Post by Save Your Karma on Jul 27, 2007 15:02:56 GMT -5
Deana Kalcich
Psychology 101
Dr. Roehrich
November 9, 2006
The Effects of Society on the Characters in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
The events of Toni Morrison’s Beloved are a direct result of the institution of slavery. Throughout the novel the events and actions of the characters can all be traced to the effect slavery had on them as individuals and how the social influences ruled over their lives.
Beloved takes place Ohio, where Sethe, a former slave, has been living with her daughter Denver. Sethe’s mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, lived with them until her death. Just before Baby Suggs’s death, Sethe’s two sons, Howard and Buglar, ran away. Sethe believes they fled because of the malevolent presence of an abusive ghost that has haunted their house at 124. Denver likes the ghost, which everyone believes to be the spirit of her dead sister.
Sethe was born in the South to a mother she never knew. She is sold to the Garners, who own Sweet Home and is treated fairly well by them. There, the other slaves, who are all men. Sethe marries Halle, who is working buy his mother’s freedom by hiring himself out on the weekends. Together, Sethe and Halle have two sons as well as a baby daughter. After the death of Mr. Garner, the widowed Mrs. Garner asks her brother-in-law to help her run the farm. He is known to the slaves as schoolteacher, and his presence makes life on the plantation unbearable. So the slaves make a plan to escape. Schoolteacher kills Sixo and brings Paul D back to Sweet Home. Sethe runs away, but along the way she collapses from exhaustion. A white girl, Amy Denver, finds her and
nurses her back to health. When Amy later helps Sethe deliver her baby in a boat, Sethe names this second daughter Denver after her. Sethe receives further help from Stamp Paid, who rows her across the Ohio River to Baby Suggs’s house. Schoolteacher comes for Sethe to take her and her children back to Sweet Home. Rather than surrender her children to a life of slavery, she takes them to the woodshed and tries to kill them. Only the third child, her older daughter, dies, her throat having been cut with a handsaw by Sethe. Sethe later arranges for the baby’s headstone to be carved with the word “Beloved.” The sheriff takes Sethe and Denver to jail. Sethe returns to the house at 124, where Baby Suggs has sunk into a deep depression. The community shuns the house.
Meanwhile, Paul D has endured being in a chain gang in Georgia, where he was sent after trying to kill a slave owner to whom he was sold by schoolteacher. His traumatic experiences have caused him to lock away his memories, emotions, and ability to love. One day Paul D and the other chain gang members escape. He travels north and wanders for years and ends up at Sethe’s door. After moving in, Paul D chases the house’s ghost away, which makes Denver resent him from the start. Sethe and Paul D look forward to a promising future together, until one day, on their way home from a carnival, they encounter a strange young woman sleeping near the steps of 124. Denver develops an obsessive attachment to Beloved, and Beloved’s attachment to Sethe is equally if not more intense. Paul D and Beloved hate each other, and Beloved controls Paul D by moving him around the house like a rag doll and by seducing him.
When Paul D learns that Sethe has killed one of her children he leaves 124 and begins sleeping in the basement of the local church. With him gone, Sethe and Beloved’s relationship becomes more intense. Beloved grows increasingly abusive, manipulative, and parasitic, and Sethe is obsessed with satisfying Beloved’s demands and making her understand why she murdered her. Denver seeks help from Lady Jones, her former teacher. The community provides the family with food. Mr. Bodwin, who has come to
124 to take Denver to her new job, arrives at the house. Mistaking him for schoolteacher, Sethe runs at Mr. Bodwin with an ice pick. She is restrained, but in the confusion Beloved disappears, never to return. As the novel ends, Paul D comes back to Sethe, who has retreated to Baby Suggs’s bed to die.
Throughout the novel one can see the hindrance slavery was to the development of the slaves and how their experiences as a slave affected their free lives and the lives of their children. When looking at the lives of the slaves, particularly visible in Sethe, it is easy to see the reason behind their crippled sense of self. Using theorist Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development (Myers 128) one can see that there are significant problems people face when bound by slavery. Even as early as infancy the issues we struggle with as humans, according to Erikson, turn out in a negative manner. In infancy, in the specific case of Sethe, her struggle with trust was lost. Without a mother, left to be nursed by a woman nursing many, Sethe was deprived of attention, food and a sense of wellbeing. This sense of deprivation continues on in her life as well as does the shame and doubt, guilt, and inferiority enforced by being treated and envisioned as a piece of property. Sethe can never form a sense of identity because she has none, not under the ownership of Mr. Gardner, however charitable he is, nor under Schoolteacher.
When Sethe escaped she had to learn how to be free after being kept in the bounds of conformity. The cultural support of slavery made the conformity imposed upon them absolute. Solomon Asch’s conditions that strengthen conformity (Myers 609) particulary come into play; slaves are made to feel that they are inferior, they are dehumanized. They are treated as animals, people talk of breeding them to make a profit. These attitudes were supported by a large region of the country, which makes them particularly hard to fight. With hundreds of miles to run if you were trying to escape the thought of rebelling becomes extremely daunting, especially when you have never
known anything else, never been off the property you work onThough slaves escape from Sweet home, for a couple of them it is a hard decision. Though being free of oppression is a tantalizing idea for these people, they also have never known anything different. Where would these slaves go once they escape, how would they feed their families, could they find work, what if they were caught? All these things make what is familiar even if it is oppressive and abusive seem more appealing. It is the same reason some battered women stay with abusive husbands, yes, it’s bad but sometimes the unknown is far more terrifying. The dehumanizing slaves suffer from helps induce the obedience that also keeps them from running away. Without feeling as though you as human why would you hope for something better. You are ruled closely by a master whom you are taught to respect, you are taught is better than you and who, at the very least, is the only person of authority you have really known. The Sweet Home slaves at first do not have the ambition to just make a run for it. Only after they are told others from another farm are going do they decide to run away. The slaves of Sweet Home did not take the initiative themselves. They only ran when they were certain there would be others who could help them. Other people who could help them face the unknown and help them conquer it.
No matter where the slaves run they always encounter prejudice. Denver who has not lived as a slave describes her discomfort walking in the neighborhood and her fear of approaching men hoping they are not white men. African Americans, particularly while there was still slavery and segregation but still today, are up against an intense bias, and still battle the held view of inferiority. The lynchings, the presence of the Klansmen, and the descriptions of men hanging from trees supports that there are prejudices whether an African American is a slave or not. The oppression, dehumanization, and lack of identity profoundly affect the characters and their actions. The conditions Sethe and the others endure at Sweet Home impact the rest of their lives. Sethe’s obedience
towards Amy Denver when she helps her get to the river and deliver her baby reflects her general obedience of white individuals. Having to learn what to do with yourself when you are not given chores as soon as you rise was also something Sethe have to go through once she was free. The distant care she provided for her children, though she loved them immensely reflects her own struggle to survive as a motherless infant. The remorse and attachment feels for Beloved is caused by the fact that she committed infanticide because she did not want that kind of oppressive life for her children. Without a lot of experience out of Sweet Home, the only option to her was to kill her children because she saw the control whites had over African Americans as absolute.
The personal impact the social institution of slavery had on African Americans both free and not was enormous. With the veil of inferiority and no sense of identity it was difficult for African Americans during the time of slavery to develop in a healthy manner and have the ability and perception to make positive life decisions. Slavery and the aftermath had the most influential impact on the characters and their actions in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.
Psychology 101
Dr. Roehrich
November 9, 2006
The Effects of Society on the Characters in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
The events of Toni Morrison’s Beloved are a direct result of the institution of slavery. Throughout the novel the events and actions of the characters can all be traced to the effect slavery had on them as individuals and how the social influences ruled over their lives.
Beloved takes place Ohio, where Sethe, a former slave, has been living with her daughter Denver. Sethe’s mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, lived with them until her death. Just before Baby Suggs’s death, Sethe’s two sons, Howard and Buglar, ran away. Sethe believes they fled because of the malevolent presence of an abusive ghost that has haunted their house at 124. Denver likes the ghost, which everyone believes to be the spirit of her dead sister.
Sethe was born in the South to a mother she never knew. She is sold to the Garners, who own Sweet Home and is treated fairly well by them. There, the other slaves, who are all men. Sethe marries Halle, who is working buy his mother’s freedom by hiring himself out on the weekends. Together, Sethe and Halle have two sons as well as a baby daughter. After the death of Mr. Garner, the widowed Mrs. Garner asks her brother-in-law to help her run the farm. He is known to the slaves as schoolteacher, and his presence makes life on the plantation unbearable. So the slaves make a plan to escape. Schoolteacher kills Sixo and brings Paul D back to Sweet Home. Sethe runs away, but along the way she collapses from exhaustion. A white girl, Amy Denver, finds her and
nurses her back to health. When Amy later helps Sethe deliver her baby in a boat, Sethe names this second daughter Denver after her. Sethe receives further help from Stamp Paid, who rows her across the Ohio River to Baby Suggs’s house. Schoolteacher comes for Sethe to take her and her children back to Sweet Home. Rather than surrender her children to a life of slavery, she takes them to the woodshed and tries to kill them. Only the third child, her older daughter, dies, her throat having been cut with a handsaw by Sethe. Sethe later arranges for the baby’s headstone to be carved with the word “Beloved.” The sheriff takes Sethe and Denver to jail. Sethe returns to the house at 124, where Baby Suggs has sunk into a deep depression. The community shuns the house.
Meanwhile, Paul D has endured being in a chain gang in Georgia, where he was sent after trying to kill a slave owner to whom he was sold by schoolteacher. His traumatic experiences have caused him to lock away his memories, emotions, and ability to love. One day Paul D and the other chain gang members escape. He travels north and wanders for years and ends up at Sethe’s door. After moving in, Paul D chases the house’s ghost away, which makes Denver resent him from the start. Sethe and Paul D look forward to a promising future together, until one day, on their way home from a carnival, they encounter a strange young woman sleeping near the steps of 124. Denver develops an obsessive attachment to Beloved, and Beloved’s attachment to Sethe is equally if not more intense. Paul D and Beloved hate each other, and Beloved controls Paul D by moving him around the house like a rag doll and by seducing him.
When Paul D learns that Sethe has killed one of her children he leaves 124 and begins sleeping in the basement of the local church. With him gone, Sethe and Beloved’s relationship becomes more intense. Beloved grows increasingly abusive, manipulative, and parasitic, and Sethe is obsessed with satisfying Beloved’s demands and making her understand why she murdered her. Denver seeks help from Lady Jones, her former teacher. The community provides the family with food. Mr. Bodwin, who has come to
124 to take Denver to her new job, arrives at the house. Mistaking him for schoolteacher, Sethe runs at Mr. Bodwin with an ice pick. She is restrained, but in the confusion Beloved disappears, never to return. As the novel ends, Paul D comes back to Sethe, who has retreated to Baby Suggs’s bed to die.
Throughout the novel one can see the hindrance slavery was to the development of the slaves and how their experiences as a slave affected their free lives and the lives of their children. When looking at the lives of the slaves, particularly visible in Sethe, it is easy to see the reason behind their crippled sense of self. Using theorist Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development (Myers 128) one can see that there are significant problems people face when bound by slavery. Even as early as infancy the issues we struggle with as humans, according to Erikson, turn out in a negative manner. In infancy, in the specific case of Sethe, her struggle with trust was lost. Without a mother, left to be nursed by a woman nursing many, Sethe was deprived of attention, food and a sense of wellbeing. This sense of deprivation continues on in her life as well as does the shame and doubt, guilt, and inferiority enforced by being treated and envisioned as a piece of property. Sethe can never form a sense of identity because she has none, not under the ownership of Mr. Gardner, however charitable he is, nor under Schoolteacher.
When Sethe escaped she had to learn how to be free after being kept in the bounds of conformity. The cultural support of slavery made the conformity imposed upon them absolute. Solomon Asch’s conditions that strengthen conformity (Myers 609) particulary come into play; slaves are made to feel that they are inferior, they are dehumanized. They are treated as animals, people talk of breeding them to make a profit. These attitudes were supported by a large region of the country, which makes them particularly hard to fight. With hundreds of miles to run if you were trying to escape the thought of rebelling becomes extremely daunting, especially when you have never
known anything else, never been off the property you work onThough slaves escape from Sweet home, for a couple of them it is a hard decision. Though being free of oppression is a tantalizing idea for these people, they also have never known anything different. Where would these slaves go once they escape, how would they feed their families, could they find work, what if they were caught? All these things make what is familiar even if it is oppressive and abusive seem more appealing. It is the same reason some battered women stay with abusive husbands, yes, it’s bad but sometimes the unknown is far more terrifying. The dehumanizing slaves suffer from helps induce the obedience that also keeps them from running away. Without feeling as though you as human why would you hope for something better. You are ruled closely by a master whom you are taught to respect, you are taught is better than you and who, at the very least, is the only person of authority you have really known. The Sweet Home slaves at first do not have the ambition to just make a run for it. Only after they are told others from another farm are going do they decide to run away. The slaves of Sweet Home did not take the initiative themselves. They only ran when they were certain there would be others who could help them. Other people who could help them face the unknown and help them conquer it.
No matter where the slaves run they always encounter prejudice. Denver who has not lived as a slave describes her discomfort walking in the neighborhood and her fear of approaching men hoping they are not white men. African Americans, particularly while there was still slavery and segregation but still today, are up against an intense bias, and still battle the held view of inferiority. The lynchings, the presence of the Klansmen, and the descriptions of men hanging from trees supports that there are prejudices whether an African American is a slave or not. The oppression, dehumanization, and lack of identity profoundly affect the characters and their actions. The conditions Sethe and the others endure at Sweet Home impact the rest of their lives. Sethe’s obedience
towards Amy Denver when she helps her get to the river and deliver her baby reflects her general obedience of white individuals. Having to learn what to do with yourself when you are not given chores as soon as you rise was also something Sethe have to go through once she was free. The distant care she provided for her children, though she loved them immensely reflects her own struggle to survive as a motherless infant. The remorse and attachment feels for Beloved is caused by the fact that she committed infanticide because she did not want that kind of oppressive life for her children. Without a lot of experience out of Sweet Home, the only option to her was to kill her children because she saw the control whites had over African Americans as absolute.
The personal impact the social institution of slavery had on African Americans both free and not was enormous. With the veil of inferiority and no sense of identity it was difficult for African Americans during the time of slavery to develop in a healthy manner and have the ability and perception to make positive life decisions. Slavery and the aftermath had the most influential impact on the characters and their actions in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.