Beloved Essay

To prevent and weaken the strength of racial tension, the citizens of the United States must be educated about racial problems before being released into the real world. The best approach towards racial equity begins in the classroom and through literature which is where the book Beloved comes into the picture. Beloved fits ideally into the UCLA principles of community one being â€Å"We acknowledge that modern societies carry historical and divisive biases based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation and religion, and we seek to promote awareness and understanding through education and research and to mediate and resolve conflicts that arise from these biases in our communities. † The first standard of the Critical Race Theory is the critique of liberalism. Critique of liberalism claims that the liberals have not done enough to aid the African Americans in the fight for equal rights since racism continues to exist in the American society. This can be seen through the Garners, who are owners of a plantation called â€Å"Sweet Home† in Beloved. â€Å"In Lillian Garner’s house, exempted from the field work that broke her hip and the exhaustion that drugged her mind; in Lillian Garner’s house where nobody knocked her down (or up), she listened to the white woman humming at her work; watched her face light up when Mr. Garner came in and thought, It’s better here, but I’m not. The Garners, it seemed to her, ran a special kind of slavery, treating them like paid labor, listening to what they said, teaching what they wanted known. And he didn’t stud his boys. Never brought them to her cabin with directions to ‘lay down with her,’ like they did in Carolina, or rented their sex out on other farms† (Morrison 165) As seen in this quote, the Garners were kinder to their slaves compared to many other slave owners. However, the Garners refused to give up slavery and continued o participate in the slavery industry. Just because the Garners are pleasant to their slaves does not justify the righteousness to own and dehumanize another person. Another example would be when Baby Suggs was required to work for the Bodwins in order to be able to stay in House 124. â€Å"’She’s the best cobbler you ever see,’ said Mr. Garner. ‘Cobbler? ’ Sist er Bodwin raised her black thick eyebrows. ‘Who taught you that? ’ ‘Was a slave taught me,’ said Baby Suggs. ‘New boots, or just repair? ’ ‘New, old, anything. ‘Well,’ said Brother Bodwin, ‘that’ll be something, but you’ll need more’† (171) The Bodwins put on a kind front by offering a house of theirs to Baby Suggs. However, by asking Baby Suggs what jobs she can fulfill, the Bodwins expose a bit of their own selfishness of requiring Baby Suggs to provide a service at her own expense in order to be able to live in the â€Å"given† House 124. This shows that even with purchased freedom and the â€Å"help† from liberals, Baby Suggs still struggled as a â€Å"free† African American in society. Speaking of the Bodwins, the abolitionist siblings provide yet another example of why liberals are critiqued. †¦ Denver left, but not before she had seen, sitting on a shelf by the back door, a blackboy’s mouth full of money. His head was thrown back farther than a head could go, his hands were shoved in his pockets. Bulging like moons, two eyes were all the face he had above the gaping red mouth. His hair was a cluster of raised, widely spaced dots made of nail heads. And he was on his knees. His mouth, wide as a cup, held the coins needed to pay for a delivery or some other small service, but could just as well have held buttons, pins, or crab-apple jelly. Painted across the pedestal he knelt on were the words ‘At Yo Service’†Ã‚  (300) Even though the Bodwins are helping Denver find a job, having a statue of a black boy erected in their home goes to show the reader how hypocritical the Bodwins were in that they did not see African Americans as true equals to whites. Especially with the phrase â€Å"at yo service,† it implies that the Black boy statue represents Blacks are those who are always serving; if the Bodwins really wanted to help abolish slavery and move closer to racial equity, they would not have had that degrading statue in the first place. The second standard of Critical Race Theory is Interest Convergence. Interest Convergence is defined as an illusory â€Å"improvement† towards racial equity which means that those who helped the African Americans did not do so out of pure kindness, but because of other motives that were fueled by selfish intentions. In the beginning of Beloved, an instance of interest convergence appears when Mr. Garner brags about his slaves on Sweet Home plantation. â€Å"‘Y’all got boys,’ he told them. ‘Young boys, old boys, picky boys, stroppin’ boys. Now at Sweet Home, my niggers is men every one of em. Bought em thataway, raised em thatway. Men every one’† (12). By bragging about his slaves, Mr. Garner fools his slaves into thinking that he is bragging because he is genuinely proud of his slaves; however, Mr. Garner’s true intention for bragging about his laid-back treatment for his slaves is that Mr. Garner wants to present himself as a friendly and generous man to those outside of his plantation which would raise his status. Mr. Garner displays interest convergence once again when he teases other slave owners about their style of treatment. â€Å"‘Beg to differ, Garner. Ain’t no nigger men. ’ ‘Not if you scared, they ain’t. ’ Garner’s smile was wide. But if you man yourself, you’ll want your niggers to be men too. ’ ‘I wouldn’t have no nigger men round my wife. ’ It was the reaction Garner loved and waited for. ‘Neither would I,’ he said. ‘Neither would I,’ and there was always a pause before the neighbor or stranger, or peddler, or brother-in-law or whoever it was got the meaning. Then a fierce argument, sometimes a fight, and Garner came home bruised and pleased†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (12) This quote shows that by gloating about the less harsh treatment his slaves receive compared to other slave owners, Mr. Garner attempts to justify himself as a man. Mr. Garner puts down other slave owners not because Mr. Garner cares about his slaves as human beings, but to protect his masculinity through the less violent treatment he gives to his slaves on Sweet Home. Another instance of interest convergence would be when Baby Suggs was given the House 124 which was formerly owned by the Bodwins. â€Å"It was too big a house for Jenny alone, they said [†¦] but it was the best and the only thing they could do. In return for laundry, some seamstress work, a little canning and so on (oh shoes, too), they would permit her to stay there. Provided she was clean† (171). The reason why the Bodwins had no hesitance to give House 124 to Baby Suggs is because they had bad memories about it; found on page 305, all of Mr. Bodwin’s female family members have died in House 124 like his mother, grandmother, aunt, and older sister. On the outside perspective, one may think that the Bodwins are just being supportive and thoughtful because they just gave a house to a stranger, but they are actually selfish, as the siblings are looking at this opportunity as a way to get rid of their unwanted property by giving it to someone else which in this case happens to Baby Suggs. The third standard of the Critical Race Theory is whiteness as property. Whiteness as property states that those who are white possess more privileges than those of color. These privileges can be sold, shared, or given according to the decisions of those who are white. A scene where whiteness as property is prominent is when Halle purchases his mother, Baby Sugg’s, freedom. â€Å"When Mr. Garner agreed to the arrangements with Halle, and when Halle looked like it meant more to him that she go free than anything in the world, she let herself be taken ‘cross the river. †¦] What does a sixty-odd-year slavewoman who walks like a three-legged dog need freedom for? † (166) In America’s days of slavery, only whites got to enjoy the freedom as written in the American Constitution. It took Halle’s bartering to buy his mother’s freedom because she was a colored woman, something that belonged to the whites was being bought and in this case it was Ha lle’s blood and sweat that purchased Baby Sugg’s â€Å"freedom. † Another scene that illustrates whiteness as property occurs on Sweet Home plantation when Schoolteacher measures Sethe’s body and gives her animal characteristics. Schoolteacher’d wrap that string all over my head, ‘cross my nose, around my behind. Number my teeth. I thought he was a fool. And the questions he asked was the biggest foolishness of all† (226) and â€Å"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 don’t forget to line them up† said school teacher (228). Through these quotes, one can see that one of the privileges held by slave owners, all being whites, was the measuring of another human’s body. By giving Sethe â€Å"animal characteristics,† Schoolteacher dehumanizes her which is also part of the white â€Å"privileges† during the era of slavery. Whiteness as property is also prevalent in the scene where Paul D. has a flashback to the days where he was a slave. â€Å"Shackled, walking through the perfumed things honeybees love, Paul D. hears the men taking and for the first time learns his worth. He has always known, or believed he did, his value—as a hand, a laborer who could make profit on a farm—but now he discovers his worth, which is to say he learns his price. The dollar value of his weight, his strength, his heart, his brain, his penis, and his future† (267) The job of marking values onto the African slaves was also owned by white slave drivers. By setting a price on Paul D. ’s body parts, this counts as dehumanizing since giving worth to body parts is what butchers do to the animals they slaughtered in this case, the animals were humans being controlled by other humans because of differences in color. The fourth and fifth standards of Critical Race Theory are permanence of racism/ incremental changes and counter-storytelling. These can be linked together because through counter-storytelling, permanence of racism/ incremental change is revealed. An occurrence of this would be the scars that Sethe received from a brutal beating in Sethe’s days as a slave. â€Å"Whitegirl. That’s what she called it. I’ve never seen it and never will. But that’s what she said it looked like. A chokecherry tree. Trunk, branched, and ever leaves. Tiny little chokecherry leaves. But that was eighteen years ago. Could have cherries too now for all I know† (18) and â€Å"After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk. That’s what they came in there for. Held me down and took it. I told Mrs. Garner on em. She had that lump and couldn’t speak but her eyes rolled out tears. Them boys found out I told on em. Schoolteacher made one open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree. It grows there still† (20) Counter story-telling is seen by Sethe telling the story of how she got her back scars and the back scars represent thew mark racism, explaining why the white slave owners beat their slaves. The scars are for life which signifies the permanence of racism and how racism will never really disappear because it is so deeply engraved into society’s mindset. One other occurrence that illustrates permanent racism/incremental change and counter story-telling very well is when Sethe is telling her tale of having to sew her own wedding dress. â€Å"I never saw a wedding, but I saw Mrs. Garner’s wedding gown in the press, and heard her go on about what it was like. [†¦] Well, I made up my mind to have at the least a dress that wasn’t the sacking I worked in. So I took to stealing fabric, and wound up with a dress you wouldn’t believe. [†¦] Seem like I couldn’t find a thing that wouldn’t be missed right away. Because I had to take it apart afterwards and put all the pieces back to where they were† (70) Through Sethe’s story, Sethe proves to be resilient and determined against the unjust economics of slavery. Slaves were not allowed to have weddings or any types of luxury which illustrates the mark of racism. Another occurrence of both permanence of racism/ incremental change and incremental change would be when Stamp Paid reveals a part of his life about having to give up his own wife to a white man slave driver. â€Å"I never touched her all that time. Not once. Almost a year. We was planting when it started and picking when it stopped. Seemed longer. I should have killed him. [†¦] I never touched her and damn me if I spoke three words to her a day. [†¦] She got rosy then and I knowed she knowed. He give Vashti that to wear. A cameo on a black ribbon. She used to put it on every time she went to him† (275) In Stamp Paid’s narrative, Stamp tells Paul D. that he had to sacrifice his wife Vashti to the white slave driver’s will which is a sign of racism. The white man got what the white man wants while the one of color, Stamp Paid, was forced to give up someone dear to him. The content, story-telling techniques and thematic message Toni Morrison makes use of in Beloved aids in the understanding of the Critical Race Theory. First off, Beloved pertains to African Americans in the era of slavery which instantly brings up the topic of racial equity and is bound to include points of analysis for the Critical Race Theory. Secondly, the story-telling technique challenges the reader to be able to put themselves into the shoes of another. â€Å"Beloved, she my daughter. She mine. See. She come back to me of her own free will and I don’t have to explain before because it had to be done quick. Quick. ] Paul D ran her off so she had no choice but to come back to me in the flesh† (236) is an internal monologue of Sethe and then, â€Å"It was a tiny church no bigger than a rich man’s parlor† (257) the story converts back to third person. By switching from internal monologues to a third person point of view, the author makes it known that the story is being told by a person who experienced racial inequity themselves which helps the reader grasp a better idea of the issues that the African American people had to deal with. This also allows the reader to formulate a well-structured position in racial topics and nderstand the Critical Race Theory because the reader will be able to recognize qualities of the Critical Race Theory through the perspective of the African Americans. â€Å"How else except by becoming a Negro could a white man hope to learn the truth. . . . The best way to find out if we had second-class citizens, and what their plight was, would be to become one of them . . . † This quote was stated in the article called White Like Me Race and Identity Through Majority Eyes by Tim Wise; the quote enforces the idea that one must dive deep into the experiences another endured to derive any substantial understanding. The thematic message of Beloved is how the past will always linger and affect one’s mind for a lifetime especially if the event is very traumatic like slavery. The thematic message emphasizes the Critical Race Theory point â€Å"permanence of racism and small incremental changes† through flashbacks and interactions the characters have. The character Beloved is enough to represent the thematic message because she symbolizes the past. Beloved is a past memory that grips Sethe’s mind since she is the ghost of the Sethe’s daughter in which Sethe killed due to the arrival of slave catchers. So by inserting Beloved’s appearance in the storyline, the author metaphorically hints that she, Beloved, is the past resurfacing in Sethe’s life which is permanence of racism. Some may argue that Beloved is not an excellent choice because â€Å"typical† high school students lack the intelligence to understand the context presented in Beloved. That accusation is insufficient because this novel is very mind engaging and is an excellent choice to use as an education tool for high school seniors on the topic of race. Beloved may be a difficult read at first because of the prominent usage of flashbacks in the novel. This can make the storyline a bit jumbled and confusing to the reader since Morrison dishes out the story line in bits and pieces. However, Morrison uses transitions, whether they be abrupt or subtle, that provide hints which let the reader know that the story has transitioned into a flashback for example, â€Å"Once before (and only once) Paul D had been grateful to a woman. Crawling out of the woods, cross-eyed with hunger and loneliness, he knocked at the first back door†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (154). In this excerpt, Toni Morrison uses a time reference phrase â€Å"once before† to alert the reader of a flashback in which she goes into elaborating the flashback. The reader should be able to realize he or she is reading a flashback due to a shift in setting and (possibly) different characters. One should not disregard a novel due to the language because with guidance, an effective teacher can help his or her students comprehend the message that Toni Morrison is conveying through Beloved. Toni Morrison offers plenty of valuable examples on racial tensions that would be a shame to pass up just because the novel may be complicated to fathom. The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison provides that sense of racial awareness which is why the novel should be in UCLA’s high school book selection. Beloved is rich with examples of all five principles of the Critical Race Theory that are easily absorbed by high school students with the assistance of Beloved’s content, story-telling technique, and thematic message. When students learn about Critical Race Theory and the experiences of those who encountered extreme racial hostilities, students will have a more broad perspective. Students will have a new outlook on situations that deal with race and know that one must put themselves into another’s shoes in order to genuinely understand the hardships and feelings of the other. Work Cited Keating, Catie. Race Analysis of Toni Morrisons Beloved. Yahoo! Contributor Network. News Network, 3 Nov. 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2013 Martinez, Inez. Toni Morrison’s Beloved: Slavery Haunting America. rd ed. Vol. 4. N. p. : n. p. , n. d. The Jungian Society. 2009. Web. 2 Mar. 2013. Monique. The Pulitzer Project.   Beloved by Toni Morrison (1988) Review by Monique. Blogger, 5 Feb. 2009. Web. 2 Mar. 2013. Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print. Smith, Valerie. Chapter 3 Beloved.   Toni Morrison: Writing the Moral Imagination. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. N. pag. Google Bo oks. Web. 1 Mar. 2013. Supernatural Realism.   Tripod. N. p. , n. d. Web. 2 Mar. 2013. UCLA.   Mission amp; Values. N. p. , n. d. Web. 1 Mar. 2013