#3_ More of a Mother Rather than a Sister

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Critical Lens: Feminist Lens

Prior to reading Beloved, I knew the history about how African Americans were treated and the amount of labor they had to do. The way slaves were treated made me feel pity towards them. However, I never thought that African American women were treated ten times worse than African American men. The experiences that Sethe, an African American women, had faced in the 1800’s are a way of proving that slaves lived very difficult lives. Beloved has taught me that Sethe would get raped repeatedly and there was nothing she could do about it. We can tell that women were seen as objects rather than human beings. From previous knowledge, I have been convinced that women have always been treated differently than men.

Furthermore, when reading this book through the feminist lens, I am reminded of how many people have thought for the longest time that women are meant to be stay-at-home women. In this book, we can see that Denver acts like a sister/nurse to Beloved when she “tended her, watched her sound sleep, listened to her labored breathing and out of love and a breakneck possessiveness that charged her” (64). Denver wants to make sure that Beloved is alive and she does not want anything to happen to Beloved. Similarly, when Sethe tries to help Denver take care of Beloved, Denver says “Leave us alone, Ma’am. I’m taking care of her” (65). Denver wants to be the only one to care for Beloved because she does not allow anyone else to care for Beloved, not even her own mother.

We can also make a connection to how Denver feels with Beloved with the way Beloved has an obsessive and possessive act towards Sethe. After Beloved felt better from her fever, “Beloved could not take her eyes off Sethe”(68). Beloved would be in the kitchen in the mornings watching Sethe cook before going to work. When Sethe came home from work, Beloved would be there waiting for her or she would meet Sethe halfway to walk her to 124. “Sethe was licked, tasted, eaten by Beloved’s eyes”(68). We can conclude that Beloved admires Sethe so much that she doesn’t want to take her eye off her.