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.