Cruelty In The Beloved

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Recommended: Thematic concerns in the novels of toni morrison

Throughout the long, treacherous years of slavery in America, over 60 million African American lives were stolen, beaten, sold, ended, and then forgotten. Toni Morrison’s Beloved is dedicated to these lives, and is a slave narrative that has numerous themes and motifs in which cruelty plays a part in their meaning and interpretation. It is in these themes that the effects of the cruelty, inhumanity, and brutality of slavery are constantly portrayed, especially in the way the characters treat each other and in the community they live in where the color of your skin determines whether your role in society is the victim or the perpetrator; it determines whether cruelty empowers you or keeps you in chains. The significant characters of Beloved …show more content…

This nation that happens to be founded on savagery, built up by inequality, and expanded by the ideals of Manifest Destiny, a doctrine that justified the cruel acts used in order to enhance America’s social, political, and economical aspects, sadly but unsurprisingly uses slavery and racism in order to progress. Compared to Mrs. Garner, Sethe was not deemed suitable for certain privileges such as marriage because she was a black, slave woman. When telling Sethe the story of Halle and her wedding, Sethe tells Denver, “...it wasn’t going to be nothing. They said it was all right for us to be husband and wife and that was it. All of it” (Beloved, 59). Because they were their slaves, Sethe and Halle’s marriage was not treated as a significant event. Mr. and Mrs. Garner simply set the matter aside and gave Mrs. Garner’s crystal earrings to Sethe as a sort of compensation. Sethe and Halle were a slave couple, and not a white couple. Because of this, they were not given the special treatment of a fancy party and reception. By giving Sethe the crystal earrings, Mrs. Garner implies that Sethe and Halle’s marriage is equivalent to a pair of used jewelry when compared to a white couple whose relationship is worth an elaborate and elegant party. These lopsided standards are also seen in Paul D’s memories inside The Box when he compares his own freedom to that of a rooster named Mister. When being punished by the schoolteacher by being placed in isolation inside a small, compact box, Paul D is able to look outside and see a rooster roaming freely. Paul D re-lives this memory when he narrates it to Sethe and says, "Mister, he looked so… free. Better than me. Stronger, tougher. Son a bitch couldn't even get out of the shell hisself but he was still king and I was… Mister was allowed to

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