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.