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.