Dehumanization Of Sethe In Beloved

In Toni Morrison's Beloved, the Black literature author touches upon tough subjects such as slavery, the affects of slavery, and the cruelty that is brought by it. For a person to be cruel, they commit inhumane crimes against a victim or victims that ultimately dehumanizes them. 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 affects of such heinous crimes. In Beloved, the community commits cruel acts to characters such as Paul D, Denver, and Sethe, prompting them to act cruely themselves.

The past comes back to haunt accurately in Beloved. Written by Toni Morrison, a prominent African-American author and Noble Prize winner for literature, the novel Beloved focuses on Sethe, a former slave who killed her daughter, Beloved, before the story begins. Beloved returns symbolically in the psychological issues of each character and literally in human form. The novel is inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner, a slave in the 1850s, who committed infanticide by killing her child. Barbara Schapiro, the author of “The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”, Andrew Levy, the author of “Telling Beloved”, and Karla F.C. Holloway, the author of “Beloved: A Spiritual”, present ideas of the loss of psychological freedom, the story being “unspeakable”, Beloved being the past, and the narrative structures of the story rewriting history.

“What is racism? Racism is a projection of our own fears onto another person. What is sexism? It’s our own vulnerability of our potency and masculinity projected as our need to subjugate from another person…” Gary Ross’s breakdown of the age-defying constructions of race and sexism exemplify how fabricated standards can take a toll on the well-being of individuals. American novelist Toni Morrison is renowned for her publications illustrating how racial stigma can dent a character physically, mentally and emotionally. “Sweetness”, an excerpt from God Help the Child, one of Morrison’s more recent works, follows the narrative of a guilt-stricken mother who allowed society’s predetermined notions of race interfere with her parenting, as her daughter was undeniably black while she and her husband have negro roots but are lighter skinned or ‘high-yellow’. As the story develops, it is obvious that the narrator, Lula Ann’s mother feels some sort of resentment for mistreating her child and holding her back from experiencing a blissful childhood like other youngsters, but is too shameful to admit it. With time, tables turn and Lula Ann, Lula Mae’s daughter is able to regain her self-esteem, moves away, builds a career, and is preparing to settle down with a family of her own and change her miserable fate given to her by her parents. Morrison successfully translates the destructive effects of prioritizing racial constructs through varied elements including: characterization, point of

In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison spins an intricate web between names and numbers for the reader to unravel. The deep connection that lies between names and numbers is a direct correspondence to the identity and worth of black people during slavery. Beloved begins with the identity of the house which is characterized by a number. The house is given a temperament as if it is a living, breathing entity and yet it still referred to as a number. The significance of this is symbolic to the plight of the black slaves. Regarded as little above the common animal, slaves were defined by their selling price, essentially they were reduced to a number. Viewed as nonbeings they nevertheless feel and suffer their place in the south. The character Beloved is similar in this regard as well. All that defines her is an age and a name that remains unfluctuating through time. In an insufferable and cruel world, names and numbers play a critical role in understanding the identity of black existence in the South. To uncover the implications and nuances that names and numbers play will be instrumental to delving into the lives of black slaves. Beloved contains a vast amount of names and numbers and the connections between them deepen the novel and provide mammoth insight into understanding and interpreting Morrison’s work and purpose for juxtaposing such elaborate bonds between names and numbers.

Throughout the years of our nation’s history, we have learned to solve or cope with problems that could potentially tear our society apart. However, there is still one underlying issue that American citizens cannot solve today- racism. Racism has been a problem for over hundreds of years and still continues today. The novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks shines a light on how this discrimination personally affects the families who are minorities. Henrietta, the protagonist of the novel, experienced poverty and discrimination in different aspects of life. She grew up during The Great Depression, from the 1920s through the 1930s. Growing up with nine other siblings, trying to find the means to provide the basic needs to survive was

As Morrison progressed as a writer one can definitively view her evolution not only as a writer but as a thinker. In Sula, the reader can view an author who is quintessentially confused by the system of segregation. Specifically, one could contrive that Sula is Morrison’s attempt to examine the aspects in which segregation helped cement African-American culture, but once America was desegregated the same communities that were empowered by oppression were decimated by the white communities’ extraction of African-American culture. Whereas within Love, one can view a Morrison not content with African-American proliferation under the banner of segregation, but hatred for the powerful individuals of the community that reinforced the system of segregation and oppressed their own community in the effort to gain not only money, but power. As one thinks about the multi-faceted layers of segregation within Toni Morrison’s writings, one can view a political activist who felt content in her youth, rationalizing the evils of this world, yet in the present an enraged woman content with not only the removal of white prosperity within segregation, but African-American elite prosperity upon the literal blood of African-American

The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, displays the literary philosophy of Marxism through the concept of the history of slavery, and the power system left behind in its absence. Firstly, Sethe, a former slave in the novel, exemplifies the impact of classism, which is rooted from the ideology that slaves, even ex-slaves are of an inferior social class in society. Sethe’s class division, which isolates her from the rest of society is a form of alienation, and ultimately is the foundation of the entire story. Alienation comes in the form of discrimination because of her family’s socioeconomic status and the colour of her skin. If class division what not such a determining factor in her life, Sethe would not have had to take such extreme measures to

Toni Morrison’s classic novel, Beloved, can be briefly summarized as a story with woman who is living in both the horrible aftermath of slavery, as well as her action of murdering her baby child in an attempt to save her from slavery. This story is based on the true story of Margaret Garner, who killed her own child and attempted to kill her other children instead of willfully letting them all return to lives of slavery. While slavery is today clearly classified as wrong by the vast majority of civilized society, as is infanticide, the event that takes place in this book is not as black and white. These instances of a grayer side of morality represent a sort of moral ambiguity that runs rampant throughout the entire novel. The example that is of paramount importance is when Sethe, the protagonist of the story, murders her child in order to save the child from a life of slavery. While at first glance, this act may seem wrong to modern readers, there is actually some evidence that, when thought about, justifies Sethe’s actions.

For Sethe, to love also becomes a testament of freedom. For having been owned by others (like Acker’s patriarchy) meant that her claim to love was not her own. She could not love her children, "love ‘em proper in Kentucky because they wasn’t [hers] to love" (Beloved 162). Paul D understands that "to get a place where you could love anything you choose … well now that was freedom" (Beloved 162), but he is also bound to his slave mentality to overcome his fear. He considers Sethe’s unconditional love "risky": "For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love" (Beloved 45). The far safer way was "to love just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you’d have a little love left over for the next one" (Beloved 45). It is this compromised love that even Baby Suggs accepted – despite her magnificent sermon in the Clearing on loving one’s self – knowing that her slave master would take her children away. And it is this "weak love" that Paul D tells Sethe she must accept (a patriarchal love, as Acker

Through character development, the story also portrays the theme of escaping the past. Sethe’s actions are influenced heavily by her dead child, Beloved. When the “human” form of Beloved arrives while sleeping

Towards the end of the novel, the events of Beloved’s death are seemingly replayed as Edward Bodwin makes his way to 124 in order to collect Denver for her first day of work. Specifically, as the community of women are gathered around the house praying in an attempt to expel Beloved, Mr. Bodwin arrives and Sethe takes off, attempting to kill him. As described in the novel, Sethe, “[H]ears wings… And if she thinks anything, it is no. No no.

Ever since Beloved’s identity has been found out by Sethe, things have been looking up for the family, but it soon went downhill. While Beloved’s cruelty isn’t on a physical level, her treatment of Sethe is basically abuse. Moreover in detail, while Beloved is growing in both size and weight due to constant eating and tantrums, Sethe had the opposite results as she experiences a sort of punishment phase. Whether this treatment is intentional or not, the results were clear: Sethe was “[losing] her mind . . . not doing the things she used to” due to her obsession to please, Beloved knew it (pg. 282). Beloved had reason to act cruel to Sethe in her own way, but in the sense that she still had a mind of a child; her cruelty could just be her twisted version of revenge. However, with her taking advantage of Sethe, Beloved is breaking her as in the form of a desperate mother to keep her child, no matter the cost.

Sethe begins to nurture her children, only for her children to have a growing fear that Sethe would kill them one day, enacting her children to distance themselves. Due to Sethe mother’s abandonment, Sethe in fact has never been a “daughter” and the love she displays, Paul D. describes as “too thick” (193) causes resentment from her children. As Sethe undergoes mental and physical abuse from Beloved, causing her strong personality to wither away and becoming fully dependent on Beloved, Sethe gives herself to Beloved, “[a]nything she wanted she got” (283). This is a story not to be passed on for Sethe, she allowed herself to be swallowed up by her own inability to move past her dreadful memories at Sweet Home. The past, “Beloved” began to slowly creep on her, draining away the strong woman she once was. Sethe always tried to nurture her child, the way her mother never nurtured her. However, in the end when she becomes dependent on Beloved, she becomes old and weak. Yet, her positive development occurs when Paul D tells her that she, herself is the most important thing and finally then Sethe moves on.

 When Sethe finally arrives at 124 Bluestone Road, she is greeted with her loving mother-in-law, Jenny Whitlow, known to her as Baby Suggs.  A second healing takes place when Baby Suggs tends to her mutilated body.  “She led Sethe to the keeping room and bathed her in sections, starting with her face…Sethe dozed and woke to the washing of her hands and arms…When Sethe’s legs were done, Baby looked at her feet and wiped them lightly.  She cleaned between Sethe’s legs…”(Morrison, 93).  The methodical washing of Sethe’s body emphasizes the sympathy and love that fills Baby Suggs’ heart.  Putting her trust in Baby Suggs for the relief of physical and emotional torment, is the only way Sethe is able to relieve herself of her haunted past and suffering body.  Baby Suggs knows as well as Sethe, the haunting miseries of black men and women who have been brought low by slavery, yet she urges her daughter-in-law to keep going and be strong.

Sethe always knew that her children were the only good and pure part of who she is and she knew that she had to be the master of her children's fate, there by taking on the motherly and fatherly role. According to Sethe, “What he know about it” (239). This means that Sethe feels that Paul D does not know anything about love or about willingly giving things up. This demonstrates the strengths that Sethe have over Paul D even though she is a woman. Another example of Sethe “In a mans world” is when Baby Suggs tries to compare the difference between a