Melissa Zaragoza,

Post-Colonial

Beloved

Marriage can be said to be a ceremony which allows you to open the door of a palace of happiness and enter into it. Therefore, marriage is the biggest event for mankind. Love transcends time and space and it is the greatest thing that reveals and confirms ones real feeling. After getting a deeper understanding of Beloved and taking my time to read a bit more context I ran into some pieces of evidence that relate to the post-colonial critical lens. On page 70 Chapter 6, Sethe is speaking to Beloved and informing her on how she always wanted to have a big traditional wedding similar to Ms.Garner. Sadly Ms. Garner did not allow that. Sethe says, “I thought there should be some ceremony. Dancing maybe.” Unfortunately Ms.Garner was not a fan of the idea of her slaves getting married, like the white people. When Sethe went to speak to her boss, they said, “it was alright for us to be husband and wife and that was it. ALL OF IT. No ceremony, no preacher. Nothing.” Ms. Garner sees Sethe as her pet, Sethe and her husband are not being taken serious by their bosses and are seen as a joke because they want to get married. She believes that Sethe and Halle can’t do human “stuff” because they are black.They don’t acknowledge that Sethe and Halle are human too. Marriage is a life changing experience and nobody should be denied from it.This to me is very racist because they are technically saying that they aren't allowed to marry because they are not human-like. Ms. Garner dehumanizes them. Through the post colonial lens, one will see the amount of racism that is provided in the text. I disagree with Ms.Garner’s perspective because everyone should be allowed to do what they want, the white race should not think they are better than the black race because they are light skin. This to me is an invalid reason because we can’t deny someone their life goals and dreams just because of their skin tone.