Critical Lens Close Reading: Beloved -Janet Gil

The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison focuses on portraying a haunting age in American History, slavery. In the 1800’s African Americans had no rights. They were treated as animals, forced into hard labor. Women's rights were slim to none. White women were the ones who cooked and had children, while African American women were forced to do various amounts of difficult household work, including  have more children to be sold into slavery. African American woman slaves were seen as vulnerable so they were often raped by men. Woman were seen as objects, not people that could obtain any knowledge or even beliefs.The novel Beloved displays this incredible twist where social roles between genders are switched.  

When the character of Paul D is raped and seduced by Beloved, the female aspect portrayed in this book changes.

After this incident, Paul D questions his masculinity, “if schoolteacher was right it explained how he had become a rag doll-picked up and put back down anywhere anytime by a girl young enough to be  his daughter”( 124).

Schoolteacher was the Slave Owner after Mr. Garner at the Sweet Home plantation and was extremely hard and racist towards his slaves. Every slave that was at Sweet Home during his ownership remembers his cruelness. His negative actions affected Sethe and Paul D even after they were free people.

This quotation exemplifies the idea that men were not the only ones that could demand sexual attention, woman can as well. For this reason, Paul D feels weak and less masculine. Paul D relates his shameful feelings to when he was a slaved man and was told what to do. Although Beloved was a women, she manages to control Paul D. Toni Morrison begins to portray women as strong individuals capable to have some power over men.