Toni Morison's Beloved portrays an
institutionalized dehumanization of the slaves, elucidate.
Beloved" is a novel of slavery by Toni Morrison. She
was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in 1993 in literature. This American
novelist was also awarded Pulitzer Prize in 1988. "Beloved" deals
with an institutionalized dehumanization of the slaves. She is an anti-racist
novelist. According to her, racism is a big threat to the development of a
country. She followed the 16th American President Abraham Lincoln, Martin
Luther King Junior and Nelson Mandela. Slavery is an inhuman practice. Sethe is
the protagonist of "Beloved". She was a victim of racial violence.
She was sold as a slave when she was 13 years old. Paul D is a major character
of this novel who suffered a lot for slavery. Slavery destroyed his whole life.
This novel shows us the miserable condition of the slaves. The white people
considered them as subhuman, not human beings. The institutionalized
dehumanization of the slaves of
this novel has been discussed
below.
Sethe was a tragic character. She suffered a lot in her
whole life. She was sold as a slave to the plantation of Mr. Garner. The name
of this plantation was Sweet Home. She was the only female slave in this
plantation. Other male slaves are Sixo, Paul D, Paul F, Paul A, Halle. Paul A,
Paul S and Paul were brothers. She had to face the lusty violence from her male
slaves. She fell in love with Halle. He was a kind and good male slave. He also
loved her deeply. Later on, they married each other. She became a mother of
three children by Halle. Her sons were Howard and Buglar and only daughter was
unnamed. It must be mentioned that her master Mr. Garner and Mrs. Garner were
very kind and affectionate. They had humanity. When Mr. Garner died, a school
teacher became the owner of the plantation. The school teacher was a deadly
racist. He tortured the slaves. The slaves were extremely dissatisfied with his
behavior. He was a racist like Mary Turner of "The Grass is Singing"
by Doris Lessing. Sethe and other slaves planned to escape from the plantation.
They tried but some of them were captured. Sethe was captured but she was pregnant at that time. The nephews of the school teacher violated her physically. Later,
the school teacher whipped her severely. Her husband Halle was also captured
and he was tortured cruelly. To see the painful condition of his wife Sethe, he
became mad. The school teacher killed Sixo, a good slave. Regarding slavery,
Sethe says,
"Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed.
There is no bad luck in the world but white people."
Sethe escaped from the plantation somehow. Before that, she
sent her three children to her mother-in-law named Baby Suggs. Baby Suggs was
also a slave. Sethe became senseless in a forest. Later on, a white girl named
Amy Denver saved and took care of her. With the help of Amy Denver, Sethe gave
birth to a daughter in the boat. Since Amy Denver helped her a lot, she named
her newly born child Denver. Later, she went to her own house at 124 with her
new daughter. She passed 28 days in her house with Baby Suggs. The school
teacher went to her house to capture her and her children. She fled from her
house with her children. She wanted to kill all her children because she did
not want to see them as slaves. She killed her eldest daughter with her knife.
This daughter is none but Beloved. That is, we can say that Beloved is the
spirit of her dead daughter. After the death of Baby Suggs, Howard and Buglar
left their mother because they were certain that their mother Sethe would kill
them. But her youngest daughter Denver did not leave. She was not scared of her
mother. Paul D went to the house of Sethe to tell her about his suffering. He
escaped Sweet Home but he was tortured very cruelly by his master. He became
shelterless, aimless, and relatively less. Meanwhile, Beloved visited the house
of Sethe. Sethe understood that Beloved is the spirit of her daughter. Beloved
blamed Sethe for killing her. Sethe told Beloved that she killed her to save
her from being a slave. Denver had a good relation with Beloved. But when she
saw that Beloved was dominating over her mother, she left Sethe. In the end of
the novel, Beloved disappeared and Sethe became alone.
In light of the above discussion, we can say that
"Beloved" portrays an institutionalized dehumanization of the slaves.
The suffering of slaves beggar description. Toni Morrison expresses her hatred
against slavery in her novel. We have to say goodbye to slavery. We can not
say that slavery has been removed completely from this world. Still, now,
slavery is prevalent in African countries. It is our sacred responsibility to
hate slavery and slave masters. Toni Morrison deserves our love and
appreciation for her fight against slavery.