FINAL REFLECTION

After reading Beloved through the Feminist Lens, Morrison goes against the typical view of women and introduces the new idea of their independence. We especially see this in Sethe’s character. Sethe is a single mother who takes on the both parent roles and plays mother as well as father to her child. To be a mother as well as a father to a child is a huge responsibility. Sethe shows that she is able to take on this responsibility and not dependent on a husband or father figure.

In my culture, I have been taught the complete opposite. It is sad to say that most stereotypes of women are true of Tongan women. Tongans believe that women in general are weak. They believe that women are made that way for the easier tasks in life such as cleaning, cooking, and babysitting. And because of this, a man is needed in their life for the tasks that require strength. Marriage is an expected obstacle for all Tongan women. According to tradition, a man is needed in the Tongan family to handle all the manly work. However, if marriage is not a met obstacle, then a male family member takes over whether that is a brother, cousin, father, or grandfather. A man is needed because women cannot handle the work meant for men. To put it briefly, the Tongan belief is a woman needs a man which is very different from what Morrison suggests in Beloved.

Although this is my culture, my personal beliefs are completely different. Just as Sethe was independent and strong, I believe many women can also be independent and strong. Sethe serves as proof that it is possible for women to do everything a man can.

Slaves are the lower class that knows it is trapped

Slaves, as a social class, are those who have no choice and no freedom in their actions. They know it as well, as clearly demonstrated in Beloved; the slaves try their best to maintain their mental freedom as they lack any control over their physical state. Slaves try everything, from escape to stealing fabric to make their own wedding dresses. Nothing allows them freedom as they are always taken back and reduced to an inhuman state. Even their children are slaves and doomed to the same fate as them. The lower class, the blue collar workers, of both the time and today are extremely similar to slaves. They have no way to leave the lower class, many work more than one job to survive, certainly not thrive or even make money in the long run. Many work from paycheck to paycheck, job to job, and have to take any job offered to them. They have no freedom to choose. Lower class workers often take any job that is offered to them. They do not have the luxury of choice. The children of lower class workers are doomed to education systems that do not support to help them as much as upper and middle class schools. Lower class workers are dehumanized to a similar extent as slaves. News reporters will claim that they do not need money because 98% of them have fridges. In the eyes of the other classes, these are not people, these are workers and robots designed to ake life easier for them. There is no way to escape for a lower class worker. However, what separates them from slaves is that they are blind to this fact. Many believe they can be lucky like the few celebrities that come out of that area. This false hope keeps them far more complacent than slaves who are acutely aware of their inhumanity.

I feel like this is the entire purpose of the marxist lens, to expose this more acutely and blatantly that there is such injustice within society that is designed to support its members. I believe that without the constrictions and conflict generated by social classes, humanity can progress at a much faster pace and work towards the benefit of all society instead of the more common "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer."

Breaking down society into many subclasses

Reading Beloved has given me the opportunity to see how the world looks through a finer lens. Instead of separating society into lower, middle, and upper class, I realize that the lower class can be divided into much more specific sections: women in the lower class, mothers in the lower class, men in the lower class. Classes can be drawn across gender lines, occupation, economic status, and social status.

In realizing that classes can be divided into many more categories, I have seen that there is much greater depth to life and generalizing even an extremely fine subclass can be guesswork at best because of the variation present within it. This has contradicted my viewpoints in the past as I tend to see the world in a very black and white fashion. I feel that reading the book has helped me enlighten myself and develop buance in my viewpoints.

For example, reading mothers as slaves. I see that slaves easily have their own class that is below the lower class as their decisions are even more limited. When comparing mothers to slaves it becomes immediately apparent that a mother has many of the limitations and lack of freedom that a slave does. Thus mothers in every other class is now a separate subclass with their own beliefs, desires, and restrictions. And if we think of women as separate even from that we now have 3 categories per previous class. If we now include sexuality as a divider within class we get exponentially larger number of classes. This demonstrates that there are an infinite number of way to divide classes until you reach the individual as a class unto themselves. This is the ulitmate goal as the role of classes is one that only serves to subjugate those below you.

Mothers as a class below slaves

Terry Paul Caesar analyzes the role of mothers in Toni Morrison's novels. She claims that Morrison describes mothers as slaves. Toni depicts a life for mothers filled with "an anger handed down through generations of mothers who could have no control over their children's lives, no voice in their upbringing." This concept is clearly related to the context of slavery, where slaves have no choices in their lives. There is a direct relation to this if mothers are considered as a class of people separate from society. Being a mother immediately relinquishes some control of their lives and their children's lives. As mothers exist in every other class in society, mothers are inherently lower in every class. Therefore, a slave who is a mother (Sethe) is the lowest on every social class. We can see how Morrison makes this brutally evident in the scene where Sethe has her breast milk stolen from her. This is clear indication of how she can and is humiliated and diminished by her treatment which she cannot defend herself from.

Women as a social class is clearly indicative of the fact that they are treated as inferior in the society they exist in. There needs to be a change that raises women and mothers to the level of the men that dominate society. The conflict between the classes of women and men is drastically one-sided as the men who are dominant remain dominant and continue to suppress the lower classes. By reducing mothers to the level of slaves, society opens itself for conflict and causes many problems within it that can only be fixed by the removal of class. In order to remove class, the ruling class must have its power relinwuished or forcibly taken away.

Slave Songs in the Marxist Lens

Peter Capuano writes that Toni Morrison uses slave songs in order to evoke intense emotion and to further her purpose. The slave songs describe "bitterest anguish." This anguish comes from the plight of the slave within the class structure. A slave is below any class, slaves are not people. Upon being freed, a slave joins the lowest class of society. The form the group of people that are criminals, beggars, and just above slaves. That slave songs are still sung by Paul D even as he is in 124 and free is a demonstration of the clear feeling he still feels as a slave and lower classman.

The slave songs themselves tell of conflict between the ruling classes and masters of slaves and their slaves. slaves want freedom, rebellion, and control of their lives. However, being deprived of these things as slaves, when freed seek what they have been missing all their lives. What soon happens is a realization that there is a very minor difference between slavery and the class they have just entered. These slave songs are still sung in order to demonstrate that the lower class consists of people that are more slaves than people. Without change within the class structure. The slave songs become ever more potent as the lower class is trapped and unable to escape from its chains unlike the ability for a slave to escape a master.

While the lower classes are suppressed, the upper classes reign supreme, never needing to experience the bitter anguish of the lower classes, never needing to cry or suffer in order to maintain their fortunes. They form the privileged and elite, who will never know the suffering of a system they cannot escape from that tries to hurt them more and more.

The One Good Dress

When Paul D, Sethe, and Denver go to the carnival, they all dress differently. Sethe felt the need to dress well for her first social outing in years. Despite traveling to a all Black carnival day, Sethe feels the need to dress well using her only good dress. Sethe "felt obliged wear her one good dress, heavy as it was, and a hat. Certainly a hat." Sethe feels the need to look good and above her normal social standing for the carnival. This desire by Sethe to appear above her class demonstrates the disapirty between herself and the upper classes. Because Sethe is not actually of the upper classes, she is trying to appear as though she is, despite the discomfort of wearing a heavy dress in the hot summer. She goes further by being certain that she need to wear a hat. The focus on the hat demonstrates her desire to be seen as someone who has sense and is well off as there is a need to add a hat. This hat protects her from the sun and demonstrates that she is more frail and delicate than those of the lower classes.

Sethe's choice in her clothing demonstrates that there is a need to try to be above her status and to strive to join the upper classes. The social classes here are dysfunctional as there is a deep seated desire to attain the status of the upper classes with no feasible way of doing so. As such, the lower classes simply emulate the upper classes at their own expense and discomfort. A lack of social classes would create this need to inconvenience themselves.

Working on the Railroad Line

Paul D was on a chain-gang in Georgia busting rocks by the railroad tracks. During his time there, he picked up many working songs. The songs were sung by the workers in order to dull the monotony of the work. He claims that his song is too loud and full of power. He sings,
"Lay my head on the railroad line,
Train come along, pacify my mind.
If I had my weight in lime,
I'd whip my captain till he went stone blind."
Paul D's song demonstrate the hard life that the working man must experience. He speaks about whipping his captain "till he went stone blind." This demonstrates the extreme conflict between the middle and upper class against the lower classes. Paul D is a demonstration of the most direct and dysfunctional society that exists. When the proletariat is subjugated by the bourgeoisie and there is no sign of change. Paul D needs to be strong within his class in order to stand up against his oppressors. This disparity is an exact example of the failures of capitalist society and the need for a system that allows the lower class to defend themselves against the oppression and dominance of the upper class.

The song asks that he have his weight in lime. This comes from the limestone that they are breaking. Paul D wants to be strong and sturdy like limestone in order to be able to fight against his captain. Paul D needs the strength because the government and socitey he is in does not give him the social or legal power to be strong. Instead he needs to be strong physically in order to be able to stand up for himself and his people. This exposes the immense problems in the system and the need for improvement.

Mother and Daughter Relationship FAIL

 

 

 

In one part of her article The Bonds of Love and Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Barbara Schapiro speaks on the ways in which slavery affected Sethe’s ability to follow the typical role of a mother as well as the relationships between the characters. According to psychology, we need the company others in order to create our identities which is known as mutual recognition. Without the company of others, we fail to establish our own selves. Schapiro connects mutual recognition to the relationship between Sethe and her two daughters. They have failed to fully define their identities because of the walls they put up that blocks and disables them from being entirely connected with each other. Although they strive for connection, they fail to be open to because of the fear of their pasts. Because of this, Sethe and Beloved and Denver cannot have the relationship they long for. They cannot take the next step in establishing and strengthening their bond. I agree with Schapiro and it is exactly how I thought of the connections between these three women. It is ironic that they have this hunger for a mother and daughter relationship yet they choose to push each other and not fully allow each other in. Their love for each other is present, however, their efforts for making the relationships work are not present. If they want to have this strong bond between each other, they are going to need to put down their barriers.

Motherhood

In his article Slavery and Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Terry Paul Caesar writes of the mother and daughter relationship between Sethe and her two girls, Denver and Beloved. As he read Beloved through the Feminist Lens, he came to realize the weak bond between Sethe and Beloved in their mother and daughter relationship. According to Caesar, although Sethe fails to show affection towards Beloved the way a mother normally would show to her daughter, her love for her daughter is great and powerful. She shows her love through the killing of her baby. As a slave mother, she knew exactly what was in store for Beloved’s future. She knew that she would suffer in the future, so to keep that from happening, Sethe did what most would consider to be the unbelievable and ended her own baby’s life. She did what she believed was best for her child. By taking away her life, she took away the pain that Beloved was bound to endure if she had stayed alive.

Although I had never thought of it that way, I totally agree with Caesar’s interpretation of Sethe’s motherly love. Sethe was stuck with a dilemma. It was either she allow her baby to grow up and face the pain she once did or she take her baby’s life and save her from the misery that is doomed to occur in her life. It is a mother’s instinct to protect their child from any dangers or trouble. And it was Sethe’s mother instinct that caused her to choose to kill her baby. That is the worst crime any mother can commit. Sethe committed this big crime  but did not view it as a crime because she was doing what she believed every mother would do and took the pain away.

RESPOND AND REFLECT

Reading Beloved through the Feminist Lens, I came across many typical stereotypes affiliated with the two genders, so it was no surprise when a certain character displayed a certain characteristic. It was no surprise because I see many of these stereotypes in my own life.

For example, with Sethe’s character, her strong, independent single mother figure does not come as a shock to me. In our society, there is a great number of single mothers who take on both the mother and father figure so this is not something new to me as a reader. Not only that, the sacrifices she makes as a mother for her children are incredible. Connecting that to my own life, my mother makes countless sacrifices for my siblings and I. Many of our mothers do this!

One thing that stuck out to me was Denver’s character, more specifically her desire for a mother and daughter relationship with Sethe and a sister relationship with Beloved. I found her need for love and attention somewhat relatable. As a child, growing up, I was given plenty of attention and love from my mother. If I was not given that, I would not have the close mother and daughter relationship I have with her today. I love the relationship we have, and I cannot imagine how it would be like if our relationship did not exist. So I can understand her desire for Sethe’s affection. Denver grew up with little affection from her mother and she now longs for it because her mother is the only person she has around. She has no friends, so a mother and daughter relationship is all that is in store for Denver. She also desires a relationship Beloved. I understand this because my sisters are a big part of me and our relationship is very strong. You can never get rid of your sister; she is stuck with you for life. The bond between sisters is incomparable to the relationships of others. It is understandable why Denver would want a sister relationship with Beloved. Having Beloved as a sister would give Denver the love she desires and that is all she longs for.

So, if there is one thing I can connect to in the book Beloved through the Feminist Lens, it is the daughter/sister role that Denver takes on.

PLOT CHANGE: Women > Men

“‘What you come in here for?’

‘I want you to touch me on the inside part.’

‘Go back on in that house and get to bed.’

‘You have to touch me. On the inside part. And you have to call my name.’

‘Call me my name.’

‘No.’

‘Please call it. I’ll go if you call it.’

‘Beloved.’ He said it, but she did not go. She moved closer with a footfall he didn’t hear and he didn’t hear the whisper that the flakes of rust made either as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave he didn’t know it. What he knew was that when he reached the inside part he was saying, ‘Red heart. Red heart,’ over and over again” (138).

Beloved and Paul D have just had sex. With the power of her body, she seduces him. He falls into her trap and is weakened by her touch. In fact, he is so weak that he enters his own world and becomes unaware of reality. His unawareness is shown through his constant, mindless uttering of the phrase “Red heart.”

During this sexual interaction, power is in the hands of Beloved. She is dominant throughout the event. She forces him to do something he does not want to, and this is considered to be rape. When the word rape is mentioned, a man forcing a woman to act out a sexual activity automatically comes to mind. Men are normally the rapist because of the popular belief that they are strong, and women are the victim because of the popular belief that they are weak. However, in Beloved, it is the opposite- the woman is the rapist and has the upper hand while the man is the victim and has no say in what is going to be done. Beloved’s raping of Paul D goes against the stereotype regarding rape. It is rare that women are powerful in certain situations, especially sex. Morrison chooses to display women as tough and powerful, and we see this in this event.

In addition, we see another stereotype in Paul D’s weakness. Beloved’s ability to easily compel Paul D into having sex with her makes visible his lack of masculinity. Again, power is not in the hands of the man but in the hands of the woman which is very rare. Readers are shocked by this because society has craved this image that men are greater than women and will always have control. However, Morrison breaks this standard image and has placed women on a higher status.

Stereotypes of women

Many stereotypes were saying that women are weak.  Like, they can’t do this or they can’t do that.  Many people would think this, but in Beloved, Sethe was strong.  She was able to strong as a mother and as a woman.  She loved her daughter and son, but she had to kill them, because of slavery.  Not many people could kill their children, because they spend a lot of time with them.  As for Sethe, she does not want her children to go what she has been through.  Sethe does not want her children, to know how he master treated in her slavery.  She does not want her children to be slavery, so she had to do something, that not many people could do, which would be to kill their own children.  In which, this shows that women are strong, like Sethe.  Sethe risked killing her children, because she does not want her children to suffer like she did, as a slave.

Another stereotype would be women loves their children “too much”.  Sethe killed her children because she does not want her children to go through the same experience as she did.  Paul D though her love is “too thick” because Sethe chose to kill her children from slavery.  Even though Sethe killed her children from the “horror of slavery”, Paul D though it was too much for a mother to kill her own children.  He also though her love was “too thick” because she is too close attached to her children.  They were both arguing of how Sethe’s love was too much.   Even though Sethe said that she does not want her children to be taken away from her from her old master.  Paul D still though it was wrong to kill her own children, because her old master might be coming back, and taking them.

Sethe's Beautiful Chokecherry Tree

"The wrought-iron maze he had explored in the kitchen like a gold miner pawing through dirt was in fact a revolting clump of scars.. Not a tree as she said" (25).  

"There are memories that time does not erase... Forever does not make loss forgettable, only bearable.” (Cassandra Claire). Sethe and Paul D have memories about the past and they are constantly brought up throughout the book whether they are good or bad, the memories are still with them. A huge part of Sethe's life whether she likes it or not is the "tree" on her back. She tells Paul D when he arrives at the house, that she has what she thinks looks like a Chokecherry tree according to Amy. Trees represent different things depending on the person and their interactions with them. Paul D thinks "trees were inviting; things you could trust and be near; talk to if you wanted to as he frequently did" (25). Paul D sees a "brother" in a tree, what a pet is to us nowadays, something that just sits there and listens to you complain about whatever is on your mind. When he thinks of Sweet Home he thinks of that tree and how it helped him find who he is as a person. The tree helped him through the harsh times of slavery by being there when nobody else was and because of trees it helped him become free by following the flowering trees to the North. The tree on Sethe's back, made from being whipped so many times represents her past, but also could represent something that could grow into something beautiful. As much as the past is in the past for her, it just seems to be brought up in mysterious ways. As much as she tries to "run" away from her past it is there mentally and physically due to the tree on her back. She is always reminded that slavery will always be with her, she will never forget that at a time that she was once treated poorly just by the color of her skin and that she was once treated like an animal. 
A chokecherry tree which is sought to be on her back typically brings spring, bloom and peaceful nature instead of the pain and sorrow that the scar actually represents. To most trees represent life, strength, good fortune etc, Amy the one who discovered the "tree" on Sethe's back said, "It's a tree Lu. See, here's the trunk- it's red and split open, full of sap, and this here's the parting for the branches. You got a mighty a lot of branches. Leaves, too, look like, and dern if these ain't blossoms. Tiny little cherry tree blossoms, just as white. Your back got a whole tree on it. In bloom" (79). Instead of looking at the "tree" as a bunch of scars clumped together, Amy looks at each one of the scars on her back as a piece of a puzzle which somehow forms a beautiful chokecherry tree.
When we look at trees we forget that they were once a seed, we forget that they all developed from the ground. We forget that they had to go through tough days from being in the cold or the heat or being pushed around by the strong gusts of wind. But we also forget that from a little seed, the trunk, the branches, the leaves all make a strong, beautiful tree. And that is what I think is going to happen to Sethe is that her past will eventually make her out to be a beautiful and strong person. Her shady past will never be forgotten, but the little things in the present and future that make her happy will make the memories of her past "only bearable". 

Mother Duties

"The welcoming cool of unchiseled headstones; the one she selected to lean against on tiptoe, her knees wide open as any grave. Pink as a fingernail it was, and sprinkled with glittering chips. Ten minutes, he said. You got ten minutes I'll do it for free. Ten minutes for seven letters. With another ten could she have gotten "Dearly" too?" (5)

Sethe has just exchanged sex for seven letters on her baby girl's gravestone. Now, when reading this, Morrison makes clear two issues regarding the role of women which are: 1) prostitution and 2) motherhood.

With no hesitation, she mindlessly gives away what some today view as the most precious gift every woman holds, her body. Many women view the body as a temple, and to allow a stranger into the temple is a disgrace. When we hear of Sethe’s act of prostitution, we begin to question her morals concerning the importance of sex. When first reading this passage, we immediately think that Sethe finds no value in sex because it is in our nature to believe that a woman who has sex with just anyone for a  is a whore.The definition of a whore is a woman who engages in promiscuous sexual intercourse in exchange for a desired item. And that is exactly the word we think of when we read this passage.

However, if we look at the reason for Sethe doing so, we begin to understand why she choose to do so and our view on her changes. Her reason outweighed the importance of her own temple. She values the need of her child far more than her body. Her love for her child is great and powerful, and we see this in her careless act of prostitution. She was quick to sacrifice herself for her child. Sethe giving up her own body, sacrificing herself shows just how much she loves her children and how far she is willing to go in order to bring satisfaction to her child.

 

The sacrifices mothers make are at times unbelievably. They do all they can to bring happiness to their children. Sethe serves as an example of this.

 

 

 

Why Sethe did not stand up for herself

“Nobody will ever get my milk no more expect my own children.  I never had to give it to nobody else- and the one time I did it was took from me- they held me down and took it.  Milk that belong to my baby.  Nan to nurse whitebabies and me too because Ma’am was in the rice.  The nurse whitebabies got it first and I got what was left” (236).

This passage of the Beloved, shows that many of the “whitebabies” are getting Sethe’s milk and Sethe could not use the milk for her own babies.  She did not want to give up her other people, other than her babies, but they pin her down, and they took her milk.  Sethe did not like that, because she did not get to say in this, even though it is her milk.  Sethe was not able to talk to the people that are getting her milk, because they thought that women, like Sethe, should stay quiet and not say anything.  Sethe was not able to stand up for herself, because she was held down, and the “whitebabies” are taking her milk.

This shows feminist lens, because she was pinned down and her milk was taken away from her.  She was not able to push them away, because the stereotypes would be that women would stay quiet and not say anything to anyone.  The word “milk” was taken away from Sethe because she was being raped.  She would keep saying that the men “stole her milk.”  So, I thought that she was being raped by the men, and she does not know what to do, but complain about it.

Sethe loved being a mother, because she was able to see her children grow.  She was able to have a family after slavery was gone, and she was happy to have her children until she had to give up her “milk” for the “whitebabies”.  She wants to save her “milk” for her children, because they are her babies, and she wants to care for them.  But she does not like how she has to share her “milk” to other children that are not her children.  She wants to keep her “milk” to her children, because they are her children.  Sethe does not like how many “whitebabies” are coming to her for milk.

Why did Sethe killed her children?

Text: Figurations of Rape and the  Supernatural in Beloved by Palma E. Barnett

Critical Lens: Feminist Lens

In the article of Figurations of Rape and the  Supernatural in Beloved by Palma E. Barnett, Barnett starts to talk about how Sethe was raped and how she does not want anyone to touch her children.  Barnett talks about how Sethe was a free woman, from slavery, but she was scarred from the abuse and rape that she’s been through.  “While Morrison Depicts myriad abuses of slavery like brutal beatings and lynchings, the depictions of and allusions to rape are of primary each in some way helps explain the infanticide that marks importance; the beginnings of Sethe's story as a free woman” (418).  Even though Sethe was free, Barnett describes how men looked at Sethe as a woman to have sex with.  She used “allusion to rape,” which means that the men dream of raping her, and they did not do anything to her.  By looking at this word, “allusion to rape,” shows how many people look at Sethe differently and they want something from her, other than using her as a slave.

Barnett says, “Sethe kills her child so that no whitman will ever “dirty” her, so that no young man with “mossy teeth” will ever hold the child down and suck her breasts” (251, 70, 418).  Barnette was trying to say that Sethe killed Denver and Beloved, because she does not them to get raped from men.  Sethe does not want Denver and Beloved to go what she went to.  Instead of letting them live, she killed them, so she would not have to see them suffer, like how Sethe did, when she was a slave.  Barnett was trying to say that Sethe been through lots of stuff when she was a slave, because she had no power to say anything and she has to stay quiet about it.

Paul D Vs. Sethe

Around the first few chapters of Beloved, Paul D and Sethe had an argument about Denver.  Sethe was defending Denver, because she wants Paul D to know that Denver is her daughter, and she she has every right to defend her.  Sethe felt like she has to defend Denver as a daughter, and also of how she was able to stand up against Paul D, when he was yelling at her.  Sethe was defending her daughter, and Paul D expects her to defend him back.  Paul D was surprised that Sethe was taking Denver's side, and was trying to argue with him.  Paul D did not expect Sethe to fight back, because he thought he was superior and Sethe was inferior.

Paul D did not like how Sethe was defending, Denver, because he felt betrayed.  For Sethe, she wanted to defend her daughter because she cares and loves her.  When Sethe asked Paul D to apologize to Denver, he said he did not want to.  Paul D says, “Why you think you have to take up for her?  Apologize to her?  She’s grown” (54).  This shows that even though Paul D did not start the argument, he still did not want to apologize to her because he thinks she’s “grown up.”  Sethe took this as an offence, because Denver is Seth’s child, and Sethe does not want her to get hurt.  Paul D argues back that Sethe cannot protect her every second of her life, Sethe felt like she was being disrespectful from Paul D.  Even though Sethe cannot protect her children all the time, but she would be able to protect her children as long as she lives.  She says, “Nothing!  I’ll protect her while I’m live and I’ll protect her when I ain’t” (54).  This shows that Sethe does not like how Paul D is treating her and Denver.  Paul D was trying to be masculine, but he cannot because Sethe is being a strong women and defending what is right to her.

Feminist Lens

Text: The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” by Barbara A. Schapiro

Critical Lens: Feminist Lens

In the article, The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” by Barbara A. Schapiro, it is about Schapiro talking about how people treat others differently.  She talks about Beloved and was being honest about the book.  Many men in the book look at women differently.

One thing that I agree with this article would be how women like Sethe and Beloved were treated differently.  Sethe was treated differently, because Schapiro was talking about how Sethe was raped from men. Schapiro said, “Sethe repeatedly asserts that the worst aspect of her rape was that the white boys "took my milk!" (17).  This shows that Sethe was not treated right when she was a slave.  The men wanted to raped her for her milk, because the men did not want her baby to have any milk left to drink.  Sethe did not know what to do when she was raped from the men, because she did not have any rights to say anything to the men that were her master and the men would want to do something to her.  Another one that Schapiro was talking about would be how Beloved was trying to seduced Paul D, when he was alone in the living room, trying to sleep.  Schapiro said, “Beloved repeatedly commands Paul D, "I want you to touch me on the inside part and call me my name" (116).  This shows that Schapiro was talking about Beloved kept repeating that to Paul D, and later on, he gave up and they had sex together.  Something about Beloved is making Paul D, want to have sex with her.

Something that I would disagree with this article would be how they kept talking about Beloved.  Schapiro was talking about how this Denver and Sethe were "possessing and objectifying" each other.

"Beloved

You are my sister

You are my daughter

You are my face;you are me

I have found you again; you have come back to me

You are my Beloved

You are mine

You are mine

You are mine" (255).

As you can see, this shows how "sticky" they to Beloved.  They are claiming her as if she is an object to them.  Sethe and Denver are "possessing and objectifying" Beloved by how they are saying "You are my sister", "You are my daughter", and "You are mine". This shows "possessing and objectifying" by how they are clingy to their ghost child. They do not want her to live and want her to stay with her forever.