Critical Lens Expert - The Bonds of Love and The Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison's "Beloved"

Barbara Schapiros ¨The Bonds of Love and The Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrisons Beloved,¨ covers an incredibly complicated topic involving love and self. She describes how the denial of one's status as a human has "deep repercussions in the individual's internal world" with a fascinating focus on the mother daughter relationship Sethe has (or lacks) with her mother, and daughters.

The slave system is innately detrimental to a mother-child relationship. Because a mother is the child's "first vital other," and is made unavailable by the slave system, the child is deeply and terribly affected, Schapio describes. The child, by lacking this vital connection, never develops his or her "self." Growing up, the system continues to deny the child's being as a human subject. Schapiro describes this as the slave system "choking off" the "vital circulation between the mother and child so crucial to the development of self." This lack of affirmation of self that occurs for the child as a result of being a part of the slave system is detrimental to them as individuals.

This was idea that resonated with me greatly. Without the love of my mother, I truly believe that I would have a hard time knowing and developing my sense of self. I am incredibly thankful to have been in a situation where there were not forces working against this bond as I was growing up, as Sethe experienced with her own children.

Schapiro brings us back to the scene where Sethe was brutally assaulted by the schoolteacher's nephews in order to discuss how when her milk is taken from her in this instance, it is not the first time she has been robbed. We are reminded that as Sethe is growing up, her mother is providing her milk to the white children (200), leaving Sethe with what is left over. This is another instance where Sethe's relation with her own mother has been "choked off" leaving her robbed by the system, and starved emotionally of the nurturing relationship she so badly yearned for. The connection made here by Schapiro was incredibly fascinating to me and drew a huge parallel between the instance and her ideas for me.

The worst atrocity of slave system, according to Schapiro, is the physic death. After living through a life of servitude, a personal is no longer fully alive. After being robbed of the love and validation required to go on living, there is no way for them to be fully alive following their experience in servitude. This is an idea that I agree with profoundly. Throughout Beloved, it is clear that Sethe has been deeply effected by her experiences at Sweet Home and undeniably robbed by the entirety of the system until she only part alive. This affects her so much so, that (as we later find out) she makes the decision to take the lives of her own children in order to prevent her children from being robbed in the same way.

“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another." This quote from page 112 of Beloved, relates strongly to the ideas presented by Schapiro in this article. Although Sethe has been freed physically from her life of servitude, her experiences have stayed with her, leaving her essentially half alive. Even in her physical freedom, she has a whole other battle to fight. Her thoughts truly prevent her from claiming ownership of herself and being truly free, leaving her stuck in a place of brokenness.

Motherly Instincts - Close Reading #2 by Gennesis Ayala

“The best thing she was, was her children. Whites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing, her beautiful magical best thing— the part of her that was clean...whether a gang of whites invaded her daughter’s private parts, soiled her daughter’s thighs and threw her daughter out the wagon. She might have to work the slaughterhouse yard, but not her daughter.” -Beloved, page 296

In the quote above, Sethe lets us see what she was thinking when the Schoolteacher came for her and her children. Sethe is telling us that anything can happen to her, but she won’t let anyone take her children. Her children are the only part of her that is “clean,” meaning that her children have not yet experienced what she experienced as a slave and woman. Sethe mostly addresses her daughter and says that as long as the white men let her daughter go after they assaulted her, then she would work at a slaughterhouse yard, but her daughter will not.

Sethe is mostly addressing her daughter, Beloved, in this passage. This is because Sethe knows that as a female, Beloved will have the worst experience of all. Sethe is a woman herself and knows by first hand what it is like to be a slave and a woman at Sweet Home. She knows that if her daughter is taken, Beloved will no longer be “clean” and the “whites might dirty her” like they did to Sethe. This shows that during the time when the Schoolteacher came, Sethe wasn’t scared for herself, she let her motherly instincts take over and was sacred for the lives of her children, but mainly her daughter. Sethe’s main concern was her daughter and this is because female slaves were treated a lot worse than male slaves. Sethe constantly has flashbacks where she describes the terrible conditions and events she has to face everyday while she lived in Sweet Home. She didn’t want her daughter to experience that, so instead Sethe decided that her daughter was better off dead, and so were the rest of her children. Although I disagree with her horrifying decision to kill her daughter, I can see where Sethe was coming from. If she didn’t harm her daughter, someone else was going to harm her in a worse way.

Our Identity, Our Lives - A Responding and Reflecting Blog by Sierra Nelson-Liner

"They killed the flirt with whom folks called life"

-Paul D (Beloved, 128)

It seems natural for me to know who I am. For Sethe and for every other slave it was such an uncharted territory to recognize themselves. Their personalities. Their identities. They were taken away the moment they became owned.  For instance Baby Suggs refers to first moments as a freed woman and her realization that she “never had a map to discover what she was like”(pg 165).  In fact, our personalities and our identities are made from our memories and our experiences in life. Without our memories we would not be able to form opinions based off of previous schemas that we start developing as small children. As slaves were brought up that is all they knew that life was. Paul D refers to white men as people who “killed the flirt with whom folks called life”(128). This is just a small taste of what it really meant not to have a life of your own.

Throughout Beloved I have constantly tried to understand what it really meant to live a life as a slave. Toni Morrison tried her best to portray her writing for what the entity of slavery was. While watching an interview of Toni talking about Beloved I noticed that this was something she struggled with as well. Slavery is such a hard concept to imagine, let alone deeply feel. Something that Toni suggests to her students is to connect the characters directly to people in their lives. She similarly did as she was writing to portray the true feeling, the true language, for what was happening. In the interview she specifically talks about the scene where Sethe decided to murder her children. While writing the scene Toni, with a lot of difficulty, tried to imagine her own child. She revealed;“If I am going to imagine what it takes to kill... your baby... then I have to put in my arms my baby. As a result she was able to portray the scene for what it really was. She explained; “[Once I envisioned myself in Sethe’s position] then the language just pairs down. You don’t get ornamental with that. You get very still, very clean limbed, and very quiet because the event itself is bigger than language.” I thought this was very beautiful and despairing at the same time. That has also been my feeling towards Beloved itself. It is a tough read, but an important one. We will never be able to really understand what it meant to be ripped away from our family, to be sold or bought into slavery, to be without our natural rights and freedoms, but it is incredibly important to try to understand so we don’t repeat history.

Ghosts, Vampires, and Traumatic Events -A Critical Lens Experts Blog by Sierra Nelson-Liner

Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural in Beloved by Pamela E. Barnett focuses on some of the most unsettling and traumatic aspects of Beloved. Some of the first supernatural acts that occur in the novel are the ghost of the child she has killed, the “re-birthing” of characters, and the destructive relationship between Beloved and Sethe nearing the end of the novel. The ghost of the murdered baby is the reminder for Sethe of what she has done. The ghost itself was a reflection of her struggle to let go of what she had done to her child. Interestingly enough, Paul D was able to scare the ghost away because he caught Sethe off guard and began her process of circling back to the past and understanding why she did what she did. The re-birthing occurs when Sethe relieves herself just as Beloved returns and drinks cup after cup of water. Re-birthing  can also symbolize purity which can allude to Beloveds character to purify or change the characters she interacts with. In other words, she brings the characters to see themselves for who they are. 

 One interesting figuration of the supernatural that Pamela E. Barnett suggests is that Beloved is actually a succubus. This is another word for a demon who sucks the life out of its victims. Beloved does this to Sethe by forcing her into regression, stress or guilt that induces childish behavior, and Beloved herself into a dominant character. She sucks so much out of Sethe that she looks like a child next to Beloved who looks like a pregnant mother. This connection reflects further into the bond between mother and daughter. As Sethe feels unbearably guilty for the murder of her child, she struggles to move forward without being able to explain herself to her child, or Beloved. She is also faced with years and years of disruption of her family. She grew up where Baby Suggs puts it as  a place where African Americans were treated as “checkers” where mothers were separated from daughters, fathers, and sons. Nearing the end of the novel Sethe lets Beloved know that she killed her in order to protect her from slavery. It became an argument through the characters whether this was Sethe’s decision. From a mother’s perspective, how do you let your child be taken away from you to a place that had emotionally and physically traumatized you for life?

Rape is also very apparent in the story. This happens both for male and female characters. While the story progresses the trauma from the experiences are always present within the minds of the characters. It seems as if they completely deny what has happened to themselves which is why they can't discuss it. For instance Paul D and Sethe both repress their memories of rape, and in turn it keeps them farther apart because they can’t face their past. This viewpoint on the exploitation of slaves is suggested to focus on the fact that “rape was and often still is a racial issue.” While the slaves were owned by their masters they were forced to give away every aspect of their lives, including their bodies. For certain characters in Beloved their way to retaliate against this was to not nurse babies born from rape. A character who does this is Ella. She was frequently taken by a father and son which she referenced as ‘the lowest of the low.” In a defence mechanism of displacement she blamed the children born of rape and refused to nurse.

The Act of Forgiveness, Responding and Reflecting Blog by Sierra Nelson-Liner

One theme that keeps recurring as I read through Beloved is the relevance of memory and dealing with the past.  One quote I will remember is from Amy Denver when she says; “More hurt the better it is. Can’t nothing heal without pain, you know”(92). This concept of forgiveness occurring through pain can be a very hard concept to understand in the extremity of different situations. Throughout my AP Psychology class I heard of case studies varying from the forgiveness of perpetrators in war, to the relationship between others who have inflicted serious injury on an innocent bystander.  The first step is awareness. For Sethe this is when she talks about rememory. She explained this in contrast to some memories which go and pass on, while others stay. (43). I saw this as a memory that is reinterpreted into something in the real world that triggers certain thoughts and emotions bringing forth a certain remembrance or connection, that brings them once again into a place that they tried to forget. That even though they tried to forget what has happened some things can't be forgotten completely. This is very apparent in Beloved because all of her life she has been trying to forget what has happened to her due to slavery. As a slave Sethe forced herself to not avoid pain but to get “through it as quickly as possible” (46). She will only be able to move on if she deals with the pain, and over time, finds solace.

Furthermore, whilst facing her memories she has to face all of what she has lost. A big portion of this is time. As Sethe describes the crawling already? baby girl the question mark illuminates the surprise as time has passed so quickly. This amplifies the stress of dealing with the past because she has already lost so much, and by noticing all of the small things she has missed the grief gets stronger. Personally, I believe this is the only way to get over things. If you keep repressing what is going on in your life you aren't being true to yourself. When things get difficult I try to remember that I can be a stronger more experienced person once I have overcome a boundary. It shows great maturity and understanding to forgive. I think Sethe will be able to face her past and eventually let go. She will only be able to do so if she comes to terms for what she did to her baby.

The Love of a Mother - Critical Lens #2 by Gennesis Ayala

Slavery and Motherhood in Toni Morrison's Beloved is an article written by Terry Paul Caesar. In the article, Caesar compares a slave and a mother. According to Caesar, Sethe is like a slave to Beloved. The writer also compares Beloved to another novel by the name Uncle Tom’s Cabin. To compare the two books, Caesar brings up that fact that in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a character by the name Cassy, kills her youngest child to “spare him from slavery.” In Beloved, Sethe killed Beloved, her eldest daughter, in order to spare her from slavery. Caesar continues to compare the two novels by saying that in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Cassy was “enslaved by little Eliza… Similarly, so is Sethe by Beloved.” By using the connections in both Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Beloved, Caesar is proving his point, that mothers can be seen as slaves to their daughters.

Due to the connections he made between both novels, I agree with Caesar. I too believe that mothers can be slaves to their daughters, even without any of them realizing. The relationship between a mother and daughter is one of the strongest relationships of all. Being women, mothers and daughters understand each other and help each other, but in Beloved, I don’t see the mother and daughter relationship in this way. In Beloved, we can see where Caesar sees Beloved enslaving her mother. An example of Beloved enslaving Sethe is when Sethe is becoming very thin while Beloved is becoming thick, this is because Sethe is giving Beloved her food portion. Sethe is barely eating so that her daughter can have more food than she actually needs. Sethe wants to be a good mother but instead is seen as a slave to her daughter. Sethe does what she does because she feels guilty of killing Beloved when she was only a small child. The love of a mother can sometimes go too far that a mother ends up doing things for their child that don’t have to be done and in this case, guilt is blinding Sethe from seeing the reality of her relationship with Beloved.

Trauma & Stress - Critical Lens by Gennesis Ayala

           Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural in Beloved is an article written by Pamela E. Barnett. In the article. Barnett writes about how she believes that Beloved is filled with rape and a ghostly presence. Barnett also believes that house 124 is haunted by memories, not a ghost. Barnett brings up the reason why she believes some of the characters in Beloved are traumatized. The reason she brings up is rape. She believes that rape “robs victims of vitality, both physical and psychological.” She believes that Sethe is the most traumatized character because she has the most disturbing past memories about sexual assault. The author also tells us that rape is something that anybody is capable of doing, not just a man but also a woman. We are all on the same level of being raped or committing rape.

           I agree with Barnett in her article about the reason why she thinks the characters, especially Sethe are traumatized. Sethe was sexually assaulted many times in the past and her memories are constantly being triggered by the smallest things. Because she is a woman and a mother, I believe that Sethe went through a lot more than other characters in the book as well. Being a woman and a salve, Sethe was not able to speak up for herself and defend herself. When sexual assault came her way, she had no choice but to let it happen. Being a woman and a slave during that difficult era is what I also believe believe put Sethe into so much trauma and stress. When she became a mother, Sethe wanted the best for her children and put them before herself. She didn’t want her children to experience what she did and even took the life of one of her daughters proving to the reader that she believes that death is better than being a slave and woman in that era. Due to so much sexual assault in her life Sethe became a person with a lot of trauma which caused her to make many actions that other people wouldn’t do. Although the writer brings up that anyone is capable of rape, I believe that is true, but I also believe that men are especially capable of raping woman, especially during the slave era.

Around and Around, a Critical Lens Experts Blog by Sierra Nelson-Liner

Whilst reading Circularity In Toni Morrison’s Beloved by Philip Page, there were many aspects of the passage that resonated with me. The first was the repeated or “circular” actions of the written form of the story. For instance, each character dives a little deeper into a memory but keeps circling around and around not entirely reaching the heart of what the memory means. This form of repetition within the memory and remembrance is very interesting because it reveals a sort of defense mechanism, such as a mix of repression and displacement, which further brings the reader into the mind of the characters. The audience can’t immediately know what is going on because the characters themselves are trying to sort through their own fractured memories. This allows the readers to make a better connection to self on such a severe and traumatic subject as slavery. This led Philips to decide that Beloved itself is a collection of memories that often highlight certain emotions. This can also lead to paradoxes such as the intent for the story of Beloved in the end of the novel. Toni Morrison states that Beloved is not a story to pass on; when in reality the story did get passed on, and had to be. The characters in Beloved had to face their memories. We as readers have to face what occurs in the story, and even the possible connection between our own history and our generation's part in slavery. This circulatory system of pushing forward and revealing the truth is vital to Beloved and to the real world.     

The second thing that resonated with me was what Philips described to be the possessiveness in Beloved of "being ‘mine’ or ‘yours’ as part of the vocabulary of love.” This was often repeated between Sethe, Denver, and Beloved. As each character moved towards love as a possession they moved closer and closer to obsession and farther and farther away from love. Philips went as far as to compare this unhealthy level of possession to that of slavery. This is interesting to think about because all throughout the character’s lives that were previous slaves they were owned, and once they escaped they still reflected almost natural forms of greed and obsession. By making love a possessive aspect of their lives they were reflecting what they must have trained their minds to think. Possibly that all of the orders and restrictions that came to their family lives as slaves they didn't know any better to fix once freed. This interestingly enough underscores what the purpose of freedom is, and the value and strength of family in Beloved. As it was, the desire of the characters was to be free and find a safe place to call home. This cannot be achieved through obsession.

The Jungle of Our Past, a Close Reading by Sierra Nelson-Liner

 

……………………………………………………………………………………………………....

“Whitepeople believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle...But it wasn't the jungle blacks brought with them to this place from the other (livable) place. It was the jungle white folks planted in them. And it grew. It spread. In, through and after life, it spread, until it invaded the whites who had made it.”

-Beloved 234

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

As Stamp Paid came up to 124 he gave an insight into the true impression white people have had on African Americans. He alluded the situation to that of an ever-growing and untamed jungle. Toni Morrison used diction such as “ screaming”, “red gums”, “unnavigable” to try and convey the incivility of the relationship between slaves and their masters (234). The metaphor explains that whitepeople impressed upon the blacks that they were, to the core, savages and animals. In response the slaves believed they were forced onto this belief and let it spread throughout themselves changing who they were. It was the whites that tried to show them that they were kind-hearted and justifiable for their actions. In turn, Toni reflected that this power was actually feeding the jungle in the white slave owners, turning the “screaming baboons” and “red gums” into features of the white people. The allusion to the jungle is very clever. It is something that is so immense and untamed; much like slavery. As years upon years of slavery grew the hardships and the way of life it presented in society grew with power. The reference to the jungle also reminds me of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair which expressed unfair working conditions of immigrants in the industrial revolution. (I remember a particular scene about the meat processing systems which can be found here under the subheading the Jungle.) Slavery was truly a time where there was a disconnect between the morality of society.
Furthermore, from the psychoanalytic standpoint, the societal views of slavery are very interesting to analyze. As whites were dominant they felt powerful and that fed into their dehumanization of slaves. An attempt on teaching segregation to a class of young students was performed with Jane Elliott's Blue eyed/brown eyed experiment found here. In the simulation students with brown eyes were told they were better than blue eyed people. This is the closest case study I have come across thus far that isn't abusive, but really gets the message across for what it could be like to be completely neglected. As Beloved itself if a traumatic read, it is the first novel that begins to capture the true essence of what it meant to be a slave. What it meant to live in a jungle called "life".

Anyone Is Capable - Response & Refection #2 by Gennesis Ayala

Rape is an unfortunate situation that I have been aware and warned about since a young age. I was taught that rape is an action that was committed by men towards women, but Beloved has taught me otherwise. While reading Beloved I was surprised and saddened to learn that rape can happen to anyone and can be committed by anyone. I have heard many stories of cases of rape, all committed by men and the victims were women. I have never been told of a story where a man was the victim or a woman was the offender of a situation of sexual abuse until I read Beloved.

While Paul D was in prison for trying to kill someone, he witnessed a fellow inmate “taking a bit of foreskin” instead of getting a “gunshot to his head” (127), meaning that the inmate was forced into oral rape so the prison guard wouldn’t shoot him to death. This shows a man being sexually abused by another man. This is an unfortunate event that Paul D had to witness and a cringing passage that made me rethink of what I thought I already knew about rape. Another passage that made me rethink my knowledge of rape is when Beloved demands that Paul D touches her “on the inside part” and calls her by her name (137). Although that did happen, Paul D is “convinced he didn’t want to” (148). If Paul D was convinced that he did not want to have sex with Beloved, then this leads to the thought that Beloved may have raped Paul D since it was against his will. These passages have allowed me to see that rape does not only come from a male towards a female, but can also come from a male towards another male or a female towards a male. Although it wasn’t shown in the book, I now believe that sexual abuse can also be committed from a female to another female. Beloved has allowed my knowledge on sexual abuse to expand and recognize that sexual abuse can be committed by anyone and anyone can a victim, despite a persons gender.

The Ultimate Sacrifice - A Response and Reflection by Madison Schmidt

Motherhood plays a incredibly complicated role throughout the entirety of Toni Morrison's Beloved. Baby Suggs, arguably one of the strongest mother figures, is not only a good mother to her son Halle, but an amazing mother figure and example to her daughter in law, Sethe. For her own children, Sethe is also an extremely strong mother figure, in her very own way.

Sacrifice is a huge theme that goes hand in hand with motherhood in this book, as it does with motherhood in general.
                               
In the same way Baby Suggs makes a huge sacrifice leaving her child, Halle, on Sweet Home working for her freedom, we later find out that Sethe has made the ultimate sacrifice for her own children, shortly after arriving at 124. Upon settling in, and finally having a home base for herself and her family, Sethe feels able to embrace the fact that her children are finally hers to love fully.

During the time the book it set, the Fugitive Slave Act is in place, making it so that slave owners can find and reposes escaped slaves - like Sethe. When a 'slave-catcher' comes for Sethe, along with the schoolteacher, his nephew, and a sheriff, she does the unthinkable, in fear that if she and her children are taken back into servitude, they will never know freedom. Living through so many horrors on the plantation, Sethe does not want her own children to have to go through her same experiences. She can not bare the thought of letting white people "dirty [her children] so bad [they] couldn't like [themselves] anymore," - Sethe simply could not bear the best part of her - her children - being anything but clean (251).

A mother's worst crime, the murder of her own children, committed out of maternal instincts of love and protection. One of the most shocking, twisted revelations we are faced with in the entire book, upon which the reader is left stunned. Part of us feels angry and disgusted at the fact that any mother would take the life of one of her own, and part of us is sympathetic with what she has done to protect her child from a life she knows to be too cruel. The attempt to kill her children and her success in killing Beloved is something that is terribly hard to grapple with. It takes a huge toll on Sethe at the time, and a huge, confusing toll on the reader as well.

Knowing how awful living a life of servitude is, especially for women, the act of murdering her baby girl is truly in efforts to prevent a life of suffering. What she does for her daughter shows just how terrible her experiences on Sweet Home were, so much so that she would choose death over them for Beloved. On a much lesser scale, I hope to be the type of mother who would sacrifice everything for my children. While I would never murder a child, let alone one of my own, personally, I see where Sethe was coming from.

The Sad Truth - Response and Reflection by Gennesis Ayala

Through out my years at school, I remember being taught about the unfortunate treatment of slaves. Learning about the terrible facts on African Americans is something that has always disturbed me. It’s sad to believe that we once had a large and unfair racial divide in our country. However, all though I was taught about the behavior towards African Americans during this unfortunate time, I was never taken into detail on the treatment of women during that time, especially African American woman. Beloved has opened my eyes to see the world through the eyes of slaves, specifically Sethe, a female slave in the 1800’s.

I have always believed that women were treated differently than men, especially during the slave era, but reading Beloved has allowed me to really see the treatment of women during that time. The book had broadened my perspective on woman and had me asking as to why men felt so superior than women? The book brings in more reasons for why I believe women are portrayed as objects to men. The flashbacks that Sethe has are real experiences she’s faced in the past which go into detail of the disturbing and cringing obstacles which she was faced with almost everyday. When I was taught about slavery, I don’t remember learning about the rapes and the extreme discomfort many of the slaves had to face. I remember only being taught about the difficult labor and violence that slaves faced. Beloved has broadened my perspective by teaching me about how most slaves were accurately treated during this time, especially woman.

Beloved has allowed my beliefs on the weakness of gender equality to become stronger and broader. The book has allowed me to learn about and visualize the discomfort of woman in the past and has made me see that what I believed in is a lot less worse than what the book actually described.

Critical Lens Expert - Motherhood in Toni Morrison's "Beloved"

Sandra Mayfield's "Motherhood in Toni Morrison's Beloved: A Phsycological Reading" highlights important aspects of Sethe's character as a strong female personality in Beloved. At the beginning of the article, her interpretation of Sethe's confusion with her origin fascinated me. The way that Morrison portrays Sethe's relationship with her own mother - only having really known her as a hanging body branded with a tattoo - creates an association between motherhood and death for Sethe, according to Mayfield. While she had a "near-perfect" example of a mother in Baby Suggs and to some extent in Ms. Garner (Mayfield argues), she had not known the mom who gave her life, leaving her understandably lost. It was interesting to think of how the obscurity of her past and her relationship with her own mother may make her ponder the reason for her existence and drive her every move as a woman and a mother. This was an idea I hadn't previously given much thought. I did, however, find it incredible interesting and useful in analyzing her complicated and twisted relationship with her own children. 

Specifically, this gave me a lot of insight into why she is so attached to her own daughter, when time and time again she has been warned how dangerous it can be to love anything so much (by Paul D in chapter 4 and again by Elle in a flashback in chapter 9). After reading Mayfield's understanding of Sethe's past and more specifically her relationship with her own mother, I have more of an understanding for her attachment to Denver. I feel as though Sethe has kept her memory of her own mother locked away, and completely invested her life in being, for her daughter, what she lacked from her mother.

 The discussion about how her situation at Sweet Home helped form her hardworking, forward-looking character was something I also found very insightful. In the article, Mayfield touches on how many black mothers who suffered from living during the era of slavery, were also able to unveil an extremely creative side of themselves through their experiences, using examples from essays and books. This idea is incredibly applicable to Sethe in Beloved. While her experiences were nothing short of terrorizing, her motivations to move away from the small plantation owned by the Garner family emphasize her strong-woman character. Some of the moments most monumental to the life of a mother - her marriage and her care after the birth of her children - were disregarded by those around her. Nonetheless, she held hopes of a better life and held her head high in the lowest of times. After being dehumanized in the taking of her milk and beating of her back and feet, Sethe makes what Mayfield describes as a "miraculous escape." Her strong nature as a woman and mother is undeniably what allows her to push forward.
________________________________________________________________________________

Another Thought

"Slavery had much more to do with sexism than it did racism, and that the legacy has lived long after the days of literal slavery have come and gone." After reading this point Mayfield briefly made, my mind began to race. Her thought is short and to the point, and I was left wanting more of an explanation.

I feel as though the quote to the right speaks volumes to what Mayfield was beginning to express about sexism and slavery. While technically we no longer live in a society where a certain group of people are belittled and looked down upon by our men, as it was during slavery,
however in a way we really do.

The Purpose of Beloved, A Reflection By Lindsey Bogott

Now that I have finished Beloved I can firmly say that this novel has changed my perception on slavery and broadened my sympathy for the African-American race. I am not sure how Toni Morrison did it, but the way she incorporated several layers of psychological emotion to make it feel like a typical, complicated human being made the historical side of it feel more relevant and real. What I especially thought was fascinating and clever was how she used Beloved to be the linkage to the past. Without Beloved, the readers would lose the historical significance of the novel that allows the readers to grasp what is really going on. Because of this, I found that the Maya Angelou quote that I had previously reflected on is basically the sole purpose of the novel, to reflect on the past in order to move on from it.

The past is always a haunting reminder, especially if something tragic occurred like in the case for Sethe. Yet for Sethe, Beloved was her haunting reminder (literally), acting as a leech, only leaving when she thought she had sucked all the blood away. The character Beloved is so abstract, yet that is why I love her. For such a long time I did not understand her or her purpose until I was nearly to the end of the book, reading the poems, that I finally understood her symbolic purpose. Even though she is technically dead, Sethe, and the other characters, keep her alive because they think about her so often, it feels as if she never left. The more they think about her, the more they think of the way she died and the events that led up to her death. Beloved forces them to reflect on their past, makes them weak again so that they can build the strength to get out of their pit of despair and move on.

Everybody needs a Beloved in their life because everyone has gone through an event in their life that haunts them or holds them back from achieving. While Morrison’s profound novel was to shed the light on how it was to be a slave before and after the Emancipation, which she did an exceptional job at, it was also to express the fact that we all just need to move on and learn from our mistakes. In a sense by reading Beloved we are also forced to reflect on slavery and the conditions of African-American life, and now that we have, we can teach others to do the same then work together to make a brighter, more positive and safe future for everyone.

Different Viewpoints on Song, A Response to a Critical Reading By Lindsey Bogott

Song plays an important role in society and has been used since humans were capable of speaking. It is used to convey emotions, to pass time, and to tell a story, all of which were especially used by slaves. The author Peter J. Capuano writes an essay diving into the portrayal of song in Beloved and how it symbolizes what the characters are feeling and experiencing. His analysis goes deep, covering topics that one may not associate with song such as brutality and status, causing his interpretation, in my opinion, to be too deep. Of course Toni Morrison is a very intelligent writer and I can see her making song a symbolic characteristic in the story, yet from my perspective, I believe the characters sang out of historical habit.

It can be dated all the back to the beginning of time in Africa when African-American ancestors used song in the work fields to pass time. It was used to tell stories, like how the native americans passed down events and morals through storytelling. Capuano does briefly come to this conclusion when he mentions how it made the slaves feel more human when they sang, allowing them to express their feelings out in the fields and bring the slaves together to form community. However he fails to mention how it passed the time. Men and women sang out in the fields to make the work more enjoyable and of course that habit stuck with them once they were freed. Song gets passed through family because children hear it as their mothers cook or when their father are tucking them into bed. It’s historical trait, nothing more or less.

However Capuano argues in his literary essay that the song in Beloved represents the horrors of slavery. He claims that Paul D and Sixo sang to remind others of the brutality they faced in prison camp or out in the fields. He also claims that song is used to indicate human status and gives slave an “alternative voice.” I can see where Capuano is coming from, I do agree that song gives slaves an alternative voice because it allows them to express their feelings, yet what I don’t like about Capuano’s argument is that he makes it sound like that only slaves can sing while they work. I almost want to ask Capuano if I am considered a slave when I sing as I wash the dishes at my work or when I do my homework, I just believe his argument is invalid.

In conclusion African-Americans singing gives them a way to practice their heritage by expressing their emotions while also passing time. The African-American community is known for their songs out in the field which led to the creation of jazz during the Harlem Renaissance. Song of course can be interpreted in many different ways since it’s art, which can be clearly seen as Capuano and I have different viewpoints on song in the context of Beloved.