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Cruelty In Toni Morrison's Beloved

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In Toni Morrison's Beloved, the Black literature author touches upon tough subjects such as slavery, the effects of slavery, and the cruelty that is brought with it. For a person to be cruel, they commit inhumane crimes against a victim or victims that wounds them physically, mentally, or both. This concept displays itself several times throughout the novel, depicted through the characters that represent not only the "sixty million and more," but also the broken system of a slavery-ruled society, effectively showing the effects of such heinous crimes. In Beloved, the community that the victim lived in at that point of time commits cruel acts to characters such as Paul D, Denver, and Sethe, prompting them to act cruelly themselves in order …show more content…

Denver becomes lonely, having only her mother to cling onto. Then, when Paul D shows up and scares off the ghost of 124, whom she describes as her “only other companion,” Denver's demeanor towards Paul D becomes rude and aggressive because "It took a man, Paul D, to shout it off, beat it off and take it's place for himself" (104). Denver sees Paul D as a bane and a threat to her world of limited companions, something very precious to her. However, Denver does not stop there, as she reveals that also does not trust Sethe, keeping her at a distance so that she could protect herself if her mother ever decides to kill her as she did with her sister. As she distances herself from Sethe, Denver persistently waits for her father, Halle, telling herself that, "He was coming and it was a secret. [She] spent all of [her] outside self loving [Sethe] so she wouldn't kill [her]..." (207). Despite having a loving and caring mother, Denver deems Sethe as a threat to her safety and denies her the unconditional and whole love any mother desires. Her cruelty against her mother continues when she excludes her mother in her in her image of a happy family that only consisted of, "[Denver], [Halle] and Beloved. [Sethe] could stay or go off with Paul D if she wanted to" (209). …show more content…

Raped by Schoolteacher’s students, she also bears the traumatizing experience of her violated relationship between herself and her daughter as they "stole [her] milk" (17). After this damaging event, Sethe resolves to prevent her children from ever having to go through the same horrors; this becomes her motivation for killing her infant daughter. She couldn't "let her or any of them live under schoolteacher. That was out" (163). Familial bonds became the most precious thing to Sethe, and she strives to thwart anything that threatens it. Then, Beloved appears, and Sethe and Denver begin believe her identity to be the deceased daughter missing from their family. When Paul D leaves Sethe, the former slave woman begins to disturbingly shift her focus and energy towards Beloved, writing Paul D out of the family she was contemplating on building because "Obviously the hand holding shadows she had seen on the road were not Paul D, Denver and herself, but 'us three'" (182). Paul D leaving her family hurt her so horribly that she cuts him out entirely in return, protecting her desire for a happy and complete family. However, she continues to obsess over Beloved, and eventually leaves Denver to fend for herself when Sethe begins to see Beloved as her daughter and "the two of them cut Denver out of the games" (239). Sethe focuses so much on her

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