The Mayflower Express to Mayfield's Interpretation

The Mayflower Express to Mayfield's Interpretation

Sandra Mayfield begins her analysis of Beloved with an examination of how Morrison has shown a great belief that American literature has been missing the psyche of African Americans.  Mayfield, quoting Morrison, continues by saying that not only is the history of American literature missing the psyche of African Americans, but more specifically the psychology and emotions of African American slaves.  In addition, the lack of these attributes in literature is carried with a sense of uneasiness by America to understand this psychology and emotions.  Morrison identifies American authors as main subjects to this belief, as Mayfield puts it, “white American authors were disturbed, confused, unsettled, by the Africanist presences that loomed large in their writings”.  Morrison continues, saying that the way for American literature to complete its history is to be able to, “analyze the absence of an understanding of Africanism,” and its role in forming American culture today.  Mayfield then transitions more directly to Beloved and her argument; Mayfield states that her argument is that slavery, even after its physical conclusion, became a standing metaphor for relations between men and women.  Mayfield also claimed that slavery was more a product of sexism rather than racism.  Mayfield also articulates the claim that Beloved is a book that is centralized around motherhood.  However, this is idea of motherhood is complicated.  Mayfield holds this notion that Sethe is affected by this disconnect as a result of her relationship between her mother and herself.  Along with this, Sethe is also trying to fight her past and provide a life much better than the one she experienced for her kids.  Therefore, in order to face this disconnect from her mother and provide a better life Sethe focuses on becoming the best mother she can.  Through this, Sethe holds this strong sense of love for her children, which can be related to the powerful bond between her and Beloved: her first daughter.  

This article takes a more feminist side to the psychoanalytic lens that helped me open my perspective of the psychoanalytic lens.  By approaching this lens in a different way, this article pushed me to think deeper in terms of Sethe and the specific relations to other female characters that aren’t as central to the plot, for example Mrs. Garner and Baby Suggs who for the majority of the book are absent.  By looking at these female figures in this book, it allowed me to see the role that motherhood had on Sethe and how it allowed her to be a mother herself.  Through looking at these relationships of mothers, and females it pushed me to almost a feminist lens mixed with psychoanalytic lens. With that, I was able to see the role that motherhood played within Beloved. I was also able to connect this to past claims and notions I had regarding Beloved, especially the role that the past has in the book. By mixing my past knowledge and the article, I was able to blend these two ideas of motherhood and the role that the past makes to have this broader mindset of the interconnectedness within the book.

The Power of the Strength of Love

The Power of the Strength of Love

When I first started reading Beloved, I didn’t guess that this book would teach me much about strength and love.  To me, I pictured a book that focused on slavery and being able to mentally overcome slavery.  Yes, that does embody strength, but the strength I pictured was much different than the one I come away from Beloved with.  Whether it be Denver, Paul D. and Sethe, strength and love are these characteristics that is flooded throughout this book, and something that I have been truly been able to take away from.

In my last journal blog reflection, I focused on strength in terms of perseverance.  In this blog, however, I want to focus on strength in terms of love.  It might sound weird, but strength in the form of love is something that I picture as the power to sacrifice oneself or make certain decisions for the ultimate benefit of someone else.  The immediate connection I have is two scenes, one in which Halle buys Baby Suggs’ freedom and Sethe’s act of hurting, and killing one, her children in order to keep them from possibly returning to Sweet Home.  In these two acts, we see this unselfishness to sacrifice oneself, and one’s morals to try and provide a better life for both Baby Suggs and Sethe’s children.  

To create a modern day interpretation and lesson, what this shows is that sometimes the best thing we can do for others is hurt them, or hurt ourselves.  That sometimes when we truly care about someone, sometimes the lengths that we have to go to, to protect them, may be wrong and may hurt ourselves.  To me, this is a harsh reality of the situations that we face, but also a bright reality of how strong love can be.  But the flip side to having a strong power of love is that it can also distort our sense of morality and ethics.  By having both an example of one person sacrificing themselves for the benefit of someone else, and one person acting immorally for the benefit of someone else I was able to see the two sides to the power of having a strong love.  On one hand love can drive us to sacrifice for others, while on the other hand love can drive us to ignore our morals and ethics.    

Responding And Reflecting - New Historical #7 B.H

After finishing the book Beloved and reading through all the historical context, the other historical piece that stuck out to me was the article that was published about how Sethe was running away from white males, got into a wooden shed, and proceeded to kill her children. Paul D didn't believe that story at all since the picture that was included in the article didn't look like Sethe. This made me to believe that not all articles that were about slaves were true and that it was intend to give African slaves a "bad image," to not be trusted. Whenever Paul D sees an article and it has a picture of a slave, it usually meant something daunting. The publishers of every newspapers at that time wouldn't dare to put a story of an African slave that gives them a good image. Additionally, the audience who weren't African slaves did believed what the article said and believed they were all the "same", but what I realized to this day is that history is "repeating" itself on this subject. People will believe whatever the news says, whether it is bizarre or not. The thing is that whenever a person commits the unthinkable, people will believe that the person and his or her race are all the same. For example, police brutality is a very big issue as of today. A handful of cops were reported of using excessive force to an individual, resulting in killing of them. Now that people were aware of the force the cops used, it led to the conclusion that every cop was the same, that they treated a certain race way differently than another race, that they all use excessive force to do their job even if it meant killing the suspect. People need to realize that not all cops will do the same, there are a great amount of cops out there that do good service to their citizens. Connecting this to newspapers in the 1800s about slaves,  even though the news puts a bad image of a certain race or a group of people, it doesn't always mean that all of them are the same. To this day people still think that if one person did this, the person's race or group of people he or she is with will do the same, but not all of us are alike, there is human kindness everywhere.

The Distortion of Right and Wrong

The Distortion of Right and Wrong

“Your love is too thick,” he said, thinking, That bitch is looking at me; she is right over my head looking down through the floor at me. “Too thick?” she said, thinking of the Clearing where Baby Suggs’ commands knocked the pods off horse chestnuts.  “Love is or it ain’t.  Think love ain’t love at all.”

“Yeah.  It didn’t work, did it? Did it work?” he asked.

“It worked,” she said.

“How? Your boys gone you don’t know where.  One girl dead, the other won’t leave the yard.  How did it work?”

“They ain’t at Sweet Home.  Schoolteacher ain’t got em.”

“Maybe there’s worse.”

“It ain’t my job to know what’s worse.  It’s my job to know what is and to keep them away from what I know is terrible.  I did that.”

“What you did was wrong, Sethe.”

“I should have gone on back there? Taken my babies back there?”

“There could have been a way.  Some other way.”

“What way?”

“You got two feet, Sethe, not four,” he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; trackless and quiet.  (194)

This passage embodies two people with similar experiences and influences, but different perspectives.  On one hand Paul D. is condemning Sethe for her act when Schoolteacher came to 124.  While on the other hand there is Sethe who is trying to justify her acts when Schoolteacher came to 124.  Both Paul D. and Sethe lived a big part of their life in Sweet Home, a part of their life that has undoubtedly shaped the people that they are.  Interesting enough, with both characters living in Sweet Home and having similar experiences, the outcomes of those experiences on them as people are very different in the situation.  This is evident in this argument between the two characters.  In this argument, although the debate is centered around Sethe’s actions the day Schoolteacher came, the true debate here is the debate of right and wrong, and through this we are able to see how each character’s decision has a basis in each other's scars from the past.

“They ain’t at Sweet Home.  Schoolteacher ain’t got em,” and in Sethe’s mind that is the worst scenario she knows.  With this in mind, Sethe tries to protect her kids from ever experiencing that way of life she experienced: even if that means going to the extreme of killing them.  It is in one sense ironic, but is in another sense a testament to all Sethe knows.  Sethe grew up in Sweet Home, and when she escaped she not only struggled to keep herself alive but the life of the baby inside of her.  The struggle of keeping herself alive and her baby, taught her to do everything she could to accomplish two things: escape Sweet Home and live.  Those two things became the purpose of her living.  It is evident in this passage when she says, “It’s my job to know what is and to keep them away from what I know is terrible”.  So, in terms of the debate between right and wrong of hurting her children to prevent them from being taken to Sweet home, her perspective is clear in that the right thing was to keep her children away from the worst thing she knew.  

Paul D. had a much different experience after leaving Sweet Home.  Unlike Sethe, Paul D was sold to another slave master where then he was arrested for trying to murder the man.  Paul D was then able to escape jail with other Black prisoners.  This experience in its own explains why Paul D pictures what Sethe did as “wrong”.  Paul D, believes that, “there could have been a way.  Some other way”.  We can attribute this to Paul D’s past and the scars that came as a result of it.  Paul D has once experienced what it was like to try and kill someone and by using his belief of what Sethe did was wrong, it shows that Paul D’s past has taught him that murdering in any form is not the right course of action.  In addition, what this did was cement a right and wrong in the mind of Paul D.  

What this passage, in all, displays is the influence of both characters past and their impact on not only their actions but their beliefs and morals.  

Circling Through Beloved

Circling Through Beloved

Throughout Beloved, this symbol of a circle is scattered throughout the book within different scenes and sequences of events.  A strategy that is also a popular a characteristic in many African American folklores, something Morrison believes should have a more popular role in novels.  The book itself is a circle in that it begins with a story, a message that is carried from character to character and is ultimately brought back around to the reader to create their own interpretations.  In that way, as said in the article, the reader is the co- author of Beloved.  The content itself also features many examples of circles holding great significance, none other than the overarching theme of overcoming the past.  This overarching theme is portrayed within both Paul D. and Sethe and in their attempts to not only overcome their past but defeat the ghosts of their pasts haunting them.  So it makes sense that in order to conquer their present that is troubled by their past, both characters must conquer their past in order to ease the problems of the present: the ghost and Beloved.  Not only does the article talk about circularity, but also the paradoxes and lessons from the book itself.  One of the lessons mentioned in the article is the lesson of ownership, and the tangle that is created when everyone in 124 Bluestone tries to take ownership over another.  This can be related to the most extreme of ownership, slavery, and how any form of ownership in general is wrong.  An example of one of the paradoxes is at the conclusion of the book, once all the characters are able to face their own past.  After doing this, the narrator says that the story is one to not be passed down.  This is in its own a paradox because the narrator had just retold the whole story even though she believes it is one not to be told.  

The biggest problem I had when analyzing Beloved is that I kept finding myself zooming in to narrowly; I wasn’t able to look at the book as a whole.  This article, though, pushed me to be able to connect the thoughts that I had that were zoomed in, and zoomed them out and related them to the book as a whole. In doing this so, it allowed me to expand my point of view and my perspective and see much more bigger picture.  For example, the thought about Paul D. and Sethe being haunted by their past and the only way for them to be able to defeat this ghost is to be able to face that past is a thought that has a lot of symbolism to because of what their past entailed.  It is symbolic that Paul D. and Sethe’s past is resisting them from defeating this ghost, because Paul D. and Sethe had fought for freedom once, and the only way to attain freedom from the ghost is to face this same past.  

Critical Lens Close - Reading Entry #5 B.H

In page 183 from the book Beloved, there is a passage about Paul D grabbing an article to which he finds a picture of a African male. He doesn't want to read what was about the article since whenever there is an African male or female on the article, the story is horrifying to them. It always meant that whenever there is a picture of African slaves in any article, it meant something bad. Usually the article talks about the actions of one African slave will mean they are all alike, which makes the audience, or white males, either excited or nervous. Stamp Paid read the article to Paul D since he can't read and it talked about how Sethe was running away from white men and went to a wooden shed, where she killed her children. Paul D doesn't believe that story since the picture of her isn't really her. According to Paul D, the mouth wasn't right and didn't have any resemblance to Sethe's mouth. That's when Stamp thinks Paul D's memories have been lying to him the whole time. It had happened eighteen years ago but it seems to Stamp that Baby Suggs and Paul D were looking at the "wrong direction."
In the early 1800s, newspaper articles would post bizarre stories only for African slaves. Newspaper publishers wouldn't make articles about how a white male killed another white male since it will put out a bad image for themselves. Relatively, they also didn't publish articles that makes African slaves have a good image. Instead, publishers put up horrifying stories of African slaves to their newspaper so that they'll have a bad image and wouldn't be trusted. An article I found dated back in 1856 mentioned two slaves, both male and female, cut the throat of their child from one ear to the other. It also included other slaves that were wanted, which to the white males it brought excitement to them. For the audience, this makes them believe that all slaves are like this since there were more articles where that came from. It didn't matter if it was fake or not, the audience still believed them. To this day, people still think that if one person from one race did a horrifying thing, they are instantly convinced that the race are all alike.

Critical Lens Experts - New Historical #6 B.H

From this essay "The Mother-Daughter Aje Relationship In Toni Morrison's Beloved" it describes the relationship of Sethe and Denver using this old spiritual human called Aje. Aje is a Yoruba word that means an empowering, spiritual force that is thought to be included in African women. It also means to describe spiritually humans. In other words, Aje can be considered a witch since they use earthly and cosmic laws. These Aje humans are used to balance society by giving them laws, and if they don't follow them they'll be punished. When one daughter inherits her mother's Aje, both spiritually and physically, it becomes a love and hate relationship. This relationship starts to happen when Paul D and Beloved enter into their homes as Denver is jealous that Sethe isn't paying much attention to her and more to Paul D and Beloved. For one, this spiritual force requires a man to function properly but in the book Beloved, Sethe's husband Halle has passed away and doesn't play a big role in the book. Additionally, there were discussions about the mother "killing" their daughter, either spiritually, mentally, or physically. In the book, Sethe "kills" her daughter by keeping her "where they'd be safe." What that means is that Sethe is so overprotective and attached to her daughter that Denver would have a difficult time leaving her mother in the future. Sethe doesn't want her daughter to experience what she had in the past, and in order to do that she keeps Denver away from any threat, or "White males."
African mythologies, like most cultures, believe in one God but there are more spirits and elements that are included in their culture. Spirits can be considered as The Sun, The Moon, The Rocks, The Earth, and many other elements from Earth. There are other spirits as well inside their soul that show their values and beliefs. For example, in Yoruba there are three spirits in every one of them. The Emi spirit keeps the man alive, sort of operating the lungs and heart and is fed by the wind. Ojiji is a form of shadow that waits in the person until he or she dies. Lastly, Eleda is fed by sacrifices but the connection between these three spirits is that the person will meet these spirits in heaven, waiting for them.

Responding and Reflecting - New Historical #4 B.H

Reading the book Beloved while looking through New Historical Lens gave me knowledge that I haven't known from History classes. What surprised me were these slavery songs that were used in many different ways to show emotion, to communicate with another former slave, or even entertain each other through rough times. Initially, songs were a way to gain happiness once more where they work. Whenever there was a huge amount of labor to do, slaves sing a song to uplift their spirits once again. Most of their songs consist of praising to the lord; asking their Lord to help save them from slavery and guide them to

freedom. Additionally, songs are a way to express feelings or entertainment but slaves used their songs as some form of code that only they could understand. These songs could mean going to heaven or how they feel right now, but in a deeper meaning the song means the pathway to freedom is a dangerous road. Other songs can mean a new way to freedom or rumors they have heard, which gives crucial information to slaves all while their owners think its just a song. One famous song Wade In The Water had important information about how to escape when bloodhounds are finding them, to hide in water so that their scent won't be exposed to the dogs. Another famous song Follow The Drinking Gourd gave full insight to slaves exactly how to escape slavery and find freedom. It included what time the slaves should escape and what direction they should be heading, referring to The Big Dipper in the sky and the sound of Quail. From the beginning, their songs were used to bring back happiness in them while doing labor. From there on, it led to secret coding in their songs that are so descriptive that it gave out pinpoint locations and time to where freedom was.

Critical Lens Experts - New Historical #3 B.H

Toni Morrison's book Beloved references Frederick Douglass' book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in a variety of ways to the reader. Frederick Douglass was an ex-slave in the United States (1800s) and became an influential writer in the North. His book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was his autobiography and is considered to be the most significant African-American works from the 1800s. Douglass knew most of his audience would be white so he didn't publish his book as an "attack to America" but to give the white audience the knowledge of slavery itself. He uses actual evidence in his autobiography of slavery work and treatment instead of writing emotional slavery songs, while in some sections in the book Beloved, Paul D sings one of his songs. Around the time Beloved was published, Morrison could have put any slavery song without the fear of some uproar with the citizens of the U.S, while in Douglass' era it wasn't wise to write them in his autobiography. Morrison uses the songs not to inform the reader about the cruelty of slavery but shows what the characters have gone through in Sweet Home and other places. She relies the songs from Douglass' book to give the reader more than general view of slavery's brutality. The reason why Douglass never included any songs was because it was viewed as "a testimony against slavery and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains." Connection to New Historicism, Africans carried their rich culture to the U.S more importantly their songs. These songs have many uses; singing them while doing chores, show emotion, and hearing the history of Africans. For Africans, songs were a way to lead to freedom and to communicate with each other. These songs, known as spirituals, were passed from one group to another which give information about pathways to freedom without white people knowing what they are talking about. In one's mind, the songs could mean abut going to heaven but in different meanings, it could mean going up North for freedom or the dangerous path to freedom. A very smart concept during slavery to give other Africans very crucial information.

Comparison of Feminist Lens: Beloved #2

For this last blog, I decide to compare my feminist views on Beloved by Toni Morrison with another feminist article. This article was The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison's "Beloved" by Barbara A Schapiro, a college student from Rhode Island.

In this article, Barbara A Shapiro writes about the emotional and physical consequences a slave faced after they were released into the free world in Beloved. She mentions multiple times how past slaves that are eventually released will never be mentally released from their tragic pasts in plantations.

She later mentions the character of Beloved and how she significantly affects the novel, and why her traits are unlike any other characters. Barbara says, “Beloved Does not delve into the roots of white domination,but there is a suggestion of fear and inadequate selfhood underlying the problem”. In this short phrase, the writer of the article expresses how she believes Beloved evokes fear in others, and does not feel like white people have any rights over her. Beloved leads the analysis of the feminist lens in an opposite direction. Women are not suppose to evoke fear in others, and black women in this time had no reason to believe they were equal or just as good as the whites.

Barbara also brings up the character of Setha had no mother figure, only what others had told her about her mother. The article says, “When she becomes a mother herself,she is so deprived and depleted that she cannot satisfy the hunger for recognition,the longed for "look," that both her daughters crave.” This phrase is trying to say that Sethe was so obsessed with this idea of being the long-loving mother she never had that she never got the chance to listen to her children and pay attention.

I completely agree with all of Barbara A Schapiro’s article, the character of Beloved is a mystery during the entire novel and complete opposite of what most view a women as. I also agree with the fact that Sethe is driven by an obsession of mothering her children protectively.

Responding and Reflecting On Beloved #2

In the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison I noticed multiple themes while analyzing the text through the Feminist Lens but one of the ones that most stood out to me was the topic of Masculinity. Since equality for genders is still an issue around the world today, I found it quite interesting how Morrison portrays this topic.

Men are usually suppose to be the one’s to claim a women. Morrison shows this idea that the men in the time Beloved takes place, needed to be claimed by someone else. The male role is swapped with the female role numerous times in the book, allowing all readers to see that the capability of a women is just as meaningful and powerful as a males.

The character of Sethe exposes this new way to view women’s capabilities when she slits her own daughter, Beloved’s, throat. The novel questions if there is such thing as masculinity, and men empowerment.

It says, “I looked at the back of her neck. She had a really small neck. I decided to break it. You know, like a twig- just snap it” (274). This short phrase shows how Sethe is the male character in this book. She is a character willing to do what it takes to voice her beliefs. SInce she was always a slave who was told what to do, she never had the chance to do what she wanted. Killing her own daughter because she thought she would be safer dead was a taste of her own freedom. As a free person, she was able to do whatever she felt like doing.

The male figure in the book of Beloved is switched with the female figure when it comes to Sethe. Toni Morrison does not follow traditional stereotype beliefs.

When analyzing this book through the feminist lens, I realized Toni Morrison herself was a feminist writer. She expressed her feminist views through the character of Sethe, where she showed that a women is just as capable of anything.

Gratitude and Strength

Gratitude and Strength

“I was something else and that something was less than a chicken sitting 

in the sun on a tub”(86).  

When I read Beloved it is hard not to put what I am reading in perspective.  It is hard for me to not try and look at the characters and relate their struggles to me in terms of the person I am and the person I strive to be.  I think of this because before reading this book I have always had a profound respect for those who fought slavery and racism, yet now by reading Beloved I am faced with even more detailed experiences of what this time period was like.  By being faced with this it has showed me even more what strength truly means and put in perspective my life and the easiness that I am blessed to have in my life.  

What I see in the stories of the Sweet Home men, and Sethe as well, is this bond, this unity, and this optimism that they hold.  It’s as if their struggles bond them together.  They find strength in themselves.  Here are these people that are chained, imprisoned, yet they somehow find this hope and this power to keep going.  And it goes beyond just keep going, because Paul D., Sethe, Baby Suggs, they all found a way to escape.  They mustered enough energy and force within themselves to get up and run from chains.  This is strength.  Before reading Beloved I had this picture of what strength was.  I was wrong.  Strength isn’t the will to get back up when you fall down, strength is getting knocked down, beaten down and thrown done over and over again and still having the will to get back up and fight and fight more until you cannot stand up.  

I relate this to my life because it allows me to be able to realize how beautiful life is and how grateful I should be of the things around me.  I don’t even mean the major things, I mean the simple things in life that can be so overlooked in a day where they have become almost normalized.  Like the line of right versus wrong, the right to be able to fight for you mother or see your mother, the right to love, the right to marry.  The right to be me.  

What is Sethe Running Away From?

What is Sethe Running Away From?

"What's she talking 'bout nobody speaks to you?" asked Paul D.
"It's the house.  People don't--"
"It's not! It's not the house. It's us! And it's you!"
"Denver!"
"Leave off, Sethe.  It's hard for a young girl living in a haunted house.  that can't be easy."
"It's easier than some other things."
"Think, Sethe.  I'm a grown man with nothing new left to see or do and I'm telling you it ain't easy.  Maybe you all ought to move.  Who owns this house?"
Over Denver's shoulder Sethe shot Paul D a look of snow.  
"What you care?"
"They won't let you leave?"
"No."
"Sethe."
"No moving.  No leaving.  It's all right the way it is."
"You going to tell me it's all right with this child half out of her mind?"
Something in the house braced, and in the listening quiet that followed Sethe spoke.
"I got a tree on my back and a haint in my house, and nothing in between but the daughter I am holding in my arms.  No more running-- from nothing.  I will never run from another thing on this earth.  I took one journey and I paid for the ticket, but let me tell you something, Paul D Garner: it cost too much! Do you hear me? It cost too much.  Now sit down and eat with us or leave us be." (18)

When analyzing this passage through the psychoanalytic lens, we not only identify Sethe’s mindset in terms of the future but also see how the past has shaped this very mindset.  This passage is taken from a scene in which Sethe’s old friend, Paul D., arrives at Sethe’s house and is introduced to the ghost of the house.  Upon learning about the ghost Paul D. is confused as to why Sethe does not move away from the haunted house and find a new home.  However, Sethe is in complete opposition, referring to her past experiences with moving, “I took one journey and I paid for the ticket, but let me tell you something, Paul D Garner: it cost too much!”.   

In addition to Sethe believing that moving was not worth it, she emphasizes her opinion with a fierce tone that pushes away her opposition, Paul D.  This is continued with her saying, “No moving.  No leaving,” and “No more running- from nothing”.  What this creates is this picture of who Sethe is, a woman who is a walking embodiment of her past.  But in addition, she holds this ferocity to her, this strength that is palpable from the tone of her voice.

Sethe’s strength and desire to not repeat her past in this passage almost seem ironic though.  Sethe is resisting in every way moving, which in essence is finding a better way of life.  Yet, her reasoning is that she firmly believes that this would not be worth the cost.  Her basis for her belief is her escape from Sweet Home was not worth it.  In other words, her past is dictating her present, and her future.  Yet, her past is something she does not like to talk about as evidenced further in the book.  The past is something she does not like to talk about yet it shapes how she acts.  Instead of her “running” from a house, ironically she's running away from her past.