What Are The Similarities Between Beloved And Notes From Underground

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Recommended: Effects of slavery on slaves and slave owners

Beloved and Notes from Underground were both written the 19th century and explore the after effects of slavery. Even though both stories follow two different people in two different countries, they are parallel in their description of post slavery life. While Beloved follows ex-American slaves and their family and Notes from Underground follows a somewhat man high socially ranked man, the mental affects of slavery still have similar impacts on their respective lives.
In Beloved the post slavery life greatly divides the family. Sethe, the mother, has given up on life due to her two boys leaving her, one of her daughters dying and her moral support, Baby Suggs, dying. The daughter, Denver has become reclusive because the town shuts the family out and she does not have any siblings or a mother who can honestly love her. An old friend from Sweet Water, Paul D, also has some demons of his own. Paul D somewhat tries to fill the moral backbone that Baby Suggs left, but he cannot fill it because his own experiences prevent him from having a level mind at certain points. Notes from Underground …show more content…

Sethe was not able to have control over the outcome of her life until her later years. She was not able to sulk around and blame everyone for her problems as The Underground Man was, she had to constantly push forward because society did not feel sorry for he and it would not allow her to feel sorry for herself. Unlike Sethe, the Undergrond Man was able to experiment with his condition. This shows while they may be expressing the same feelings, they are not going through the same situation. This is a topic of the 19th century, the world is entering the modern era and people are becoming more self-aware of the impact of society. While at the same time the effects of a barbaric system are being felt. These otherwise foreign stories are linked to the fact that they express the mental drain of the new modern

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