Reflection on Cruelty
Cruelty is the idea of gaining pleasures in harming others and back in 1873, many African American slaves suffered from this common ideology according Heather Andrea Williams of National Humanities Center Fello. Toni Morrison, an African American author who illustrates an opportunity for “readers to be kidnapped, thrown ruthlessly into an alien environment...without preparations or defense” (Morrison) in her award-winning novel Beloved as method to present how cruel slavery was for African Americans. In her fictional story, Beloved, Morrison explained the developement of an African American slave named Sethe who willingly murdered her own child to prevent it from experiencing the cruel fate of slavery. Nonetheless, Morrison
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represent slavery as the most cruel fate to have ever fallen upon African American because Schoolteacher’s cruelty toward Sethe circulate how ruthless Schoolteacher and “the men without skin” (210) viewed African Americans like some worthless filthy animals beneath them and portrayed the lack of defense that Sethe and many other African Americans had. First of all, many African American slaves often experiences cruelty through psychological and physical torture, rape, and abuse. After Mr. Garner’s death, his brother, also known as Schoolteacher moved into Sweet Home along with his two nephews; ever since the moment Schoolteacher arrives at Sweet Homes, Sethe’s life completely turns upside down. From 2 Schoolteacher’s perpsective, Sethe doesn’t qualify the term “human” but rather an animal or object for him to observe.
During Schoolteacher regime on the plantation he tries to pursue his knowledge by observing the ways his nephews raped Sethe. Not only that, Schoolteacher’s nephews also stole the Sethe’s breast milk for her baby so by the time Sethe reached her child she wouldn’t have anything to feed the baby with. Not sure if she’s able to deliver her milk for her baby in time strove Sethe to survive because she “had to get milk to my baby girl. Nobody was going to nurse her like me” (16). Of course, Sethe was desperate to feed her child so it wouldn’t starve to death, it’s necessary for a mother to breast feed her newborn baby in order to keep it vitalize. Morrison portrayed Schoolteacher’s character as a cruel, relentless, and harworking racist with the inability to feel compasssion or sympathy; that makes someone like Schoolteacher capable of many cruel deeds. How? Let’s not forget how he assigned his nephews to raped a defenseless pregnant woman, stole the milk she stored for her baby, and treated her like a common …show more content…
animal! In addition, Sethe was horrified of the way Schoolteacher had commented about her “animal characteristics” and that just proves how unashamed and cruel Schoolteacher may be regarding the comparisons between an innocent African American woman and animals.
So basically, a method that Schoolteacher uses to observed the slaves was by measuring and counting their teeth like animals then writing it inside his book. After his obervations, Schoolteacher analyze it by listing Sethe’s characteristics in comparison to animal characteristics. Terrorized by everything Schoolteacher had done, Sethe was still a defenseless woman; the only thing she do is escape because “I am full God damn it of two boys with
mossy 3 teeth, one sucking on my breast the other holding me down, their book-reading teacher watching and writing it up" (70). A ruthless man like Schoolteacher who wouldn’t spare a pregnant African American woman verfied how sadistic him and his kinds are in relation to African American slaves through rape, abuse, and torture. Furthermore, Sethe was a defenseless pregnant African American slave that has to suffer Schoolteacher’s physcological torture. Knowing that her baby has to tolerate the same defenseless fate as she did drove Sethe to murder her own child. Just how cruel was Schoolteacher that caused him to become so capable of physcologically compelling a mother to assassinate her own flesh and blood? Anyway, Schoolteacher’s method of torturing Sethe pushed her to murder her own child proves how vicious Schoolteacher was because his actions triggered this animalistic within Sethe that compels her to murder her own daughter. Plus, Schoolteacher didn’t display any compassion or empathy towards Sethe when she was pregnant, instead he mercilessly whipped her. African American women were known to be the most common target for White man who voluntarily reveals themselves as worst than savages. Moreover, Morrison did an excellent job of revealing the cruelty of white men towards African American slaves in Beloved because if Schoolteacher had never mistreated Sethe like a common animal then perhaps Sethe wouldn’t be so influence by the urge to murder her daughter. However, Morrison seems to illustrate how African American women are so easily oppressed by white men and it sort of connects to how males dominated women. See how unfair the world can be up till now? But lets admit it, the world today aren’t as problematic as before, males and females from all kinds of race are treated a much more better than ever.
In the novel Beloved, Toni Morrison focuses on the concept of loss and renewal in Paul D’s experience in Alfred Georgia. Paul D goes through a painful transition into the reality of slavery. In Sweet Home, Master Garner treated him like a real man. However, while in captivity in Georgia he was no longer a man, but a slave. Toni Morrison makes Paul D experience many losses such as, losing his pride and humanity. However, she does not let him suffer for long. She renews him with his survival. Morrison suggest that one goes through obstacles to get through them, not to bring them down. Morrison uses the elements of irony, symbolism, and imagery to deal with the concept of loss and renewal.
At the climax of her book Beloved, Toni Morrison uses strong imagery to examine the mind of a woman who is thinking of killing her own children. She writes,
Toward the end of Beloved, Toni Morrison must have Sethe explain herself to Paul D, knowing it could ruin their relationship and cause her to be left alone again. With the sentence, “Sethe knew that the circle she was making around the room, him, the subject, would remain one,” Morrison catches the reader in a downward spiral as the items around which Sethe makes her circles become smaller in technical size, but larger in significance. The circle traps the reader as it has caught Sethe, and even though there are mental and literal circles present, they all form together into one, pulling the reader into the pain and fear Sethe feels in the moment. Sethe is literally circling the room, which causes her to circle Paul D as well, but the weight
What is a healthy confusion? Does the work produce a mix of feelings? Curiosity and interest? Pleasure and anxiety? One work comes to mind, Beloved. In the novel, Beloved, Morrison creates a healthy confusion in readers by including the stream of consciousness and developing Beloved as a character to support the theme “one’s past actions and memories may have a significant effect on their future actions”.
“We should all be together. Me, him and Beloved. Ma’am could stay or go off with Paul D if she wanted to. Unless Daddy wanted her himself, but I don’t think he would now, since she let Paul D in her bed. Grandma Baby said people look down on her because she had eight children with different men. Coloredpeople and whitepeople both look down on her for that. Slaves not supposed to have pleasurable feelings on their own; their bodies not supposed to be like that, but they have to have as many children as they can to please whoever owned them. Still, they were not suppose to have pleasure deep down” (241-242).
How would one feel and behave if every aspects of his or her life is controlled and never settled. The physical and emotional wrought of slavery has a great deal of lasting effect on peoples judgment, going to immense lengths to avoid enslavement. In the novel, Beloved, Toni Morrison uses the characters adversity to expose the real struggles of slavery and the impact it has on oneself and relationships. Vicariously living through the life of Sethe, a former slave who murdered one of her kids to be liberated from the awful life of slavery.
As much as society does not want to admit, violence serves as a form of entertainment. In media today, violence typically has no meaning. Literature, movies, and music, saturated with violence, enter the homes of millions everyday. On the other hand, in Beloved, a novel by Toni Morrison, violence contributes greatly to the overall work. The story takes place during the age of the enslavement of African-Americans for rural labor in plantations. Sethe, the proud and noble protagonist, has suffered a great deal at the hand of schoolteacher. The unfortunate and seemingly inevitable events that occur in her life, fraught with violence and heartache, tug at the reader’s heart-strings. The wrongdoings Sethe endures are significant to the meaning of the novel.
Toni Morrison is the author of Beloved, a novel about the past literally coming back to haunt the present. The past appeared in the physical and the mental realms as Beloved and memories of past life. Toni Morrison uses the symbol of “the tin tobacco box” heart to show how people repress memories. Paul D admits that he has a rusted over tin box in his chest, but he is not the only person who hides feelings. The community as a whole has buried feelings that do not surface until drastic measures are taken.
So often, the old adage, "History always repeats itself," rings true due to a failure to truly confront the past, especially when the memory of a period of time sparks profoundly negative emotions ranging from anguish to anger. However, danger lies in failing to recognize history or in the inability to reconcile the mistakes of the past. In her novel, Beloved, Toni Morrison explores the relationship between the past, present and future. Because the horrors of slavery cause so much pain for slaves who endured physical abuse as well as psychological and emotional hardships, former slaves may try to block out the pain, failing to reconcile with their past. However, when Sethe, one of the novel's central characters fails to confront her personal history she still appears plagued by guilt and pain, thus demonstrating its unavoidability. Only when she begins to make steps toward recovery, facing the horrors of her past and reconciling them does she attain any piece of mind. Morrison divides her novel into three parts in order to track and distinguish the three stages of Sethe approach with dealing with her personal history. Through the character development of Sethe, Morrison suggests that in order to live in the present and enjoy the future, it is essential to reconcile the traumas of the past.
"The future was sunset; the past something to leave behind. And if it didn't stay behind, well, you might have to stomp it out. Slave life; freed life-every day was a test and a trial. Nothing could be counted on in a world where even when you were a solution you were a problem"1
In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison explores the paradoxical nature of love both as a dangerous presence that promises suffering and a life-giving force that gives the strength to proceed; through the experiences of the run-away slave Sethe. The dangerous aspect of love is revealed through the comments of Paul D and Ella regarding the motherly love of Sethe towards her children. Sethe's deep attachment to her children is deemed dangerous due to their social environment which evidently promises that the loved one of a slave will be hurt. On the other hand, love is portrayed as a sustaining force that allows Sethe to move on with her life. All the devastating experiences Sethe endures do not matter due to the fact that she must live for her children. Although dangerous, Sethe's love finally emerges as the prevalent force that allows her to leave the past behind and move on with her life.
Morrison characterizes the first trimester of Beloved as a time of unrest in order to create an unpleasant tone associated with any memories being stirred. Sethe struggles daily to block out her past. The first thing that she does when she gets to work is to knead bread: "Working dough. Working, working dough. Nothing better than that to the day's serious work of beating back the past" (Morrison 73). The internal and external scars which slavery has left on Sethe's soul are irreparable. Each time she relives a memory, she ...
In the 500 word passage reprinted below, from the fictional novel Beloved, Toni Morrison explains the pent-up anger and aggression of a man who is forced to keep a steady stance when in the presence of his white masters. She uses simple language to convey her message, yet it is forcefully projected. The tone is plaintively matter-of-fact; there is no dodging the issue or obscure allusions. Because of this, her work has an intensity unparalleled by more complex writing.
In Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, Morrison uses universal themes and characters that anyone can relate to today. Set in the 1800s, Beloved is about the destructive effects of American slavery. Most destructive in the novel, however, is the impact of slavery on the human soul. Morrison’s Beloved highlights how slavery contributes to the destruction of one’s identity by examining the importance of community solidarity, as well as the powers and limits of language during the 1860s.
Toni Morrison uses the four seasons to divide the novel The Bluest Eyes into four sections. Morrison disregards the expectancies usually associate each season by deliberately going out of her way to reconstruct the normal associations of the season with something completely different. Morrison depicts the opposite of the traditional symbolism for each season to illustrate how abnormal the events that take place are. Winter is usually the time where things die so that it may be revived; however for Pecola there is no "new life", there is only false hope. For instance, Maureen is very nice to Pecola for a short time, giving Pecola hope in having found a new friend, but then she calls Pecola ugly like everyone else does, and the hope dies. This is a demonstration of the cold,