Blog Post #7_Abby

As we keep on reading we learn how school teacher becomes someone really important in Beloved. As a white male the readers have a better understanding and perspective from someone who owns slaves and from someone who disliked colored people and lived during that time.  Schoolteacher was a radical racist who thought Africans were as close to animals as humans could become, he even went so far as to compare the slaves on Sweet Home to animalistic traits, features and characteristics. “No, no. That’s not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right.” Sethe recalls a time where she hears Schoolteacher talking to his nephews about how to categorize Sethe and the other slaves at Sweet Home. In Beloved, the schoolteacher part of the white upper class of plantation owners presided over the lives of Sethe and the other slaves, the lowest social class possible and, considered equal to that of an animal. That is something that I have been learning throughout Beloved. Slavery is a very controversial topic and hard to understand now because we have not experienced anything like it. This a very sensitive topic for me personally, and it makes me angry and sadden how individuals become savages as they sell and buy humans as if they were toys.

In the 18th century slaves had nothing, poverty was very common and one of the reason many slave owners sold and separated the slave from their family. Gladly, a Constitution was created to build a stronger nation and protect civil rights and liberties for American Citizens. In 1868 the 14th amendment was passed and it addresses citizenship rights and equal protection under the law to everyone not only a specific group of people. Years after, African Americans were slowly able to gain more freedom and the right to vote as stated in the 15th amendment passed in 1870. Little by little innocent African Americans started to gain freedom they deserved.

Blog Post #6_Abby

Sethe is a very complex character who struggles everyday to forget her past. She is a free slave however, her past keeps on hunting her present, and it seems like she will never be free. Even though she was fortunate enough to escape from slavery. Sethe has suffered a lot and all her painful memories, especially the death of her daughter Beloved, have not gone away. She is reliving her past throughout this book, which reveals to us how much the slaves suffered. Additionally, she had to be apart from her children and family members for heartbreaking amounts of time. Throughout the book, Sethe’s identity is destroyed because of slavery and she is physically, emotionally, and mentally destroyed by her past.

The main focus of Beloved at this point is the materialism from the white slave owners in the sense that they only cared about money and treated the slaves very badly. And more specifically the class struggles that slaves were put in. Through the Marxist lens, we can argue that all characters in Beloved are victims of the historic slavery into which they were sold and are unable to escape from. Based on the Fugitive Slave Act, slaves could be taken back if they were in good conditions. “Right off it was clear, to school teacher especially, that their was nothing left to claim.” (Morrison 175) The only reason why school teacher did not take back Sethe and Denver was because of their poor physical  conditions. 

During this time society thought it was okay to treat colored people as animals and not as humans and to treat them like property and not like normal American Citizens. I believe that everyone has the right to be treated equally and not better or less than everyone else. Every individual has flaws, and they should not be denied the right to certain things because of their skin color. Today, many there are many tensions between races for example Hispanic/ Latino and White Americans. Where they feel like Mexicans are taking their jobs away. But in reality they are willing to get paid minimum wage and do certain jobs that other people are not willing to do. Immigrants come to this country to look for a better future, and they have to go through discrimination and even poverty.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Blog Post #5_Abby

Even though there are many different characters in Beloved, the school teacher becomes one of the most important when understanding the racism many African Americans experiences, especially Sethe. Schoolteacher and his nephews that rapaciously depict Sethe and slaves from Sweet Home. The author of an analysis article of the book Beloved, Heather Duerre Humann, specifically talks about the racist comments when Sethe overhears them talk about categorizing the slaves based on animal traits.


It is erroneous to compare animals to human beings just for their social status and skin color. This event helped us understand how Schoolteacher really felt about his slaves at Sweet Home. His nephews were learning from him, and he made it seem like it is okay to treat colored people in a certain way. Feeling superior and in control of the lives of the slaves. Everyone has feelings and it is not okay to feel better than the other because at the end of the day everyone deserves to be treated equally with no preference towards a specific race. And many of slaves were so used to getting treated badly that they wanted to become the animals that they were being compared too because at least they were free.  Paul D wanted to be like the rooster “mister.” (Morrison 72) Who had more freedom than anyone else at Sweet Home. The oppression from Schoolteacher put Paul D and others in barbarous situations that put these poor and innocent human beings in abasement and in unpleasantness moments throughout Beloved.

#7 Obsession

04/30/15

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison
Lens: Feminist
Blog: Close Reading #2

"Denver thought she understood the connection between her mother and Beloved: Sethe was trying to make up for the handsaw; Beloved was making her pay for it. But there would never be an end to that, and seeing her mother diminished shamed and infuriated her. Yet she knew Sethe's greatest fear was the same one Denver had in the beginning- that Beloved might leave" (295).

When read through the Feminist Lens, this quote demonstrates a stereotypical weakness in women. Sethe feels trapped by Beloved. She is almost scared of her but desperate to have her around. She drops to her knees whenever Beloved needs something. She is dependent on someone else for happiness which is extremely unhealthy. Denver notices her mother deteriorating because of Beloved and we see later that Beloved leaving made Sethe go into a state of depression. Sethe cannot be independent as much as she wants to be. She is damaged and needs others around so her guilt and loneliness doesn't eat her alive. Sethe killed Beloved out of motherly love and protection but Beloved doesn't see that. She is going to stop at nothing to make Sethe feel bad. And eventually that is what happens. It is very upsetting for me to see how women need others to depend on. In most cases society believes that women need a man. Sethe needs Beloved. She becomes obsessed with trying to fix their relationship and tortures herself when thinking about Beloved leaving. It almost seems like Sethe doesn't want to rebuild what she destroyed out of fear that when she makes up for it, Beloved will abandon her.

#6 Slavery and Motherhood

04/30/15

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison
Lens: Feminist
Blog: Critical Lens Expert #2

Terry Paul Caesar has a very interesting outlook on motherhood and slavery. He calls the two "convertible terms". I would have never thought to put these words together as he did. He goes on to say that a mother could be a slave to her daughter just as a daughter could be a slave to her mother. This makes me think of mothers having to clean up after children and take care of them. They cannot ever leave just as slave life. A daughter could be a slave to her mother by having to obey anything she says or does. It is clear the Beloved makes Sethe feel as a slave. The sad thing is, Sethe doesn't even realize it. She is made to feel like she owes something to Beloved and that she must not stop doing everything she wants. She is trapped by her own daughter. There is also a sense of slavery in Beloved, when Sethe must kill her children. The protection she must give to her children during these awful times is scary. Sethe is so trapped by the love she feels for her kids that it is almost an obsession. This obsession is so strong that Sethe murders her child so they don't have to go into slavery.  All in all, I really enjoyed reading this article. It pushed me to think about ideas I hadn't really thought about. After that, I was able to make my own connections and observations. It is such a different outlook on the relationships between mothers and daughters as well as the relationship between the words slavery and motherhood.

Blog Post #4_Abby

The interpretation of Beloved, by Nicole Coonrad, helps us to understand two significant characters. Amy and Sethe, the differences and similarities that both lived during the times of slavery. Coonradt highlights insightful connections between both characters in Beloved. Sethe is a very complex character meanwhile Amy is not, she is rarely mentioned in the book. To understand a little more about her, her mother died had died while working as an indentured servant which is why Amy became an indentured servant to serve her mother’s time. This may confuse us a bit because Amy is white. Not the typical story you might expect from a novel about black ex-slaves. But this means that Sethe and Amy had a bit in common because they both live, work without basic freedoms and they both try to escape from their conditions. Which makes it a lot easier for Sethe to relate to Amy. This is important because from this we learned that American slavery is a lot more diverse and complex. Besides the connection that both of these characters there is a connection to the Marxists lens.

Throughout the book we learn the important connections from both characters however, the most important one is the fact that they are both separated by race. Which is the primary reason between the two. The idea that servants are African American minorities goes more beyond when Morrison decided to talk about a white indentured servant. This connects to the Marxists lens because of the ideals that African Americans are in the lowest social class than everybody else, and it is not always true.

#7_Sethe's Relationship with Beloved

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Critical Lens: Feminist Lens

After reading and analyzing Beloved, I have gotten a clear interpretation of each character. They each have different mindsets when they are in certain situations. This book has helped me learn that one may not be who they proclaim to be. Sethe has problems she had to deal with throughout the novel. One of these problems was an internal conflict. Where she was not able to understand why she was being haunted by her dead daughter. However, her dead daughter resurrected and happened to be the beautiful Beloved. This young woman was the daughter that Sethe herself once killed. Beloved came back in order to retrieve the mother she was not able to live a life with. Also she wanted to acquire the love she never had the chance to receive from her because of that absence.

Many people struggling with the feeling of love do not know what they are doing. For example, Beloved is blinded by Sethe and her desire to be by her side at all times that she starts to choke her own mother. Moreover, jealousy is another feature that can lead to spiteful actions. Because of Beloved’s resentment, she also entered her mother’s boyfriend’s room and had sex with him. She did this because she did not appreciate the fact that Sethe had been paying more attention to Paul D than to her. She would do these things for revenge or to be like Sethe. Beloved said to Denver, “Make him go away,” when Paul D entered Sethe’s room (157). She feels as if Sethe is being taken away from her. Beloved thinks that Sethe belongs to her.

Furthermore, Sethe then starts realizing that Beloved is the daughter she once killed when Beloved starts humming a song that Sethe used to sing to her children. It took Sethe a really long time to realize this because she says that Paul D was a distraction. Beloved then takes over Sethe after Paul D leaves her. Sethe starts losing weight and Beloved starts gaining weight. Sethe begins acting like a child and Beloved begins acting like a mother. This allows Beloved to take advantage of her mother in a way that will make Sethe feel remorse and shame for what she did to her own daughter. Beloved was “draining Sethe’s life force away”.