#4_Slaves as Objects

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Critical Lens: Feminist Lens

“The next evening he did it again and then again. He was accustomed to sex with Sethe just about every day, and to avoid the confusion Beloved's shining caused him he still made it his business to take her back upstairs in the morning, or lie down with her after supper. But he found a way and a reason to spend the longest part of the night in the rocker. He told himself it must be his back-- something supportive it needed for a weakness left over from sleeping in a box in Georgia” (135).

During the 1800’s, slave auctions occurred where men were bought for labor and women were bought for sex. Back then women would be taken advantage of and they didn’t really have a choice, but to be sold to American men. However, now a days, women sell themselves and just give away their bodies to men that are willing to pay for it. Furthermore, during this time in the book, women were seen as sex objects. Over the years, women still get raped, but not nearly as much as slaves did.

In this passage, Paul D mentions that he and Sethe have sex with each other constantly and that he was “accustomed” to it. Since Sethe was an African American, she would be seen as property to a man instead of a human being. “He made it his business” to have sexual encounters with Sethe “just about every day”. They would do it “in the morning” and “after supper”. Sethe was like a sex toy for him because he would have her there whenever he wanted to do it with her. When Sethe does it with Paul D, it is as if she is doing it for fun rather than doing it because she loves him.

Besides just being his sex object, Paul D also had sex with Sethe daily in order to take his mind off of Beloved. He did it to “avoid the confusion Beloved’s shining caused him”. Paul D does not enjoy Beloved’s presence in 124. Being with Sethe makes him feel good because the attention is on him and not on Beloved. Paul D uses Sethe only to have a good time.

Moreover, we can compare Beloved to Fifty Shades of Grey because Paul D is like Christian Grey and Sethe is like Anastasia Steele. In Fifty Shades of Grey, Christian only wants sex with Anastasia, but he does not want her to develop any feelings for him and vise versa. Paul D’s sexual proclivities are the same as Christian Grey’s. Many men don’t treat women the way they should be treated, yet women also don’t put a boundary to how far men can take things. Paul D exploits Sethe in a way that does not benefit anyone.