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To what extent does African American literature serve as an expose to the African American Tradition
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The Misuse of Language in Beloved
In Toni Morrison's Beloved many negative methods of communication used by the white people are effectively hijacked by the black people. The black people create a completely new message and a positive form of communication. These forms of communication, in turn, empower the oppressed black people, providing channels for the expression of ideas, thoughts, and memories.
Such was the case in the American culture of the mid 1800's as depicted in Beloved because of the gap in the social status and power of black versus white Americans. The language of the whites was not able to effectively communicate the thoughts of all and was used many times as a method of coercion. Largely, I am referring to oral and written communication. Oral communication done by whites in the book tends to be in the manner of orders, or to demean, dismiss, or condemn. This gives standard oral communication a somewhat negative air. Written communication is also tainted by the white people who abuse it. For example, on pages 155-6, as Paul D is reading the newspaper clipping given to him by Stamp Paid about Sethe, he is filled with a sense of foreboding.
"A whip of fear broke through the heart chambers as soon as one saw a Negro's face in a paper, since the face was not there because the person had a healthy baby, or outran a street mob. Nor was it there because the person had been killed, or maimed or caught or burned or jailed or whipped or evicted or stomped or raped or cheated, since that would hardly qualify as news in a newspaper. It would have to be something out of the ordinary--something white people would find interesting, truly different, worth a few minutes of teeth sucking if ...
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...y subvert this message of dehumanization. Instead, they choose to make their scars work for them in ways other options of communication may fail. Scars prove themselves to be something solid, physical, unchanging to which people may depend on when written and spoken words may fail them. In this way, scars function as a viable alternative form of communication, acting as a medium for storytelling, identification, and shared bond between people. Scars empower those otherwise oppressed. This disproves the assumption that "definitions belong to the definers, not to the defined" in the context that whites make the definitions and rule over blacks. Instead it changed the meaning in that the black people in the book are also definers, breaking away from the rule of the oppressor's language by developing their own interpretations and means of communication.