On page 28 of the book Beloved, it gives the reader a passage of what had happened to Baby's eight children, most of which were taken away from her. According to Sethe, their people were "moved around like checkers." It meant that slaves were always moving from one location to another because their owner wanted something like lumber or money. Baby's children either got rented out, loaned out, bought, stored, won, stolen, or seized. They were moved to every location around Baby, at random times her children would move to a different location. It never stopped, as these people loved playing "checkers." Using the New Historical lens, we can see this passage gives us insight about how slaves were separated from their families and how slaves were treated as "objects" more than humans. Baby had six different husbands each of which were traded off, taken away from her. At that time, slaves were used as "objects", they were traded off and were used for working in the fields. They were commonly moved around to other owners if the previous owner needed something like money or lumber. The owners didn't care if the slaves were separate from their families. All they wanted was money, greed took over their lives.Toni Morrison, at the time, wasn't separated from her family. Slavery was illegal during the early 1900s but there was still discrimination against African-Americans. Her father, John Solomon, moved his family from the South to stay away from sharecropping and the violence against African-Americans. Nonetheless, there was still discrimination around the U.S but The South was way worse. There was separation by color in public areas, treated differently by their race, and received hate words everyday. Even though at the time Morrison was living in wasn't worse being African-American than in the 1800s, she still had discrimination as a part of her life growing up in school and in public.
It's awful how slaves were treated back in the day, and even more horrible that people still think racism is okay. I think it's very insightful that you added information about Toni Morrison's life and how it may have related to her writing the book. Do you think that her childhood or experiences she may have had, helped her write "Beloved"?
ReplyDeleteIt's awful how slaves were treated back in the day, and even more horrible that people still think racism is okay. I think it's very insightful that you added information about Toni Morrison's life and how it may have related to her writing the book. Do you think that her childhood or experiences she may have had, helped her write "Beloved"?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kathryn about how insightful it was to read about Toni Morrison's life. I am reading through the psychoanalytic lens, so this context really makes me wonder what experiences she endured may have contributed in her writing.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how much attention you paid to your close reading about how people back then were moved around like checkers. Your analysis is very insightful. I find it interesting because the illusion in the book makes it a more remarkable event in the story. And, checkers are also black and white, so they way they use the term is quite powerful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Eli, This is a very powerful quote. It gives the reader a better understanding of what their lives were like, which was basically like a game of checkers.
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