lens (as provided by your teacher). Ideally, the article should be a reading of your text through your chosen lens, but if such a thing is not available, other types of essays will suffice.

Write a short response (300-500 words) in which you summarize the advanced interpretation of the text, and then compare it to your own reading and understanding of it. You do not necessarily have to agree or disagree with the academic literary criticism -- explain how it has informed (or not informed) your own reading.

Author Nicole Coonradt highlights some highly insightful and meaningful connections in Beloved  that before reading the article, and even with close reading, would have been unnoticed. Just as she noted in “To Be Loved: Amy Denver and Human Need - Bridges to Understanding  in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”, Amy Denver acts as a direct foil to Sethe, highlighting the similarities between the two and magnifying  the traumatic events described in fragments and various time frames by Sethe, as they are seen reflected in Amy. While this completely alters the reader’s perspective of Amy’s role in the novel, it has an even more abstract connection, specifically to the Marxist lens.

The main focus of Coonradt’s article describes Amy’s character in a much higher role than is directly stated given her brief presence through in the book. However, through a great number of examples and specific characteristic and abstract connections between Amy and Sethe, the theme always tied back to how the two are separated only by race. Race is the primary difference between the two, making Amy not only a perfect foil, but also a symbol of what it looks like to break down the connection between upper-class caucasians and lower-class blacks. She is just another Sethe. Coonradt points out that while other slave narratives do not include the most graphic and traumatic details of the life as a slave, Beloved does, which highlights how Morrison breaks down boundaries to create a slave narrative where the reader can sympathize and feel the discomfort of slaves and not just be a bystander reader, as many other authors allow since the reader is automatically privileged to be a class above any slave from that era. The author continues on this tangent to narrow in on Amy Denver, as her character insists that readers re-evaluate the slave narrative by recognizing that white’s were enslaved as well. Therefore it is not only that the novel itself pushes the boundary of class differences between the reader and the characters by creating discomfort, but also uses a minor character as a basis for examining how natural and problematic it is that society solely associates blacks with bottom of all class slaves and whites with everyone above them.

This made it very clear how many levels there are to this book, and how slavery can mean so much more than just what is taught in school. Morrison attempted to demonstrate how creating even a small difference, such as including a white indentured servant, can serve as a large social commentary. Slavery, by Coonradt’s analysis, has shaped societal class divisions that continue to exist today.

Aje Between Sethe and Beloved By: Melissa Zaragoza

Blog 7:

The article, The mother/daughter Aje Relationship in Toni Morrison's Beloved, seems to be a great interpretation of Sethe’s relationship with beloved. Overall Toni defines the word Aje and speaks about its portration in beloved. He believes that its a Yoruba word and concept that describes a spiritual force that is thought to be inherent in african women additionally, spiritually, empowered humans are called ajes. Basically to summarize Aje, it is a strong connection that only seems to exist between African American mother and daughter. No other family member can be a part of this bond because of how strong their connection is. In Toni Morrison’s article he states that,”No father is mentioned in beloved, Halle, sethe’s husband and the father of her children is highly irrelevant to the primary action. Even if a father figure is presented, as with Paul D in beloved, he is pushed out the sphere so that the lineage Aje can define themselves for and against themselves. While the removal of male aspect from the space of interactions may be commentary on the horrific struggles Africana men face”. This quote in the article is assuming that any type of male figure who tries to interfere with the Aje of beloved and sethe will not be capable because they will simply be excluded from that connection.

In beloved Aje is underscored when Denver, Paul D, Sethe, and Beloved had sat down for dinner and Paul D decides to question her intentions. Denver says,””How’d you come? Who brought you? Now she looked steadily at him but did not answer. He could feel both sethe and Denver pulling in holding their stomach muscles sending out sticky spider webs to touch one another. He decided to force it anyway. “I asked you who brought you here”,”I walked here she said a long, long, long, long, way.(pg.77). Even though Beloved is not Sethe’s daughter, they seem to have an Aje connection. It seems reasonable why Sethe and Beloved would have Aje, because Beloved it portrayed as Sethe’s dead baby.

Without even knowing that Beloved is sethe’s daughter, they seem to exclude Paul D and focus on their Aje. As you can see in the quote above, Paul D is the only person in the house that suspects of beloved’s actions being unusual. He tries to expose Beloved by asking her questions that would reveal her real identity. Unfortunately Sethe is blinded by her Aje with beloved and gets mad at Paul D for making beloved feel ‘attacked’.

Slaves being expected to learn- Melissa Zaragoza

Blog 6

Toni Morrison shows a large amount of racism in her book Beloved . The effect of  racism is tremendously traumatizing. Toward the end of the book Schoolteacher is bragging about a “nigger women” that made fine ink, good soup, and pressed his collars the way he liked it. “Unfortunately she had gone wild, due to the mishandling of the nephew who’d over beat her and made her cut and run.”(176) This passage in the book is extremely important because it is a clear visual on what were the effects of being a slave. Slave owner would beat African American beyond the point of education.  This quote is summarizing how African Americans would go crazy because of how many times they would get beaten. First of all African Americans didn't go to school and had a different way of learning and in top of that they would get beaten and as a result would end up making them go crazy.

When reading this passage with the point of view of my lense I tend to get a lot of anger built up along with sorrow. I get mad at the fact that no one did anything to stop slavery at that time. The white people were heartless selfish people who only cared about themselves. I do not know how someone has the gut to hurt another person until they go crazy. That is ridiculously extreme and should have been stopped right away. African Americans are people just like us and everyone should be treated with equality and no racism .

Going back to the text schoolteacher tries to give nephew a piece of advice and tells him“ You can't just mishandle creatures and expect success”(176). This to me is the worst advice any person can think of; Black slaves are not creatures and never will be. Schoolteacher should not be comparing them any sort of animals. Aside from the name calling I agree with the fact that success can not be expected if you keep harming someone. Slaves can not be there normal self if they are constantly being hurt to death by someone. No person or even animal needs to be whipped in order to learn something.

African Americans Knowledge

Blog 5

So far my main take away from beloved is that slavery was a horrible life experience which made African Americans suffer so much in life all because of white prejudice. The idea of being a slave made African Americans, not only suffer physically, but also mentally with themselves. A horrendous event is when “Paul D Garner, Paul F Garner, Paul A Garner, Halle Suggs, and Sixo, the wild man. All in their 20s, minus women, fucking cows, dreaming of rape, thrashing on palettes, rubbing their thighs and waiting for the new girl- the one who took Baby Suggs after Halle bought her”(pg 13).  While being enslaved thoughts such as having sexual intercourse with animals started to become natural thoughts. Also the thought of them even raping anyone comes sick to anyone mind who realizes it, sadly for them they had no alternative but to think of something which is wrong in all aspects. Acts such as rubbing their thighs would fill their satisfaction due to the lack of pleasure from being enslaved. It would be common sense for a slave to be mentally ill because of the abusement of the white owners. Slaves at  a young age would be rapped and beaten with tortured which made them think differently from a stable mind. Them being slaves took away their judgment of what was right and wrong.

This reflect back to me because any human being would know the basics on what is right and what is wrong. Unlike slaves, they had no one or anything to limit their sexual way of thinking. Being enslaved meant no school or any type of education. African Americans basically had to base their choices on their conscious and self beliefs. By this I mean that they would have to make mistakes in order to to understand whether it was the correct choice or not.