Love, Family and Hope

In Nicole Coonrat's text on Beloved she goes in depth about the lack of respect and treatment of African Americans during the times of slavery. She really focuses on the theme of love and the ways that blacks were essentially not allowed to "love themselves" (4) because of the extreme abuse they had to endure.  I thought she had a very interesting analysis of the house "124" connecting the skipping of 3 as a representation for the absence of the third child Sethe had. This paper focuses greatly on the contrast between the love of family and the hate of racism.

Coonrat shares a lot of similar beliefs as me when it comes to the bond that is created from family. There is some strange emotion that comes along with being related by blood with someone that is very hard to understand. It is one of those things that you can’t explain but everyone can relate too because everyone has some type of family in their life.

Another element of Morrisons writing that Coonrat analyses is the constant feeling of hope characters in the book experienced even in times of extreme hardship. She uses Amy as a symbol of hope throughout this book since she is a white lady that understands and respects the struggle the slaves had to endure which is ultimately the goal for society as a whole. While I never thought of the character Amy like this, it does make a lot of sense to connect her with the theme of hope in this book. She is one of the “good” white people in this book and helps Sethe with bearing her child. I did not think of Amy as a character that played a major role in this book however Coonrat helped look at her differently and develop a better understanding of the book.

Slavery's Influence on Society Today

     Heather Humann's brings up some very interesting views of Toni Morrison's portrayal of Racism and Hegemony in the novel Beloved. She starts her essay with connections to racism seen in popular movie scenes in The Sapranos and Bamboozled reminding us of the stereotypes we still have in our society today towards African Americans. From these scenes she connects aspects of everyday life such as Aunt Jemima maple syrup and Uncle Ben's rice making the reader realize that racist influence from the days of slavery is still very present in our everyday lives today. Humann then goes on to describe parts of Beloved that exemplify where these cruel stereotypes we have today came to life. She goes in depth about the "Schoolteacher" and his profound affect of Sethe during this book from his animalistic treating of slaves. Through her analysis of the relationship between these two characters it is really demonstrated how Morrison depicts the huge gap in social class between a white land owner and a slave during this time period. 

    Humann's text on Beloved brought up some aspect of our society today that I had not realized are so heavily influenced by racism. Every saturday morning I wake up and don't give a second thought about smothering my pancakes with Aunt Jemima's syrup. The fact that the brands name originated from the song "Old Aunt Jemima" depicting and old slave mother which was often performed in black face in theaters during the times of slavery. The fact that this brand still continues to use this name I find very disturbing yet it is seldom questioned by anyone. While slavery is a part of American history and is something that we must remember, this is a disrespectful way of doing so. I fully agree with Humann in that we as Americans should do everything we can to keep the influence of people like "Schoolteacher" out of our lives. 

     

Assisted suicide?

The novel Beloved is an extremely interesting piece of literature to view through the Marxist lens. With the basis of Marxism being the idea of a "destruction of social classes" the ideas really clash with the time period that Beloved took place in. With these ideas in mind I found that many of Sethes seemingly dark and profound actions throughout this book to actual have some justification. Before coming to 124 all that Sethe knew in life was oppression and loss.
       While her owners in her time of being a slave were not as bad as some, it was still very clear that her quality of life was not to be desired. Once Sethe escapes and makes it to 123 life finally seems like it is worth living until the "schoolteacher" Sethes old slave master comes for her collection. Since she is so afraid for her children to be forced into a life of slavery she decided to take the life of her own child deciding that the evils of slavery are far worse than the unknown of the after life. "I stopped him, I took my babies to where they needed to be safe" (173). This quote really hit me and gave the realization that Sethe truly wanted the best for her children and that the choice she had made was the correct one. While Paul D has sympathy for Sethe about the killing of Beloved he tells her that she was simply blinded by her love for her child. Sethe gets the final word saying that "It ain't my job to know whats worse. It's my job to know what is and keep them away from what I know is terrible"(173) making it very clear that Sethes is in full belief she did the right thing for her child.
       Sethes actions in this book only exemplify the problems in this world created simply by social classes. While slavery is a pretty extreme social class that is no longer present in the United States today, it shows the struggle and hopeless feelings that many may have today's society of being trapped in poverty. Beloved in many ways give lots of credibility to Marxist beliefs.

Sexual Abuse of Slaves

       In "Figuration's of rape and the supernatural," Pamela E. Barnett writes about multiple things. She mostly writes about the sexual assaults throughout the book, sexual assaults from the supernatural, sexual assault of both genders, loss of manhood, comparisons of characters, and the ghost aspect of this. The main thing that connects all of these subjects in the book are that they all connect to the fact that these subjects do not allow the characters to move on and they haunt them. There are too many subjects for me to write about all of them, so would like to write about the comparisons of real slaves and the characters with sexual assault.
       Barnett also writes about how much sexual assault there is in the book that is not usually spoken about. At one point Barnett lists off all of the sexual assaults that occurred in Beloved which is a lot. She then begins to speak about actual slaves and what stories they told when they became free. Permanently slaves never really spoke about the sexual assaults they had experienced, so others did not really know about that part of slavery. Others mostly thought about the beatings and abuse. The fact that Toni Morrison tackled the subject of sexual abuse that was very occur-ant throughout slavery just not spoken about, gives a whole new aspect that many others were unaware of including me. Now that I think about it, when we were learning about slavery the sexual abuse aspect was never spoken about, even when I would watch documentaries on it, the sexual abuse was rarely spoken of. The only thing I did know about before this was that, many slave women were raped by the owners and tended to have mixed children, but I never really thought that women would be so much more abused than that sexually and that men were sexually abused as well.
       By reading this part of the article, it makes me wonder why slave did not speak about it. I believe that slaves did not speak about it because they were in the same position as Paul D and Sethe, except they were never able to face their past, like what Paul D did. The real slaves just wanted to stuff it all in a box and I do not think they ever got to the point where they were brave enough to open it. This also means that they were never really able to truly start to live life again, or move on, which is quite sad.

Our Ids, egos, and superegos

Its really hard for me to relate to this book using the psychoanalytic lens because so many horrible things went on this book that I think the experiences and the way we think now to the way they thought in the past are way different. One thing I do relate to is our Ids, egos, and superegos. I learned that an Id is like our bad selfish thoughts, our ego is the person, and the superego is our selfless and good thoughts. This reminds me of the little devil and angel on the shoulders of characters in cartoons. I believe this was highly implanted in the book and I can relate to this in my life.

In the book I believe Beloved is the ID, Sethe is the ego, and Denver is the superego. Beloved seems to be a horrible event in Sethe’s past that seems to haunt her and torture her mentally and she can be seen as a succubus demon. Sethe is like the ego because she is like the main character in the book who struggles with living in the present while she keeps remembering the past. Denver is like the superego in the story because she seems to be the one thing from the past that Sethe does not regret and loves the most in life. This can be related not only to my life but to the lives of many others.

We all have ids, egos, and superegos that we use in everyday life to decide on whether one thing is worth it or not. One example could be someone getting in a fight and having to decide whether fighting is worth it (id) or whether he should just walk away and no one gets hurt (superego). We all use them from time to time and I use them often times when I have work to do and I decide to either work on it to keep up with the work or procrastinate and do it all at the last second, and the Id usually wins.

Women Have power over Men

“‘What you come in here for?’

‘I want you to touch me on the inside part.’

‘Go back on in that house and get to bed.’

‘You have to touch me. On the inside part. And you have to call my name.’

‘Call me my name.’

‘No.’

‘Please call it. I’ll go if you call it.’

‘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 that 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” (138).

This quote from the book Beloved, occurs when Beloved goes to visit Paul D. out in the storage shed and asks him to touch her "on the inside part." As the scene goes on Beloved is able to force him to do things he previously refused to do therefore, forcing him to enter a world he had long shut away. When he enters this past world unaware of what is happening and is unaware that his repeating of the phrase "red heart" is an indicator that he has entered this world.

In this excerpt from the book Beloved, it can easily be seen that there is a power shift between the genders. In most of the book up to this point, men have held most of the power, however in this scene between Beloved and Paul D. we can see the dominance being shifted from the man to the woman. In this scene Beloved commands Paul D. to touch her by saying, "You have to touch me." This is a very powerful because in this time period women are stereotyped to being submissive to the commands and demands of men. This specific line reveals how Beloved is defying the gender stereotypes and showing Paul D. who is in charge. Similarly, in this time period it was stereotyped that rapists were mostly men and victim of rape were mostly women. This stereotype is defined in this scene because Beloved makes Paul D. do this he does not want to do, and this could be considered rape. By Beloved "raping" Paul D. it is a sign of how strong and powerful of a female character she really is in this book.

One stereotype, however, that is not defined is the very old stereotype that women are manipulators. This is evident multiple times throughout this scene, it can be easily seen when all Beloved has to say is "Please call it. I’ll go if you call it" and Paul D. obeys her and calls out her name. Beloved manipulated Paul D. in this situation because she says that she will leave if he calls his name, however much to Paul D.'s disappointment, she does not leave after he has called her name.

Circularity

       In the "Circularity of Toni Morrison's Beloved" The writer speaks about how there is a repeated theme of circularity and contradictory in Toni Morrison's books, especially in Beloved. The author gives multiple examples of how this is shown. One example would be how Sethe's past is not staying in the past. It keeps circulating her. Her flashbacks get triggered by the smallest things. The whole town is aware of her past and avoids her due to it. It makes her think of why they avoid her which trigger a flashback. Paul D brings back her memories at Sweet Home. The haunting of the dead infant and beloved always reminds her of what she had done. Sethe is unable to move on and keeps going in circles and circles of her past. Another part in relation to this is the rings around Paul D's neck that has been referenced multiple times. This ring that is around his neck represents slaves inability to move on from life and start living life. Even after being a free African American they are still a slave to their past that will always haunt them.
       The writer also writes about contradiction within "Beloved." Something that Sethe desires most is to have a family, yet in order to keep her family she must be continually haunted by her past. Her past is the thing that hurts her the most, but having her family is also her strength and her life. There is a contradiction within this because this is the cause of her pain but also her motivation to push through life. Another contradiction is in the last pages of "Beloved." Toni Morrison writes, "It was not a story to pass on. (324)" But if we think about, Toni Morrison passes on the story through this book. She contradicts herself. I think this symbolizes what must be done. Even though this story is not a happy story and there is no happy ending, slavery is something we should never dismiss or forget. Even though slavery is horrible, we must teach each new generation about it so we can never forget and never do the same thing. It is something that must be done no matter how horrible it is.
       This perspective is certainly something I would have never realized. It is a perspective on the big picture of the book, it is also very detailed and hidden unless you dig deep. It has definitely changed my aspect on the book, and it will surely be in my mind every time I think about "Beloved" now.