Is Pain Imprisoning or Emancipating to its Beholder

3/31/15

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Critical Lens: Psychoanalytic Lens

In Kristin Boudreau's article, "Pain and the Unmaking of Self in Toni Morrison's Beloved", she corroborates very crucial information from multiple different sources, as well as the context of Beloved, to raise the question of whether Sethe must endure her own painful reality as a means to feel redeemed from the atrocities committed in her previous life of slavery. She further “suggests that pain may not point the way to redemption but will instead perpetuate the process of violence in which it found it’s origin” (Boudreau). The novel Beloved shows how the house "full of baby venom" takes on a life of its own and causes people to leave the family and friends to avoid all contact with the perceived violence in the home.  Boudreau goes on to say that this sense of pain that is both directly referenced and alluded to throughout the novel is so deeply ingrained in the lives of the many ex-slaves that it entraps them and keeps them from moving on. Sethe is able to block out images of violence but even then she this “shamed her” to remember the beauty of nature instead of the atrocities that she endured. Her ensnarement by her violent memories of the past and her guilt at letting them go reveals how she is unable to absolve her sins.

As part of her ensnarement, she has a difficult time communicating to Paul D the amount of pain she endures in her life. As Paul D describes the conversations they have with each other as, “Round and round, never changing direction... like having a child whisper into your ear so close you could feel its lips form the words you couldn't make out because they were too close.” It seems apparent that such behavioral issues are more common in people younger than Sethe, which implies that the pain she goes through to redeem herself is a sign of regression, a defence mechanism in which her psyche returns to a state of infancy because it has no possible way to face such topics in a responsible and adultlike matter.

#2 Stolen Milk_Alanna

 

 

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison
Lens: Feminist 


"After I left you, those boys came in here and took my milk. That's what they came in here for. Held me down and took my milk. I told Mrs. Garner on em. She had that lump and couldn't speak but her eyes rolled out tears. Them boys found out I told on em. Schoolteacher made one open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree" (20).





        Before Sethe tells this story, she is having a conversation with an old friend by the name of Paul D. He is a gentle, kindhearted man who is from Sweet Home. He was a good friend of her husband, Halle. His presence is calming to Sethe, this hints at one of the many stereotypes that women have in society: Men are the strong ones who are meant to protect, while women are weak and NEED a man to survive. Prior to Sethe telling him about the brutal mistreatment she faced at Sweet Home, she was fixing him a meal while he sat and relaxed, yet another stereotype. The mood is calm and almost awkward, no one speaking. Just Sethe and Paul D, alone in the kitchen. Sethe then reflects on how she had milk when she was pregnant. She talks about the judgement she felt because people could smell the lactation in her breasts, or see it dripping from her dress. She was motivated to get milk to her baby when she sent her along with her brothers, Howard and Buglar. This memoray clearly pains Sethe.
         The assulat that took place is something that happens way to often in society. Women are made out to be sexual objects with the help of the media and social networking. This passage does the duty in proving that this issue has been around for a long time, progressivley getting worse. This assault was jsut stealing milk, now we see domestic abuse and rape accoring everywhere we look. Through a eminist lens, I can look at this situation and feel sickened. Women being treated like something so worthless is insidious. We can clearly see how gender plays out in Beloved by seeing how women are portraed as weak and men portrayed as sexual beasts, which is also another stereotype about gender. Paul D is not one to go with the stereotype. He is a gentle man, not pushing for intercourse, even though it does happen later in the book. He cares for Sethe and her children, specfically Denver.
        I am really looking forward to seeing how Sethe's underlying strength plays out in the book. I can sense that she is an incredibly strong woman but she has been taken advantage by and abused by men for a while. The lack of trust in males is inevitable for her. I hope to see her become an independent woman with nothing but willpower pushing her to raise her child and overcome her hardships and flashbacks. 

#1_Feminism and Myself

03/17/15


I decided to go with the Feminist Lens when analyzing this novel. The Feminist perspective is always something that has been close to my heart because I strongly believe in the equality for Women. During the times of slavery there was a lot of oppression for specific groups of people, not only the slaves. There was also mistreatment of homosexuals, women, Hispanics, and more. Women did not have many rights. I find it interesting to see how gender roles have played out over the years and to compare then and now. I am always thinking about how society can change to better life for all groups of people. Women's rights have definitely hanged in the recent years but the stereotypes still exist. I would like to see if there are stereotypes in Beloved that are still around now, as well as general treatment of females.

Traumatic Colorblindness

3/18/15

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Critical Lens: Psychoanalytic Lens

"Sethe looked at her hands, her bottle-green sleeves, and thought how little color there was in the house and how strange that she had not missed it the way Baby did. Deliberate, she thought, it must be deliberate, because the last color she remembered was the pink chips in the headstone of her baby girl. After that she became as color conscious as a hen. Every dawn she worked at fruit pies, potato dishes and vegetables while the cook did the soup, meat and all the rest. And she could not remember remembering a molly apple or a yellow squash. Every dawn she saw the dawn, but never acknowledged or remarked its color. There was something wrong with that. It was as though one day she saw red baby blood, another day the pink gravestone chips, and that was the last of it" (41).

In this close reading, Sethe is painfully reminded of her past the moment she looks at her hands and the world around her. She recedes deep within her memories of when she solicited her body to the preacher’s son who promised to engrave the seven letters, “Beloved” for “ten minutes”. It was from that point in which all the color Sethe had perceived and admired in her life, faded into obscurity. The last colors that went through her mind was the “red baby blood” and “pink gravestone chips” which is a sign of repression that eternally haunts her like the ghost of her dead daughter, revealing her total color blindness.

The way Sethe repeats the phrase, “Deliberate” when she thinks that, “it must be deliberate,” She’s right, because it is obvious she knows that she is putting up a defense mechanism to avoid unearthing this deeply repressed memory. As Sigmund Freud, the grandfather of psychology, has stated, “...repression doesn't eliminate our painful experiences and emotions...we unconsciously behave in ways that will allow us to 'play out'...our conflicted feelings about the painful experiences and emotions we repress."(Tyson 15). With every color she admires or notices, the same agonizing experience causes her inner psyche to prevent her from acknowledging any color in her life. “There was something wrong with that.” Sethe tells herself, it most certainly is because it explains many of the conflicts within her existence that demonstrates her desire to forget about her dark past and be able to move forward.

Another thing to note is that Baby Suggs, Sethe’s mother, had this fascination of color Sethe was completely devoid of. Sigmund Freud also mentioned another defense mechanism that can take place in one's ego is denial. This is similar to repression where it prevents us from having painful experiences come to fruition, but instead she deliberately denies that there was a reason to acknowledge the color in her world. One could maybe infer that it is not just this experience alone that she is trying to avoid, but it is also the fact that she refuses to accept this feeling as a reality, binding her eternally.

Blog Entry #1_Karen

I chose to read Beloved by Toni Morrison through a feminist lens because I believe that females have had a huge impact in our society. In the past, females did not have any rights. In past assignments, I have read books and wondered why women have always been treated significantly different than men. Although people may see females as weak and worthless. I believe that females are brave and courageous. I chose to read this book through a feminist lens because I wonder what it was like to be living in the 1980’s, right after the Civil War. I want to see how slaves, especially this African-American woman, were treated during those harsh times through their perspective. This particular lens interests me more than the others because I am a female and I believe every woman has something in common.

I had considered reading this book through a psychoanalytic lens because I wanted to push myself to analyze character’s inner thoughts. But I felt that reading it through a feminist lens would be more interesting since I can relate to it more. I am hoping to understand the many other perspectives people have about this book. I wonder how people interpret the book through the other critical lenses.

Blog Entry #1_abby

Beloved is a story that talks about the life and experience of a girl who tries to escape from slavery. African Americans in the past were considered property therefore, did not have any rights. I decided to choose the Marxist lens because I love history, African Americans suffered a lot and to be able to go back and read through an individual’s personal experience and life is very interesting to me. Slavery is a very complex topic and in APUSH I learned many concepts and many events that occurred in the late 1800’s regarding African Americans. Personally it is very touching to me when I read about slavery and the cruel experiences that they had to go through. Some of the questions I will be answering will be about overcoming social obstacles, social conflicts, and class relations. Another critical lens that I had in mind is the feminist lens because women were treated very differently than men, women had more expectations than men as they had to take care of children and housewife work. something that I am expecting to get out of this project is a deeper understanding about the social aspects during the this time period.

Why I Chose This Lense

3/17/15

The critical lens I decided to use throughout this project is the psychoanalytical lens. This particular lense is in line with my own lens as well as what I am choosing to study in college, psychology. I find interest in the motivations behind others actions as well as what is going on inside their inner psyche. Previously, in my sophomore year, I uncovered the inner thoughts and motives of Lady Macbeth in my analytical essay. Personally, I have a lot of connection to psychoanalytical analysis because in a lot of my interactions with people, I focus very heavily on what emotions people project to me as well as the content of which they talk about. The other lens that closely followed this one was the feminist lens because I also have a fascination for relationships and gender roles and how such can be improved from knowledge stemming from these writer’s point of view. I also am a firm believer in gender equality and finding ways to communicate these complex ideas to men who don’t necessarily understand that certain concepts are outdated, as well as condescending to a gender that have faced systemic oppression. However, I would prefer to strengthen my ability to read between the lines of these characters within the novel of “Beloved” by Toni Morrison because I find the actual inner workings of every human being’s mind much more intriguing and to be an essential skill that every human being should have.