Beloved is an extremely interesting book to look at through the Marxist lens as it took place in a much different time where social classes and your race played a much bigger part in society. You can see first hand in many parts of this book how badly slaves were treated both before and after the civil war. In page 5 of this book Sethe is with Denver getting a tombstone engraved for her dead baby. The man engraving the tombstone tells Sethe “Ten minutes, I’ll do it for free.” referring to a trade for sex. Sethe agrees even in front of Denver and thinks to herself how she could have possibly gotten more letters for more time. The fact that Sethe was so willing to give herself up for such a small thing like a gravestone shows the morals that were imposed on her in her past life as a slave.
With such a huge discrepancy in wealth and education I think it is clear that in this time ex slaves were basically set up for failure in the future. This passage only further demonstrates that the horrific things Sethe has gone through in her life has deeply affected her and the respect she has for herself. While her morals do seem a bit questionable another thing that is revealed about Sethe and her family is the bond she feels with her children. This is displayed through Sethe's inner thoughts when she thinks “(she) could have had the whole thing, every word she heard the preacher say at the funeral engraved on her baby's headstone: Dearly Beloved.” Even when Sethe had no money to pay for a proper headstone she was still thinking that the one she got was not worthy for the burial of her baby. I think this reveals a strong sense of respect Sethe has for her family even if it is in turmoil. Normally I would think that a person with little money would careless about a headstone, but the amount of thought Sethe puts into it shows how much she cared for her baby.
How do you know that she had Denver with her? I like how you are analyzing this with bits of multiple lens
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what your saying, and I think that it is very interesting perspective that I did not know about until I read this book. When I first learned about slavery I thought that after slavery African Americans were given the opportunity to truly live life, and were able to do as they please. Once I read this book, I realized that even if you were free, African Americans were set up to fail in life, like what you had said. They are still haunted by their past and were still treated badly due to the culture in society not changing.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what your saying, and I think that it is very interesting perspective that I did not know about until I read this book. When I first learned about slavery I thought that after slavery African Americans were given the opportunity to truly live life, and were able to do as they please. Once I read this book, I realized that even if you were free, African Americans were set up to fail in life, like what you had said. They are still haunted by their past and were still treated badly due to the culture in society not changing.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. African Americans are not being treated the same way others are being treated in society. This book definitely digs deeper into the mistreatment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, even though having sex for just the words beloved on the headstone is dehumanizing, it shows how far Sethe is willing to go for her kids, and how much she cares for them dead or alive. I believe that this is because a slave woman's kids is the only ray of sunshine they have in their lives and the only thing that keeps them hopefull for a better future. Nice work!
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