Critical Lens Experts Blog- Stephanie Serrano

Beloved by Toni Morrison is a piece of literature that incorporates strong perspectives on a story of former slave, Sethe, and the life changing event she was forced to face that haunts her every day and brings the story together. As a mother who had to kill her own daughter, Sethe travels a path of pain that brings her into conflicts with the world of womanhood. Looking at the story as a whole through a feminist lens, the reader can see that as a woman Sethe feels inclined to repair the distress of her daughter because she feels it’s her duty to protect her as a mother. However, while Sethe is focused on protecting her daughter Beloved, she hurts herself and others emotionally and physically.

Sethe killed her daughter Beloved in order to protect her from getting taken away by her side. She preferred Beloved be dead before being forced into slavery. In Sethe’s head, this was an act of love and protection. Barbara A Schapiro states ”How can a child see self or mother as subjects when the society denies them that status? The mother is made incapable of recognizing the child, and the child cannot recognize the mother...When she[Sethe] becomes a mother herself, she is so deprived and depleted that she cannot satisfy the hunger for recognition”(The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”). Sethe fears that if Beloved becomes a slave, she wouldn't recognize her as a mother and that it would make Beloved feel unloved and not important or of value. This drives Sethe to fear the loss of recognition and serves as a main factor in the murder of Beloved. What society saw as an atrocious act of a crazy slave, Sethe saw as Beloved’s way of escape from a life of distress and acts upon it believing it was out of love. It takes her time to realize she committed a crime against her daughter and that things were going to change from then on. But, when she realizes Beloved was not at peace with being killed, Sethe starts to feel guilt and lives with the haunting burden of what she did. This goes to show that women get emotionally attached to their children, and in Sethe’s case will do the unspeakable in order to protect their child. However, ironically Sethe’s motherly love leads to the death of her daughter and does not allow her to leave the path of guilt, that causes her many problems and hurt in her life as well as the life of others.

Critical Lens Experts

In the figurations of rape and the supernatural by Barnett, she explains how men are portrayed as victims and the women are viewed to be blamed for everything. The article explains how in the book Sethe and other women that were in slavery had to be sexually violated in order to get money and pay for things that they couldn't afford to pay. Men would see woman only as sex objects and not humans. Beloved symbolizes the history of rape and slavery throughout time, and when she comes back she brings it back with her. In Beloved the African women are inferior to the white women. And the African American men are inferior to White men. As Barnett states “ Beloved serves as a powerful reminder that rape was and often still is a racial issue..Susan Brownmiller has asserted “a process of intimidation by which all men keep all woman in a state of fear” (15). While male and female do not formulaically describe rapist and victim in the novel, white and black almost always do” (425). Barnett is explaining the absence in rape culture from the times of slavery. She describes how Morrison is constructing the discourse of the rapes of African American men and women who have been raped during slavery. She is using her novel to show the various powers that structure rape and trauma.

Close Reading

“...he had come to be a rag doll - picked up and put back down anywhere anytime by a girl young enough to be his daughter.. it was more than appetite that humiliated him and made him wonder if school teacher was right. It was being moved, placed where she wanted him, and there was nothing he was able to do about it” (148). The setting of this quote is about a male African American being controlled by a female African American. Paul D is being raped by Beloved, who is his lover's daughter who came back from the dead. This quote identifies the gender roled throughout Morrison's Beloved. Throughout the text, Morrison uses multiple writing techniques to express the gender roles through the text. The males are known to have more control over woman rather than the woman having the control. The quote explains the feelings and emotion that Paul D was feeling, how controlled he felt by Beloved. Morrison describes Paul D as a “ragdoll” to imply that he has no control over his body, that Beloved is taking over him. In this moment, Paul D is horrified and cannot believe that a woman is able to move him how she wants, and he can’t stop her. Acting as if she were superior to him.

CRITICAL LENS EXPERTS _ROMERO.D

In the novel ‘Beloved’ written by Toni Morrison, it’s noticed that the characters within the novel are very close to one another. More specifically, it’s noticed between the protagonist Sethe and her children- Denver and Beloved. As Sethe is a former slave, her actions have affected her mentally and physically. Its noticed that she is affected by her past when she kills her baby infant with a handsaw, as the four white men arrive. This action was taken because she didn’t want her children going through a life as a slave. It’s emphasized that its ‘Beloved’ that Sethe killed, which is why, Beloved was reincarnated again, when a risen body appear up from the water, to give Sethe a second chance. Throughout the novel, it helps us illustrate the theme of how ones relationship with an individual can be the most important part of life, which helps us, make decisions that can be justice or unjust during a situation.

In the rising action, it’s noticed that a girl came out of the water. That same girl is named Beloved. Beloved has no clue where she came and has asked Sethe to stay with her. As the novel caries through, Sethe and Beloved build a forcedly connected relationship. Their bond grew bigger to where Sethe finely realized that Beloved was a reincarnated individual on her first child that she killed. In an article that I recently read, Terry Paul claims how their children are enslaving mothers. This connects to Beloved when she made Sethe ill. This is noticed at the end of the novel when Sethe is a changed person, who doesn’t have the same characteristics as she had in the beginning on the novel.

            It is seen that a child relies on its for life and well being of the mother in the child’s life. On the other hand, the mother also has to be there for her child to support and comfort of her child. As Sethe feels enslaved in by her own “daughter ” Beloved, this action is what ties them together and builds the bond that they have throughout the novel. Sethe feels to be enslaved by her daughter ‘Beloved’ until Beloved leaves at the end of the novel- when Beloved has left the 123 homes (mysteriously). In addition, this action specifically, is what changes the life of Sethe as a person due to the their relationship- as when Sethe was alone to where Sethe know is with Denver and Beloved at the end of the novel. In consistency, looking at society know, we can see that the main part of a mothers life is spending time with their children developing the relationship among one another- as seen with Sethe and Beloved throughout the novel. 

~Daniel Romero 

Close_Reading_ Daniel_Romero

Question: How does Sethe and Paul D uphold gender stereotypes?

“Denver picked up her plate and left the table but not before adding a chicken back and more bread to the heap she was carrying away. Paul D to wipe the spilled coffee with his blue handkerchief.

“‘ I’ll get that.’” Sethe jumped up and went to the stove. Behind it various cloths hung, each in some stage of dying. In silence she wiped the floor and retrieved the cup. Then she poured him another cupful, and set it carefully before him…

...Sethe resumed her chair and the silence continued. Finally she realized that if it was going to be broken she would have to do it.

“I didn't train her like that.”

Paul D stroked the rim of the cup.

“And I’m as surprised by her manners as you are hurt by em.”

...“‘Jesus! I said Jesus! All I did was sit down for supper! and I get cussed out twice. Once for being here and once for asking why I was cussed in the first place!’” (52-53).

Reading a text through the Feminist/Gender Lens, it's important to identify that the reader/audiences has to understand how the characters in the text are portrayed and how female characters are portrayed in the novel- Beloved. If the reader is able to do so, its importance will help the reader put themselves in someone else's shoes as they read. Through the dynamic of Paul D and Sethe, Toni Morrison relates a theme of gender equality in American Society by showing how Sethe, the woman, serves her man, Paul D, in all manners of work that constitutes a ‘woman's’ duty.  

It's noticed throughout the scene that Sethe was defending her daughter -Denver -from Paul D about the actions that Denver had against Paul D. It's noticed that Paul D does not understand or like the way that Denver is treating him at the dinner table, during supper. It's seen throughout the text that Paul D is upset/irritated that Sethe does not see the way that Denver acts when he says, “I’m surprised by her manners.” As he mentions, ‘her’- referencing Denver- it's implied that he is disappointed and upset that Sethe does not take control of her children and raise them right.

On the other hand, it's noticed that Sethe has the gender stereotype, of mothers protecting their children more than a step-father would. As Sethe is in the middle of the argument with Paul D, she states, “I didn't train her like that.” As we read the scene throughout the argument, it's creates a picture in the reader's mind of Sethe using specific word choice and emphasizing on words to make her argument much more clear. As she is conducting this argument she is protecting her children before her husband/boyfriend. As Sethe is doing so, it's related to a modern stereotype of mothers putting their children first before any husband.

In addition, the scene also brings up the stereotype of women cleaning up the house as a normal routine. It's noticed that Sethe, “I’ll get that… In silence she wiped the floor and retrieved the cup.” Within the quote, it's noticed that Sethe is cleaning the spill that Paul D caused at a consistent rate. It's implied that she cleans up more that men would do. In further research, it's seen that men are the workers that help the family stay stable, which, the wife's or the women in the house have to clean and make food. This is a stereotype that is seen in our current state, which should be changed. As with the racism and slavery shown in the society of “Beloved”, gender inequality is another social atrocity that has been somewhat fixed over time. As contemporary society has revealed with the open minded approach to other social inequalities with deep rooted sentiment in american culture, sexism has been mostly frowned upon due to more moral sympathy for the feminist movement in recent years.

~DANIEL ROMERO~

Slavery and Motherhood

        Toni Morrison’s Beloved is full of strong relationships between characters in the novel, specifically between former slave Sethe and her children. Sethe’s tragic past influences her actions and these relationships in this literary piece - only one of her children at the start of the novel is still living with her, two have ran away, and one she murdered nearly twenty years prior. Sethe’s complicated and intense relationships with her children, especially hers with Beloved, the almost supernatural being that appears to be her dead daughter reincarnate, help illustrate the theme that our personal relationships can be bindingly the most important part of our lives, what simultaneously keep us in the past and the future.

        After Beloved arrives early on in the novel, we begin to see Sethe’s behavior and attitude towards her free life change. In the absence of most of her children, she became anxious and unsure of her direction, but when she realizes Beloved has a frightening amount of the infant she killed years ago, she sees it as a second chance to reconnect with this generation of people she raised, the first for her to spend their early lives out of slavery.

        Terry Paul Caesar claims that this novel depicts motherhood and slavery as being mutually inclusive. He notes that a mother is “a slave to her daughter”, and vice versa (Slavery and Motherhood). As it is true that a child relies on its mother for life and comfort, it is also true that a mother must be there for her child, and is therefore tied to them forever. This theory is evident in Beloved when we see Sethe and Beloved’s relationship deepen, and Sethe ends up spending more time in Beloved’s company than with her other daughter Denver, maybe in an effort to make up for the time she lost after she murdered the then unnamed daughter in order to save her from suffering. Because of this, we can see that the majority of a mother’s life, like Sethe, is spent developing relationships with her children, as it is her job.

        Besides Sethe’s relationship with Paul D, she and her children are the driving force in Beloved’s plot. Sethe, after hearing Beloved singing a song she only sang to her children, has no doubt that Beloved is the human form of the ghost that once roamed her house. She becomes enamored with this being, while still haunted by the fact that the community shuns her for killing this same child. We see Sethe continue to be a "slave" to Beloved until her departure in the end of the book.

Stephanie- Why I Chose This Lense

A feminist lens on a book that involves a mother’s dead child is crucial. Mothers are nurturing and loving, capable of doing the impossible to ensure their loved baby’s well being. It is a given that many raw emotions and healing processes will be weaved throughout the whole book. This will affect the work as a whole and incorporate feminist perspectives and women empowered thoughts. Since the whole book is inspired by a past of slavery and life changing events, it is important to take note on how a person who was seen as a gender and racial minority takes back control of their voice. After suffering from a hard past and being freshly freed, women started to speak up and voice their personal experiences and started a trend that portrays women as strong and durable instead of weak like society viewed women in the time the book took place. This is going to impact how the reader digests Sethe’s personal testimony as she converts herself to an open book revealing her true inner self as a mother, a survivor of slavery, and a processing healing scar.

Stephanie's Close Reading

1. What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy?

In the work, Paul had to make certain choices because of how society treated him at this time economically and socially, having an effect on him psychologically. 

“Crawling, out of the woods, cross-eyed with hunger and loneliness, he knocked at the first back door he came to in the colored section of Wilmington. He told the woman who opened it that he’d appreciate doing her woodpile, if she could spare him something to eat(154)”.

“Later when he saw pale cotton sheets and two pillows in her bedroom, he had to wipe his eyes quickly, quickly so she would not see the thankful tears of a man’s first time. Soil, grass, mud, shucking, leaves, hay, cobs, seashells-all that he’d slept on. White cotton sheets had never crossed his mind. He fell in with a groan and the woman helped him pretend he was making love to her and not her bed linen”(154).
Because Paul was a slave that had just been freed, he was forced to leave Sweet Home in need of help. Since slaves were viewed as a minority by society, Paul had to face a lot of trouble on how he was going to get about with discrimination troubling him.  This affected him to be desperate and search for help in exchange of work he can do. Since he was poor from being han unpaid slave, he had to use labor as a way to pay back whatever help he can get. He also has to sneak around and constantly be in fear because society did not want black people interacting with them or their white communities. 
This could of also had an effect on Paul using his strength as a man to benefit a woman into helping him out. That is why in the passage on page 154 he gave labor and sex to the woman in exchange for a place to stay. This symbolizes how men interpret their influence in a woman’s life, that woman needs a man’s strength for help and gender parts for pleasure. This plays a part on society’s thoughts of the two different gender relationships, and how they both benefit from each other. A woman, according to the selection, gives a man a home; a feeling they haven’t felt before. This makes an illusion of safety and comfort to a man. That is why Paul did not want to leave this woman’s house, and cried at the feeling of having things he did not have in his past.

Strawberry Leaves

        “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 shiny” (76).

        In this passage at the beginning of the seventh chapter, Paul D describes Beloved - the mysterious young woman who has shown up at Sethe’s house, who bears the same name of her dead daughter - like a strawberry plant. When she is described this way, she seems more like a beautiful picture than a person - pleasing to the eye - but Paul D does not mention anything other than the color of the leaves. Moreover, because Paul D claims that only women develop like this, he is generalizing and further objectifying Beloved.

        Paul D could also be referring to Beloved’s personality, as when she first arrived at the house she was ill and unaccustomed to her new life, but now she seems to be unfurling like a young leaf. This quote chronicles the maturation of the strawberry plant, a berry that has many positive connotations, as it is red and sweet. From seedling to grown plant with waxy, dark leaves, this passage depicts Beloved’s journey from childhood to the young woman she is now.

        The use of the word “gilded” is vivid and memorable when used in this passage, because gilded means to be covered in gold leaf, even as Paul D is referring to leaves, which are typically green. The image of the green strawberry leaves with gold accents, something not typical of strawberry plants, highlights Beloved’s inner, unique beauty that she is developing at this point in the book.

Why Erin Chose This Lens

I chose the Feminist/Gender lens because quite often when I am reading a piece of literature, I am also thinking about the representation of gender in the work. Especially in historical pieces, I notice that there is an overwhelming amount of strong male characters, while women are usually stereotyped and fewer. Because I knew that the protagonist of Beloved is a woman, and the time period is also in the 19th century, I decided it would be interesting for me to explore this perspective once more. I believe it's necessary to have a wide representation of genders in literature, as not only is it often more interesting, but it also appeals to a wider audience.

Why Kevin Chose this lens?

The lens of Feminist and Gender interested me more than other lens that I had the opportunity to chose because with this lens I had the opportunity to work with it and understand it so I can try and succeed by having on this lens. My previous experience in topics where I had to do feminist on a story called “Desiree’s Baby” By Kate Chopin. I looked for evidence where it would show me if the story had gender or feminist in it. My personal belief towards this topic is that I have seen so many stuff in this world where they are rude to genders or they put females down by arguing that men are better or stuff like that. Another lens I had consider doing was Race, I had race as one of my lens because i felt that in this story there could possibly be a lot of things that has to do with racism. What I am trying to get out of this project is that I master how to dectect when they are using feminist and gender in different types of stories.

Why I choose my lens?

The lens that I choose was the feminist lens. I choose this lens because I want to learn more about how a woman figure plays the part of a male figure, without the male figure present. Knowing that the book ‘Beloved’ takes place after the Civil War and the Slavery Age, it truly caught my attention, on how a women is played and how her affects shape who she is today (in the book). This will be my first time analyzing a text within the feminist lens, which I am very excited for.  I hoping that I get a lot out of analyzing a text through feminist lens because it would be really interesting to me and how I can connect it to today's society.  Something that I can relate to this society, is how many moms are left alone, to raise their child on their own, rather than having father figure, the mother is having to play both figures for baby.

~Daniel Romero~