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“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
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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".
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".
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