Morrison's Secret Mother-Daughter Messages: the "Aje"

Toni Morrison, the author of Beloved, doesn't feel like the majority of the criticism and analysis on her literature truly speaks to her original intentions and messages she was trying to get across. She would prefer getting criticism based on Morrison's own "art, culture, language, worldview, and milieu". The critical essay "The Mother-Daughter Aje Relationship in Toni Morrison's Beloved", uses the "Africana" perspective to interpret the relationships built throughout Beloved, specifically between Sethe and other female characters Denver and Beloved.

The "Aje" is described as a spiritual type of woman raised within Africana culture. They can be regarded as "owners and controllers of everything on Earth". They are also overseen as controlling creation, destruction, divination, healing, and the power of word. This type of powerful woman are mostly inherited and are genetically passed from mother to daughter. These types of women are known for leading their families and communities. Although the Aje have spouses or partners to keep "complementary balance", women tend to be the dominant characters due to the absence of a prominent male figure.

The "Aje" Africana people also have a reputation for needing a "safe or sacret space" to be comfortable with their spiritual selfs. Similarly, this seems to be a constant theme throughout Beloved. When Sethe comes to 124, she automatically emphasizes the comfort and love that Baby Suggs gave to her, possibly because Suggs recognizes the "Aje" that needed healing in Sethe. Baby Suggs also has a "safe" space, which also happens to be the place where she preaches for groups of people looking for a spiritual experience. She has her "safe space" in what is known as The Clearing, which is a beautiful spot in nature where people commonly feel at peace. All of these areas that create "comfortable" spaces for characters throughout Beloved create another tie to compare the "Aje" spirituality with the overall characterization of Sethe, Denver, Paul D, and Beloved.

Responding and Reflecting #2

Reading Beloved has been different from any other books I have read using the New Historical lens. It give me different perspectives on slavery, it made me really think about what life was like before and after slavery. It goes into a personal perspective on what Sehte went through while she was in slavery. It makes you think about what it was really like back in that time. Before reading Beloved I had never really thought about what it was like being a slave, when ever we talked about slavery we told about things that happened but, it never made me really think about what happened to former slaves after slavery was abolished. In Beloved it shows how much slaves were affected by slavery. It also made me think about how bad some slaves were treated. Sethe had some bad things happen to her, but it made me think that some slaves probably were treated worse than Sehte or the other slaves at Sweet Home. Other slaves probably had worse experiences that left them scarred for life and after they were freed left them always thinking about the past and unable to live their life normally because of their past experiences. It kind of makes me think about war veterans with PTSD, like some former slaves are never able to recover from being a slave, they can’t recover from what happened to them. Reading Beloved also made me think if other slaves had to kill one or more of their children to keep them for being captured or because they did not want to be slaves. Sethe did it so she would not be captured and not life her life being a slave, it somewhat makes sense but it is a pretty drastic measure to make sure that your children don't become slaves.

Gated Gender

"The Bonds of Love and Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison's Beloved" analyzes how the domination and objectification of slavery has impacted motherhood and the relationships between the main characters. People define themselves by existing and relating to others: mutual recognition. Sethe, Denver, and Beloved seek to connect with each other, but the shells they have to prevent them from society also obstruct connections. Those boundaries are threatened to be brought down along with self in the all-consuming need for connection caused by a lack of validation in childhood. Paul D is the outsider who has the power to disrupt the dangerous dynamic between the women in that household. Self-love is what frees Denver from needing her mother or sister. Morrison doesn't confine a nurturing nature to women; Paul D strengthens Sethe with his love and care.

The author, Barbara Shapiro, mentions how, because Paul D is ultimately the most successful nurturer out of all the characters, gender-typical traits are not consigned to their typical gender by Morrison. I believe this is also true for the character Baby Suggs. She did nurture people by preaching self-worth, but her character seemed to be defined by the fact that she was a leader. She spiritually directed people and was even martyred in a way that is almost an allusion to Jesus Christ. In fact, one could argue that Morrison is intentionally recreating Jesus Christ in the body of an old, female, African American woman. With this statement, Morrison is coming down as believing the gender of Christ--of God--as irrelevant, the potential for what they were and are open for any gender. That is a very progressive and controversial stance to take.

Critical Lens Experts #2

One of the passages called Revisions, rememories, and exorcisms talks about how slavery was and is a controversial topic to write about  and how Beloved relates to that. The author says “On a personal level, Morrison explores the power and limitations of the story-making process as an individual experience is edited and codified into narrative. In Beloved, characters define themselves by relating and explaining their experiences.” This is true about the characters, they never just sit down and tell the reader what their personalities are like, they are shaped through their past experiences. You can see this a lot in Paul D. His experiences being a slave have caused him to never show his true emotions. In Beloved it say “...in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where his red heart used to be.” Paul D’s past experiences has caused him to keep him emotions locked away and you can see some of those emotions let out when he meets Sehte again. The author also says “The power of storytelling also has it’s limits, for life-supporting fictions can easily be destroyed by facts which shatter the protective formulations.” It then goes on to mention how historical events and places represent the past and the future. For Baby Suggs it is the Ohio river that divides her experiences as a slave and as a free person. And for Stamp Paid it is the Civil War “the Civil War promised to end the threats associated with slavery...” Morrison uses historical events to help deepen the understanding of the characters. In the second part of the paper the author says “What Toni Morrison does in Beloved is to escape from limitations of the traditional slave narrative by using modernist techniques…” Morrison uses a different style of writing to convey the story of Sethe and slavery. She does not use a generic style of writing, using flashbacks often helps you understand what the characters went through at Sweet Home and it helps you understand what slavery was like during and after slavery was abolished. It makes you feel as if you were there and went through the same experiences as Sethe and the other characters.

Close Reading #2

“I was about to turn around and keep on my way to where the muslin was, when I heard him say, “No, no. That’s not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right. And dont forget to line them up.”(228)

This is one passage from page 228. In this passage Sethe is talking about what schoolteacher was like, and how he treated the slaves at Sweet Home like animals. You can see this the most when he says to put her “animal characteristics” on the right side of her. This happened a lot back then when there were slaves, they were not treated like human beings, instead they were treated like animals. It is hard to believe now that there were actually people like this back then, it is hard to imagine treating someone like they are animals and not feeling some sort of sympathy for them. This is what schoolteacher and his nephews treated the slaves at Sweet Home, he thought of them as animals that had no right to be in his presence. You can see this in Beloved when the schoolteacher watches as his nephews “steal Sethes milk.” He stands there and watches as if what they are doing is ok because she is not a human being. Treating slaves poorly is what happened a lot back when slavery was still allowed. Slaves were constantly being treated as lower people or sometimes not even as people at all. An example of this in Beloved is when Sethe is talking to Mrs. Garner about how she wants to get married to Halle and Sethe ask if there could be a wedding and Mrs. Garner just laughs at her. Mrs. Garner did not think Sehte deserved a wedding because she was a slave, she did not see Sethe as equal or near equal to herself. This is another example of slaves being treated as animals, they were not able to do anything, they were basically on leashes and had to do what they were told. Schoolteacher was the biggest violator of the slaves at Sweet Home. He treated the slaves like farm animals, her told them what to do and where to go and if they did not do that he would punish them, whether that was getting whipped like Sethe or getting a bit put in their mouth like Paul D.

Deaf Until Acceptance: Close Reading

"Even when she did muster the courage to ask Nelson Lord's question, she could not hear the courage to ask Nelson Lord's question, she could not hear Sethe's answer, nor Baby Suggs' words, nor anything at all thereafter. Fro two years she walked in silence too solid for penetration but which gave her eyes a power even she found hard to believe...For two years she head nothing at all and then she heard close thunder crawling up the stairs...The return of Denver's hearing, cut off by an answer she could not bear to hear, cut on by the sound of her dead sister trying to climb the stairs, signaled another shift in the fortunes of the people of 124. From then on the presence was full of spite." (122)


Before she lost her hearing, a fellow pupil in her class named Nelson Lord asks her "the question about her mother that put chalk...out of reach forever" (121). Toni Morrison does not choose to include the actual question Nelson Lord asks Denver - but I can infer that he asked her something about her family's past (and specifically where her mother came from), a topic that she doesn't feel comfortable talking about. Denver perceives the question to be racially motivated and mocking. She doesn't have any friends or companions at school after she is insulted by this remark from one of her peers - and the "deafness" follows. However, she explains that she "should have laughed when he said it", acknowledging Nelson's innocent and curious intentions. Denver physical change reveals the influence her family's past has had on her inner insecurities and identity. She doesn't want to accept the comments that her classmates made, and her ears symbolically "blocks out the words" as a way of protecting herself from truths she doesn't want to hear.

The noises of the ghost are the first things Denver hears after two years of silence. Once Denver finally accepts her mother's past, her body allows her to hear the noises the baby ghost is making. This "physical" alteration from a past event shows the overall theme in Beloved that an individual's past still has the power to infiltrate and affect the present, especially in such an extreme and violent past like Sethe's. Even though Denver was not ever brought into the environment of slavery, affects of that time are everywhere. She sees it socially when she goes to school. She sees it within her family because of the obvious impacts they are still having on Sethe and even Paul D.

Earlier in the novel, when the baby ghosts' presence is noticeable, Denver is always either ignorant or annoyed by the spirit. Symbolically, this is Denver's way of ignoring her family's reality. When Denver is finally ready to accept these facts, she is not bothered by the spirit's haunting. It can even be argued that Denver finds companionship with the baby ghost, which similarly affects the "sister"- like relationship Denver has with Beloved.

Female Friendships

Honestly, that family suffers from a dearth of outside friends and a preoccupation with the past. All of the drama and focus is facing inwards, in the interpersonal relationships and the past of all the members of Sethe's unconventional family. But this is what I believe causes the negative cycle between Sethe and Beloved and the frustration that Denver feels.

It is obvious that Denver suffers from lack of companionship by the amount of time and energy she sinks into a relationship with Beloved before she finally realizes no action she does will have an effect. Denver is looking for a close female friendship or a surrogate sibling bond with which to release all the thoughts and issues she had and is having in her life, constantly describing people and things to her and feeling hopelessly addicted to gaining her attention even when she feels that Beloved is taking over her life. If she had the opportunity to have a mutual friendship, she wouldn't be stuck in this unhealthy power imbalance by her need for affection.

Denver deserves a better companion, someone who actually cares about her and feels a responsibility to reciprocate attention. But because her family is stuck in the past, only capable of contemplating what had been done and the people who had come from that action--a ghost sister who had been killed, a mother who had been the killer, a man with a tin box for a heart, the haunting spirit of slavery contaminating everything--she doesn't have any other recourse.

Critical Lens Experts

The two essays that look at Beloved through the New Historical Lens both give different perspectives on what Toni Morrison was thinking when she was writing Beloved. In one of the essays the writer says Toni Morrison borrows from Frederick Douglass’s 1845 narrative. When Frederick Douglass wrote his novel it was during a time when slavery was still going on and he had to be careful about what he wrote in the novel because he did not want to offended the white readers of his novel because of the time period it was written. This writer also talks about how Douglass is able to use facts to inform readers rather than offend them, and how Morrison was able to more freely write about slavery without causing too many problems. The author also says Morrison tells a more emotionally telling story than Douglass does. They also say “Morrison’s treatment of song in Beloved provides the reader with a testimony that is significantly different from the testimonies set forth from slave narratives.” It is saying that what Morrison wrote is different from what other stories that have been told by previous slaves. The thing that stuck out to me in this paper the most was when it talks about how Morrison explores the relationship between song and humanity using her description of Beloved’s unique origin. I had never realized that Sehte is basically banished from society for murdering her one of her children and it is the reason why no one talks to Denver or Sethe. It went into a deeper reasoning of why no one talks to Denver or Sethe. Her neighbors think of her as inhumane because she murdered one of her children. It also says “If Sethe had acted less barbarically, her personhood would have been recognized by the spectators and “the singing would have begun at once.” This is saying the root of Sethe's problems are because she murdered her child, had she not done that she would have been better off. This part of the paper made the most sense to me, it made me think something different from then what I was thinking before.

Motherhood Might Matter

Terry Paul Caesar posits many ideas regarding what Beloved tells about motherhood in the essay "Slavery and Motherhood in Tony Morrison's Beloved." Motherhood, she says, is when a mother owns a daughter and the daughter owns the mother. This situation is corrupted, however, by slavery because it conditions the participants to despise the fealty owed to the other party. She also comments on how Sethe and Beloved specifically interact: Sethe feels guilt about the perceived lack of love she had for her children, and Beloved feels spiteful for not having that love, so they go about in a self-contained cycle of reminding each other in their pain until they are essentially the same broken person.

Though she thoroughly explored the mother-daughter relationship between Sethe and Beloved, Caesar does not much address Denver's spurred claim to Sethe. Though she does say that Beloved's need for Sethe is all-consuming and "tyrannical," she doesn't account for Denver's need which isn't stimulation from her mother but stimulation from her "sister." The relationship between daughter and mother, while always having the potential to be a strongly justified slavery to one another, is not so in many cases. As Denver can find entertainment in sources other than her mother, I don't have a very close relationship with any of my family and instead rely on friends to connect with others or feel contractual responsibilities. By that I mean that the same dual-ownership situation described by Caesar is what I encounter in friendship, since I feel that both parties in a friendship have a responsibility to help one another. Overall, though I found this essay a very interesting and topical analysis of Beloved, I believe the exploration of more situations than just those found in the book or worst-case scenarios could have lead to a more nuanced analysis of motherhood.

Slave Society Struggles (on Sex)

Beloved is set in a tumultuous time, when former slaves are struggling to fit into a free society and their children are just beginning to grow into people of their own. The focus of this book is on the problems that arise from that integration, which carries over into all aspects of the book, including how the main characters deal with sex.

There is tension between two different societies' expectations and roles. On the slave side, sex is expected and not really shamed, and it doesn't have very many limitations (there is no question that Sethe will eventually have sex with one of the slave men and there's no hesitation that they have sex with cows while waiting). The mores present at Sweet Home (no rape, respect the sanctity of marriage) were upheld, and that seemed to be what justified the men as civilized.

But in the society they must fit into after they are free, bestiality is for savages and rape is allowed as long as it's not paraded or is against a "lesser" being (as Schoolteacher's nephews demonstrated on Sethe). In the mainstream society side, sex and virginity is something to be protected and not given freely, and there are lots of rules and regulations you are supposed to observe--but it's okay to ignore them as long as you aren't caught.

The mainstream relationship with sex is one that in many ways seems flipped from what Sethe previously was used to. There are numerous guidelines for how often to have sex and with whom to have it with, and even more caveats on those rules based on one's gender, age, economic status, etc. This is in conflict with the very simple rules that applied when Sethe was a slave, basically only warning against infidelity. The focus of the mainstream social structure to sex seems to be most focused on maintaining one's social status, but the slave rules were created primarily as a way for the slaves to feel and prove themselves civilized. The question of whether the characters are sticking with the old slave way of viewing sexual attraction and the act itself or shifting to the more amoral, "don't-get-caught" attitude comes up whenever they view another person in a sexual light or do the act.

My views on sex are complicated, but I think they align more with the moral nature of the slave rules than the social purpose of the mainstream ones. The issue of sex is a complicated thing for any person to face, since what society dictates one should think about leaves out so many ways of expressing with it. Though, as an asexual, I don't have to worry personally about the social and moral consequences of having sex, it is an interest of mine especially because I know that many women struggle to escape the condemnation that comes if they have "too much" sex and many people of both genders face difficulties expressing themselves because they like kinks. Seeing characters in a book similarly struggle with a strange and imperfect system of regulating sex connects with the knowledge of that struggle I read before this book.

Angelic Heroism vs. Heinous Torture

Responding and Reflecting: Beloved

An unusually extensive flashback occurs during Chapter 8. Denver decides to share the story with Beloved, which she has heard from Sethe’s memory of giving birth to Denver. Sethe had a very special woman, Amy Denver, helping her deliver the baby. Denver loves retelling this story and cherishing the memory of an important “white woman” who brought her into the word. Toni Morrison tries to portray the marvel and rarity of a white woman willing to save a suffering runaway slave’s life. She accentuating this type of situation was seen as an “angelic” miracle, revealing that most slaves doubted any signs of true humanity in white people.

Amy and Sethe cross paths near a river and Amy offers to “rub Sethe’s feet”, which is a biblical allusion to a story in the New Testament. Sethe shows Amy her beaten, bloody back. The sight of a butchered backside would normally turn most people off, but Amy describes the sight as a “chokecherry” tree, which is a symbol of life and beauty. Amy sings Sethe a song that her mother used to sing to her. Amy bets that Sethe will survive the night despite her difficult physical suffering and pain. Together, they find the Ohio River and Sethe goes into labor. They quickly find a boat and Amy delivers Sethe’s baby. Before the two women get too fond of each other, Amy Denver leaves. Sethe decides to name her baby “Denver” in honor of Amy’s volunteered assistance in the desperate woman’s time of need.

I think it’s an interesting point to consider that although these women were racially different, they shared some interesting similar characteristics. Both women were running away from their past. Amy had been an indentured servant and she was traveling to Boston to finally buy herself some velvet. Sethe was running away from Sweet Home in the hopes of finding a better future for herself and her baby. I can’t help but assume that these women felt some connection based on their similar life paths and Amy felt an obligation to help a fellow suffering woman.

Slaves, including Sethe, had no faith that the average person would go out of their way to help a slave. In fact, Amy Denver didn’t show the utmost care and respect that Sethe deserved, especially after what she had experienced at Sweet Home. Sethe recalls that Amy condescendingly spoke to Sethe and even called her a "nigger." However, what Amy did for Sethe is still seen as an absolute miracle for Denver and her mom because it was such an anomaly in their society.

I am always amazed and inspired by genuine acts of extreme kindness that humans can show for one another. Recently, I had the privilege and honor of meeting and speaking to a “Righteous Among the Nations”, a woman who hid twenty Jewish individuals in her house while the Holocaust genocide was unfolding. Her story brought tears to my eyes and hope into my heart. It validated my faith in the fact that all people are good-hearted. Despite corrupt terror and acts of crime against other humans, which are caused by other factors like greed, power, and money, the pure and innate desire to help others is always present.

Responding and Reflecting

Reading Beloved through the New Historical lens has given me a different perspective of slavery during that time period and overall. It really showed me how long the effects of slavery stayed with slaves. In Beloved Sethe and Paul D are both affected by slavery after they have been freed. Paul D specifically is affected the most even though he is free, he flashes back to when he was at Sweet Home and all the bad memories which has affected his ability to have the life he always wanted.. I had never really thought about the impacts on the slaves after they were freed, this goes into the effects on them after they were free. Looking at the text through this lens also showed me that some slaves never truly felt they were free after slavery ended. You can see this in Beloved when Sethe or Paul D flash back to Sweet Home, they can not keep their minds from thinking about it and it still has a big affect on them. They still feel like so much of their life was taken that freedom now, while although good it is not as meaningful as it would have been earlier in their life. Baby Suggs is a good example of this she says “...then he gave he Halle who gave her freedom when when it didn’t mean a thing.”(28) She got her freedom when she was older and not able to enjoy the freedom, which is what some of the slaves felt at the time when they got their freedom as well. Overall reading Beloved through the New Historical lens gave me a different perspective on the lives of slaves while they were slaves and when they were free. The effect on slavery in the long run was a lot more than I ever thought of, when you think about slavery you never really consider the effects after the slaves were freed, you only think about the effects during slavery.

Females and Flowers

"Beloved was shining and Paul D didn't like it. Women did what strawberry plants did before they shot out their thin vines: the quality of the green changed. Then the vine threads came, then the buds. By the time the white petals died and the mint-colored berry poked out, the leaf shine was gilded tight and waxy. That's how Beloved looked--gilded and shining. Paul D took to having Sethe on walking, so that later, when he went down the white stairs where she made bread under Beloved's gaze, his head was clear." (76)

This paragraph starts the seventh chapter by comparing women to flowers. Cliche. But, as shown in my previous post, Morrison enjoys taking advantage of cliche's to shock the reader out of their assumptions. Typically, when women are compared to flowers, it is to emphasize their delicacy, or or propose that their beauty blooms in adulthood (or snidely claim it fades just as fast). Morrison, however, kills the flower in favor of the fruit. She skips any description of a flower's beauty, going straight from bud to "the time the white petals died." Instead, she focuses on the shine of the leaves when the plant is laden with fruit. Though poems wax eloquent about women's beauty, beauty by itself is no use. Paul D focuses on the appearance of the leaves not because leaves are inherently beautiful like a flower, but because they gain beauty because of what they represent: the fruit hiding hiding behind the foliage--the sexual maturity contained within Beloved's body. When Morrison mocks the cliche of women as flowers with her own interpretation, she says that though a women may be apotheosized as a an object of great beauty, those who worship them as such only do so in an attempt to separate themselves from the base urges that are what actually rule their wonder.

Obliquely, this passage also comments on the conception of women and their role in society. Nobody plants strawberries for their flowers; they are delicate and beautiful, but all they matter for the gardener is that they indicate the coming of juicy, delicious fruit that you can actually eat. By comparing women to strawberry plants, Morrison could be indicating that she believes people raise girls into women for the concrete goal of having someone who can have sex and conceive.

Later in the passage, Paul D's movement through the house is a symbol. In this line, he is descending, commonly and allusion to Hell or a hero's difficult trials. Yet Morrison makes sure to include the descriptor "white" when referencing the stairs he walks down, invoking images of purity or innocence which are not usually associated with a dark challenge the hero must face and conquer. His trial is, atypically, travelling into Beloved's pure domain and not tainting it with impure actions. In order to do so, he requires a "clear" mind, purified of unclean urges by sating them with sex with Sethe.

Inappropriate sexual desire is something that plagues Paul D and must be continually overcome because he never actually defeats it: he never shows that he has the straight will to resist the temptation of Beloved, but instead staves off the need to flat out face the issue by reducing his sexual appetite copulating with Sethe. This is a setup for the future scene where he is seduced by Beloved and can't find the willpower to resist.

Integral to this problem facing Paul D is how he views sexual desires. He doesn't hold the mindset that a person is entirely responsible for controlling how they express their urges or he would be able to resist completely the first time he was tempted by Beloved. Instead, he turns to swapping out the object of his sexual desire with someone more appropriate so he doesn't have to shut down the feelings. This belief can be argued to create a more rape-friendly society or mindset because it creates arguments like "she shouldn't have been wearing such revealing clothing if she didn't want to risk anything," where the onus is on the women to change their appearance instead of the men to control their reaction to sexual desire. Paul D isn't one of those people; by having sex with Sethe so he can be "clear"-minded around Beloved, he is obviously taking actions to control his reaction to sexual desire. But his inability to face desire head-on and deny it action is what allows his illicit liaisons with Beloved and is what is interesting about his relationship to sex.

Critical Lens Close Reading

“Halle she was able to keep the longest. Twenty years. A lifetime. Given to her, no doubt, to make up for hearing that her two girls, neither of whom had their adult teeth, were sold and gone and she had not been able to wave goodbye. To make make up for coupling with a straw boss for four months in exchange for keeping her third child, a boy, with her-only to have him traded for lumber in the spring of the next year and to find herself pregnant by the man who promised not to and did. That child she could not love and the rest she would not. “God take what He would,” she said. And He did, and He did, and He did and then gave her Halle who gave her freedom when it didn’t mean a thing.”(28)

This passage from page 28 talks about Baby Suggs and her 8 children and what happened to them. Looking at this through the new historical lens you really see the slaves were treated back in that time period. This is describing what happened to some of Baby Suggs children and shows what slaves were thought of and how they were treated. Saying that she kept Halle for a lifetime which was only twenty years is not a lifetime compared to today. Baby Suggs having her children taken away from her is something that happened to a lot of African Americans who had children, there children would be taken away from them at young ages and sometimes the parents were never able to see them again. Toni Morrison lived in Ohio, her parents moved there to escape the racism of the south, her family has had to deal with the oppression that lots of African Americans went through. She wrote Beloved in 1987 19 years after the civil rights movement ended. Beloved takes place after the Civil war and was inspired by an African American slave named Sethe who escaped from slavery in 1856 by fleeing to Ohio. In 1856 Ohio was one of around 17 free states in the U.S.A. It was the one Sethe fled to because it is neighboring Kentucky.  But just because she made it to a free state did not mean that she was free, because of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which said that slaves that escaped, if captured had to be returned to their masters even if they were in a free state. It shows how even if slaves thought they escaped and thought they were free, they really were not free. At the end of the passage Baby Suggs says “Halle who had given her freedom when it didn’t mean a thing.” Baby Suggs is saying hear that even though her freedom was bought, she had been through alot and being free now does not get the children she lost back, there is no going back to get her children that were sold. She had been through so much being a slave and for almost her whole life that she could never truly feel she is free.

Critical Lens Expert: The Paradox of Supernatural Powers

Beloved by Toni Morrison
"Hush, Little Baby Ghost: The Post-Colonial Gothic and Haunting History in Toni Morrison's Beloved"

The article “Hush, Little Baby Ghost: The Post-Colonial Gothic and Haunting History in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”, examines gothic and post-colonial themes throughout the novel and how they collectively reveal truths about that time period. The author, Ruth Van Den Akker, believes that post-colonial literature is often gothic. She argues that individuals affected by the colonization were often “haunted by the ghosts of those who were hidden and silenced” in the imperial era.

Sethe had three children, pregnant with the fourth when she ran away from Sweet Home. However, the owner finds Sethe and her children after they have attempted to run away. Sethe attempts to kill all four children in the hopes of sparing them the pain and suffering they would have to deal with if they continued on with their lives. The owner sees Sethe attempting to kill her own children, successfully killing her youngest, and he consequently believes she has gone mad. He lets her go and Sethe is forced to deal with the guilt of killing one of her own children. Her baby ghost returns to haunt House 124.

This series of unfortunate events eloquently supports Akker’s claim. Sethe is forced to come to terms with her “silenced” ghost during the imperial era, which happens to be her own daughter. The baby's ghost continues to haunt and disrupt Sethe's daily life. In some ways, Sethe brought it upon herself to experience the guilt that would come with killing her own daughter. She had the knife in her hands and she is responsible for her daughter’s death. However, Sweet Home’s owner should ultimately has the guilty conscious. Sethe would never had to deal with the pain of killing her youngest daughter if the chain of events leading up to Sethe’s runaway from Sweet Home had never occurred. Sethe is dealt a very hard card to deal with; she must choose whether she would rather have her children suffer from the evils of slavery, or never have to experience life and all the tragedies that come with it.

These issues that Akker has called upon are relevant even in today’s society. Individuals have suffered unthinkable crimes against humanity, like massive genocides, exploitation, imperialism, and discrimination. The victims of crimes like these are forced to confront their past experiences through various methods. Morrison’s use of supernatural power allows for victims of slavery, like Sethe, to confront their past and “legitimize” the crimes that have occurred.

I would like to touch on the fact that this idea of “legitimizing” crimes through supernatural power is somewhat ironic. Many people have disbeliefs about ghosts, spirits, etc. Morrison selectively chooses to use the theme of “supernatural” powers to make Sethe’s experiences more “real”, yet this theme is constantly questioned for it’s credibility and ambiguity. The oppressed continually struggle with their insecurities and “supernatural” powers reinforces the infinite struggle they will be forced to deal with during their lifetime.

Link to Akker's Essay: http://www.diffractions.net/documentos/2_RuthvandenAkker_final.pdf

The Power of an Outsider

This passage from early in the book details the character Paul D, focusing on the way he interacts with women, and it is split into two parts; it starts by describing him and his effect on women and follows by saying what they confide in him about.

"Not even trying, he had become the kind of man who could walk into a house and make a woman cry. Because with him, in his presence, they could. There was something blessed in his manner. Women saw him and wanted to weep--to tell him that their chest hurt and their knees did too. Strong women and wise saw him and told him things they only told each other: that way past the Change of Life, desire in them had suddenly become enormous, greedy, more savage than when they were fifteen, and that it embarrassed them and mad them sad; that secretly they longed to die--to be quit of it--that sleep was more precious to them than any walking day. Young girls sidled up to him to confess or describe how well-dressed the visitation were that had followed them straight from their dreams."(20)

The first sentence is a shock factor: the convivial Paul D up to this point didn't seem like someone who would "make a woman cry". But while typically that phrase means a man physically hurting a woman and the woman crying in pain and fright, the context Morrison gives changes it into a different scene. The women aren't the sort to cry at physical pain but do so as a confession of their emotional pain, and the man is the passive character instead of the women.

This takes the stereotypical image of the scene we expect--the man with hand raised to strike the weeping woman--and juxtaposes it against the man a mellow listener and the woman with the initiative. In the expected scene, the women is clearly a victim because she is crying and a man is the cause. In Morrison's version, the crying woman also evokes the knowledge that she is a victim, but the man who made her cry is clearly not the bully who caused her the hurt. By putting the hurt in the past but making the crying a secret confession that only happens in the present, Morrison disconnects action and response and reveals that women can be hurt victims even if they are not crying at that moment--and you may never notice because they can be other things while still being a victim; it doesn't have to define them.

Moving past the revelation of the first sentence, the first section as a whole draws your attention to the fact that Paul D has an uncommon power, "something blessed in his manner", and that it changes the typical dynamic between men and women to allow more openness between them. Strong women and wise women are specifically mentioned as people who come to him and tell him things; these are people whose very identity relies on keeping a strong mask, having no flaws or keeping secrets "for the greater good" and not for emotional happiness. They tell him "things they only told each other", things that they are so tight-lipped about that they only trust it to people who they know will have the same viewpoint and come to the same judgement as themselves: essentially, they only trust themself. And yet they trust him. Why? I propose this is the power of an outsider. As long as he's friendly enough they don't think he'll betray them out of spite, the more different from the women he is, the more likely they are to trust him with their secrets. This is because by being different, he is less likely to judge them if they tell him about what hurts them or weighs on their mind. Everyone is afraid that what they find painful will be dismissed by others as nothing, and they will be judged weak. These women can't afford to have that judgement. But because he's a drifter and not entrenched in the life and roles they are, he's not in a position to judge them. A key part of that is the fact that he's male; in this time, men and women were completely different, going by the common sentiment that women are a mystery expressed by men and the simple explanation "men" given by women. By being a man, there is an extra barrier set up between him and the confident that prevents him from comparing their pain to his, and thus they feel safe enough to trust he won't try to invalidate their pain.

<4/13/15 Edit: I changed the order of the coloring so more of the text is in the easy-to-read purple.>

Why i Chose the psychoanalytical lens?

I have chosen to analyze the world through  Psychoanalytic lens. These lens analyze the hidden desires of characters. What hides behind their conscious intentions, and right intentions. These lens analyze the actions characters make, that leads to their evil scheme especially if that character is diabolical and has shielded himself as good, by doing what's right in the beginning. Those make the best villains. These lens allow us to understand that ego and our subconscious makes us think and put in actions things we normally wouldn't do. Its the impulsive part of the brain. Psychoanalytic lens are more revealing than others, they are more interesting because they bring to light who characters are really are. My previous experience with these topics such as superego, ego, subconscious were really revealing, they were confusing at first but i later understood what they really meant . Learning about these topics has made me understand that people are not as nice as they seem. People rarely do anything unless its going to benefit them. Yes at the end of the day people are self centered and selfish. Another lens that i considered were the marxist lens which evaluated the idea of social structure. Its a good lens which allows the reader to see how people act/live depending on what social position they have found themselves in. I am hoping to get out of this project,