Close Reading Blog Entry 1

“All by yourself too.” He was proud of her and annoyed by her. Proud she had done it; annoyed that she has not needed Halle or him in that doing.' (9).

“And so they were: Paul D Garner, Paul F Garner, Paul A Garner, Halle Suggs and Sixo the wild men. All in their twenties, minus women, fucking cows, dreaming of rape, thrashing on pallets, rubbing their thighs and waiting for the new girl--the one who took Baby Suggs' place after Halle bought her with five years of Sundays... She waited a year. And the Sweet Home men abused cows while they waited with her." (13).

Paul D & Sethe

Reading a text through the Feminism/Gender lens asks the reader to look specifically at the portrayal of BOTH genders. In addition, especially for older literature pieces, you want to pay close attention to how the both male and female characters are portrayed.

In the novel "Beloved" and in the time of slavery there was an even amount of power shared between men and women. In "Beloved" men have more rights, and were able to share their thoughts about sex to women. One could argue that males hold more power in the text as seen through Paul D’s influence on the community. Before his arrival Sethe and Denver were outcast from their community, they were taken to a carnival they are offered smiles and nods of acceptance. Paul D clearly shows that power belongs to men because of the impact they have in order to change someone's actions. Women also have power because when Sethe ran away from Sweet Home, had Denver with the help of Amy and didn’t need a help of a man to have her baby. This shows that women are have power because when Sethe was having her baby she didn’t have her husband come along with her and have a family but ran away knowing that she was alone and didn’t need any help from a man. Women are not stated for becoming independent therefore it was a big impact for a man seeing a women running away to become independent and free from the life of a slave.

Males are defined as sexual craving characters who spend their time “fucking cows”, “dreaming of rape”, and desiring women. This also shows how male and female roles differ given  that males in this scene are addressed as men whereas Sethe was described as a as girl. The usages of the characters shows how woman didn’t have as much power as men because it was during the endings of slavery and men wanted to be more in charge of how to run a women sexually. As for men who were more into controlling women even thinking about how to rape, fuck, and all that caused women to feel worthless or not wanted. Men made themselves feel more powerful than women because they knew that if women want to leave or do anything independently they wouldn’t try it because they are too scared that someone like the white men would get them and relive the life as a slave, causing them trauma, memories, and more damage to their thoughts.

Males might think of women as girls because they are finding another girl to use such as a toy, who are used by men going from one guy to another. The author describes women as girls when they walk into a room full of sexual men. She pictures that women are presented as innocents as men are presented to be aggressive in the novel.

Motherhood or Slavery?

The article I read was “Slavery and Motherhood in Toni Morrison's Beloved” by Terry Paul Caesar. The main argument in the article was that being a mother is like slavery because you belong to your children. I somewhat agree with this point because mothers cater to their children and put them before everyone else. Which was what the slave owners wanted from their slaves. Mothers are also the most loyal person to their kids, as well as slaves to their owners. Slaves and their owners don't have a positive relationship similar to Sethe and her offsprings.

The author of the article brings up the point that the book was based more on motherhood than slavery. I agree with this because even though Beloved has a great amount of references to slavery it was more focused on the relationship between Sethe and her children including Beloved. Sethe and Beloved were never able to have an actual mother daughter connection. The school teacher came with other men to try and take Sethe and her kids “Inside, two boys bled in the sawdust and dirt at the feet of a nigger women holding a blood-soaked child to her chest with one hand and an infant by the heels in the other”(Morrison 175). The action Sethe took will haunt her forever and also affect her children that survived. Sethe's love for her children made her make impulsive decisions. Although Beloved dies Sethe lost her self respect and worth, the townspeople viewed her differently after that as well. Sethe ruins Denver's life in addition because she is not allowed to go to school or go outside her house due to that too.  When Denver find out that Sethe killed Beloved as infant she develops fear for her mother. Denver is scared that Sethe will get in that mindset and kill her too. Sethe committed a tragedy like many slaves owners do. The cards flipped now Sethe seems like the slave owner and her children are the slaves.

Another point the author discusses in the article is that Sethe did not have “enough milk for her children” in reality meaning love. The reason why is because she is so scar with the trauma she has from being a past slave. Sethe's version of love for her children is killing them to help them not live the painful experience of being a slave. Even though most people argue that Sethe's was wrong for doing this it could be justified. Later Paul D asks Sethe to have a child together but Sethe quickly declines the offer because she cannot go through the process of having kids because it's like being in slavery. Sethe did not only suffered for being a slave but also a mother.

Critical Lens Experts Blog Entry

Text: Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural in Beloved

Critical Lens: Feminism Lens

Beloved

Slavery was known as a historical period filled with horror and pain for thousands of slaves around the world. Specifically looking at the United States, there were thousands of slaves that endured poor working and living conditions on a daily basis. Majority of slaves that were forcefully shipped to the United States, they didn't do it out of seeking a better life for fambam, they did it because they had no choice. the US made them slaves no matter what their choice was. It wasn't to help their family.Slaves endured lots of trauma either being mental, physical, or emotional and often led them to remain silent in order to forget the trauma they faced when working in the plantations. To understand slavery in a deeper level, each country had their own policies regarding  slavery. For instance, in the United States, each state enforced different policies regarding to slavery such as the amount of slaves each person should have, their age requirements, and plantation size limits for each slave owner. If most slave owners disobeyed state policies, they wouldn’t have their property taken away however each will have less slaves working in their plantations.

Ending Slavery

When reading Pamela E. Barnett’s article, Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural in Beloved, she explains controversial issues involving the divisions towards race, gender, and the social class during the mid 1800s early 1900s. Taking a closer glimpse Pamela E. Barnett, she is an English professor at Emory University and has knowledge of various books and the different perspectives that are shown in those books. Knowing that Barnett is an English professor, she manages to acknowledge various perspectives of novels like Beloved which helps students and readers fully understand a book. Racial, gender and social divisions that happened in the novel were the whites had more power over the African Americans during slavery. The African Americans would be very cautious around the whites, but would fight back in any possible way.

Recalling the article, Barnett also explains how a person’s conflicts between a person, society, and past events can affect you when someone comes into your life and does not only cause a negative change but also helps reveal the truth of what a person is capable of doing through their actions. Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, there are several conflicts shown with other characters such as Beloved, Sethe, Paul D, and American society. For example, looking at Beloved’s character, she was illustrated as a haunted baby ghost who manages to make other characters remember their past causing them to think of events they wish had never occurred like Sethe killed Beloved or Paul D to remember his past and what he did. Beloved disappears but no one knew where she was was later found at a farm. Beloved manages to come back in the novel by walking out of the water, a symbol that she was reborn. She comes back to haunt everyone because of her mother's actions towards her, killing her at an young age due to protection and purity.

Critical Lens Experts Blog Entry

Toni Morrison exquisitely writes Beloved in a way that presents a unique way of portraying motherhood. Many have tried to understand her work and have written academic articles analyzing the different themes they encounter through certain lenses. One article titled “Slavery and Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’” crafted by Terry Paul Caesar goes into depth about this connection in the book. The article goes into detail about the possible theme of Beloved where motherhood and slavery are interchangeable. This article similarly relates to another theme of how the idea of motherhood is an unbreakable bond that takes precedence over everything else.  

Caesar sheds light on how being a mother and the categorizations of slavery intertwine. Many times throughout the book Sethe calls her daughters “mine” making them her own possession. In times of slavery, slaves were the possession of their white master. Commonly, mothers see a piece of themselves in their daughters or sons. An incident in the book when Schoolteacher had showed up to reclaim Sethe and force her back into slavery provoked Sethe to commit infanticide to her daughter. Caesar mentions that when experiencing motherhood and slavery, individuals learn, “what it means to have a self and to give that self away.” She killed a miniature piece of herself to prevent her daughter from the horrors of slavery. She had no option, but to kill her own daughter, or in other words give a part of her away by force, due to Schoolteacher’s return. As a slave, one must give themselves away as a person by force as well. Slaves are not people, rather property. In both instances, motherhood and slavery, one must rid a portion or all of their identity. Here the idea that motherhood and slavery are complementary is proven through different examples throughout the book.

A theme I uncovered through my disciplined analysis of feminism while reading Beloved is how there is a strong bond between a mother and her child and how that is of more importance than other issues or relationships. An event that reflects this theme in the book is when Sethe starts showing up late and then gets fired from her job. She began to show up late because she wanted to spend quality time with Beloved after she realized it was her daughter who had risen from the dead. She prioritizes her relationship with her daughter over a rare job experience she had been offered as a former slave. Sethe values her time spent with Beloved more than an income to support her family. Another example of this theme in the text is how Sethe verbally defends her other daughter Denver to Paul D. As analyzed in the close reading blog previously posted, she puts her relationship with Paul D in jeopardy to defend Denver’s reputation. Her love is labeled as “too thick” for her children.

The theme I came to a conclusion with and the article’s theme are similar, yet they both yield some differences. Some similarities of the two themes is that each examines an aspect of motherhood. They each represent the idea that motherhood is powerful in their own ways. Each theme identifies that there are also negative qualities to motherhood as well. Also, both of our themes are viewed through the feminist lens. The differences between these themes is that one compares an infamous time period in US history to the act of being a mother. Motherhood typically has a positive connotation, but instead, Caesar compares it to the horrific time period of slavery in the US. The theme I identified in the text portrays motherhood in a more positive aspect than the theme in the article Caesar wrote. I viewed the theme through different stories in the book on how motherhood is an unbreakable bond.

Critical Lens Experts Blog Entry

Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved is a book that has interesting issues of race, class, gender, families, traumas and politics  of the United States of the 1800’s. However, one of the focusing his novel has is on how women are treated at this time especially at during the 1800’s when society believed that men should have power of everything and woman were just submissive. Especially The white men were men that treated all women worse compared to the black men that also mistreated women but not as bad as the white men many may know that in 1800’s all woman did not have as much power as men, however Morrison’s message is about slave female, how they processed their lives after slavery ended and how both women and men have trouble overcoming.

Pamela E. Barnett claims in the novel Sethe's past was really abusive mentally and physically based on how Morrison showed in the novel. Pamela E. Barnett stated, “To confront a past they cannot forget”.Pamela E. Barnett statement is presented in the novel Beloved when Sethe cannot forget about her past of slavery that most of the time was getting rape and not being able to do anything about it, now that she have a family she was really focused on them, and save them from having a life as a slavery the way she did. These are several reason what Sethe did things that a mother would never do like killing there own kids. Based on the novel Morrison states, “More pulsating than the baby blood soaked her fingers like oil” (page6). When it says “baby blood soaked her fingers like oil” it means that Sethe had blood of a baby and that baby was her own child, Beloved. The reason she did this was because she did not want her daughter to grow up and suffer like her mother Sethe is a character that is scared from the inside of what all men have done to her just to show that they are superior and have the right to what they want to do with any women”. Pamela E. Barnett would agree with my statement because as she stated ,“She reenacts sexual violation and thus figures the persistence nightmares common to  survivors to trauma”. As you can see in overall Pamela E. Barnett’s article is to prove that Sethe suffered a lot in her past time, as did all women because of the men that just wanting to show how much they can control women and the superior.

Sethe’s life were really difficult because her past kept going everything that she was doing was to protect her family and to be a respected person.She might never be respected especially because she is african american women who killed her child for the sake of trauma slavery caused her and reflecte. The only thing that an african american family had in the 1800’s was love for each other, no one could take that away and feeling safe.

  

Close Reading Blog Entry

‘"They used cowhide on you?’ ‘And they took my milk.’ ‘They beat you and you was pregnant?" ‘And they took my milk!"’ (page 20)

Beloved by Toni Morrison have a lot of messages to the world but while focusing on Feminist/Gender lens, some of the important messages that the readers need it to figure out how were women or man portrayed like who had the most power in the book Beloved, the man or woman. Morrison uses imagery and  to show that woman had no power or rights, especially those woman in slavery that were treated really bad.

Sethe during her young time when she was a slave it was really hard for her she was treated really bad like she did not have power  of her self. Sethe is treated like an animal through the imagery that she describe when she says, “They took my milk” (pg.20). When Sethe was pregnant she had milk in her breasts so what men did was they went up to her and take her milk that was saving for the baby. The people that did this to Sethe were owners of the Seth that took her milk this meant Sethe got rape her. she is treated like an animal because usually human when they get milk they get it from a cow but this time this sick white men are taking milk from a woman.This represents how bad woman were treated. The reason this men were doing this and this was not only Sethe it was happening to all women especially at that time men wanted to be treated with power and respect and they got that by hurting woman. As you can see most of  men really did not care about women feeling, they just wanted to show that they are the one with power and woman to feel that they are no one.

In addition Sethe did not just got her milk away but she also got physical abuse based rape. Based through diction, when Sethe was having a conversation with Paul D, Paul ask, ‘“They used cowhide on you”’(pg.20). If you read the full quote Sethe never says cowhide but she admits that she was being abused by a cowhide  when Sethe says, “‘ And they took my milk”’ (pg.20) . When she says this she's admitting it. A cowhide is a whip that is used for animals but in the 1800’s it was used for slaves. As this white man used this special whip to demand they also used it on pregnant woman. Sethe was pregnant when she was getting abused by a cow wiped. This show how men minds work they just technically cared for them self because as they were hitting Sethe they were probably hurting the baby. Now imagine if man did this to all woman they probably kill so baby’s just so that they can show they are the one that have the power and that women are weak.

Men really never care about what a woman was feeling at that time of the story of Beloved was they just wanted to always put woman down not matter on what based on imagery and diction that Morrison used  so that they could feel be scared at man and get respect from them woman. Through this quote it it feels how Sethe really is when she think of this still hurts but at the same time like it really did not matter. Technically this is how women were feeling that they really did not care about them self because they were not safe around man. Even though his feminist/gender lens is about both genders this book can be focused on how female are treated by man with no dignity.

Why I chose this Lens

While I read the book “Beloved” by Toni Morrison I will  be focusing on critical lenses. The critical lenses that I will be focusing is feminist/gender lens. Even though this lens say feminist it does not mean that the main focus of this lens is how women are portrayed  in society but it can be though, this  main focus of this lens is on how men and women  are portrayed in society both of the genders. The reason I choose this lens for this book Beloved is because I want to focus on how women and men were acting with them self and other people in the 1800’s. What I only know about this book is that the setting is taken place after the civil war happen so there was a lot of racism and social classes. I believed that all humans in this world should be treating each other with equality and that there should not be differences just because that person is from a different color or gender. I am hoping to understand the author on how both of genders were  portrayed  at that time so that I can make a connection between nowadays and the times of the 1800’s.