Paper: Toni Morrison’s Beloved – The Continuum of Racism

This paper was submitted for “English Composition 5W: Literature, Culture, and Critical Inquiry – Concepts of Reality” with Dr. Lisa Gerrard in Winter 2008.

Amy’s innocence and her willingness to help Sethe, the Garner’s empathy and care, and the Bodwin’s abolitionist attitude may seem kind—but they are only a diluted version of the schoolteacher’s blatant and violent racism. “It don’t matter, Sethe. What they say is the same. Loud or soft,” Paul D warns her (231). The lasting effects of slavery induce the white characters to acts of violence and feelings of superiority that degrade and dehumanize the blacks. In the end, the whites are essentially degrading themselves in this continuum, revealing the true humanity of the slaves despite the white’s persistent efforts to strip them of their humaneness.

Grounded on the theory that slaves are not human beings, but animals at best, the schoolteacher and his nephews abuse the power of the institution of slavery, as they degrade the blacks at Sweet Home, exploiting them as the racial and sexual other. In part II of the novel, the painful realities experienced by Sethe at Sweet Home, under the watchful eye of the schoolteacher, are manifested as her memories recall his treatment of the slaves. She remembers how he regarded them as simple-minded farm stock, and ideal creatures to experiment on: “Schoolteacher’d wrap that string all over my head, ‘cross my nose, around my behind. Number my teeth” (226). By using string, the schoolteacher measures the body parts of the blacks and studies them. This action of physical measurement becomes a form of oppression, as it subjugates the slaves into biological specimens. One day, Sethe overhears a lesson being instructed by the schoolteacher to his nephews. During his instruction, the schoolteacher directs his nephews to categorize Sethe’s characteristics. As she walks past the tutorial, Sethe hears him say, “No, no. That’s not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right” (228). In this manner, the schoolteacher continues to reduce Sethe, and slaves in general, to animals. He sees himself as a scientist investigating another species. Furthermore, his systematic method of examination leads him to adopt a deductive analytical process, which he subsequently uses to evaluate the nature of the blacks. This process of categorization divides the black and white community further apart, as it labels black people as an inferior species. Instead of being considered humans, they are thought of as animals that need to be observed, examined, and understood.

By ordering his nephews to rape Sethe while he watches the act, the schoolteacher displays his aggressive nature of dehumanizing the slaves at Sweet Home. Sethe’s memory is still haunted by the event, as she remembers when the boys walked in and “stole her milk”. This horrible act of cruelty and degradation is illustrated powerfully as Sethe states, “ I am full God damn it of two boys with mossy teeth, one sucking on my breast the other holding me down, their book-reading teacher watching and writing it up. I am still full of that…” (83). Here, the reader understands both the resulting damage of the experience, and the sadistic character of the schoolteacher. By observing this rape, the schoolteacher exploits Sethe sexually, and then documenting it, he is able to re-write the essence of her identity. His ability to exert both power and control over her ultimately enables him to reconstruct her identity—one that is subhuman and bestial. The nephews hold her down, and attack her like some sort of animal that needs to be captured and subdued. Ultimately, the reader sees the schoolteacher, with the help of his nephews, dehumanizing Sethe once again but this time in a more violent and physical way.

Also present at Sweet Home, Mr. and Mrs. Garner play the roles of the kind and humane slave owners, yet even their attitude towards the blacks cannot remain untainted by racism and slavery. While the schoolteacher provides an example of a more direct and vicious version of bigotry, the Garners’ exemplify a more enlightened mentality about slavery, yet the slave’s humanity and status is still subject to their whim. Baby Suggs treatment by the Garner’s at Sweet Home is seemingly fair: “[Lillian Garner] never pushed, hit or called her mean names…nobody knocked her down” (164). The Garners’ attempt to imitate a “special kind of slavery” (165), paid labor, where they were listened to, allowed the slaves to feel less threatened by their masters. Though their paternalism demonstrated more compassion, it only masked their true beliefs about their slaves, who Mrs. Garner considered not to be men at all, but “niggers” (12). Mr. Garner argues otherwise: “Now at Sweet Home, my niggers is men every one of em” (12); but only to elevate himself as a greater and more powerful man—superior to not only niggers, but black men. By referring to the slaves as “niggers,” Garner exposes his contempt and his overall loathing of them. Therefore, though the Garners’ actions are accepted as more humane, their view of the blacks does not differ from the rest of the slave owners.

One of the first white characters the reader sees interacting with a black character outside of Sweet Home is Amy Denver. Not only does Amy nearly save Sethe’s life near the Ohio River, but she also delivers Denver, who is named in her honor. Amy’s actions, such as helping Sethe, massaging her feet, redefining her wounds as a “chokecherry tree” with “tiny little cherry blossoms” are seen as benevolent and almost altruistic. In these scenes, Amy serves as the antithesis to the cruel white characters. However, even someone as naïve and innocent as Amy, who just wants carmine velvet from Boston, is stained with the effects of slavery. Her conversation with Sethe is littered with racist epithets and fraught with dehumanizing remarks, as she casually mentions her “old nigger girl [who] don’t know nothing…just like you” (94). She sarcastically asks her, “What you gonna do, just lay there and foal?” (41). In using “foal,” Amy degrades Sethe to a horse and it’s only when she sees Sethe as helpless does she finally help.

When first introduced, Mr. and Miss Bodwin, the brother and sister appear to embody hope and a chance of freedom for the blacks—but even the Bodwins cannot escape the pervasive effects of slavery. They are constantly mentioned in conversation when blacks need a place to go or just need some help: “The Bodwins—the white brother and sister who gave Stamp Paid, Ella and John clothes, goods and gear for runaways” (162). They had a particular stake in Sethe’s life by taking “Jenny”, or Baby Suggs, from Mr. Garner and giving her a job in their home. Miss Bodwin even reminds Mr. Garner, “We don’t hold with slavery, even Garner’s kind” (171). The overall sentiment of the black community was that “for every schoolteacher there would be an Amy; that for every pupil there was a Garner, or Bodwin, or even a sheriff” (222); the Bodwins were held in high esteem. They “hated slavery worse than they hated slaves” (162) and believed that “human life is holy, all of it” (307).

However, myriad contradictions unearth as Denver begins to see inside their home and the Bodwins themselves. When Mr. Bodwin comes to take Denver to work in domestic service, he is essentially placing her in a position of servitude once again. It’s when Denver sees the statue of the black boy and the words: “At Yo Service” (300) that the reader realizes that help from the people who own this ornament is only helping to perpetuate racism. The statue is missing a nose and has a head “thrown back farther than a head could go” that in a real human being could only be accounted for by a broken neck (300). “A cluster of raised, widely spaced dots made of nail heads” have been hammered into his head as a substitute for hair (300). His mouth, “wide as a cup” is a receptacle for anything his owner wants to put in it. Despite the reader’s realization, Denver fails to recognize the problem of the contradictory in displaying the statue and helping the blacks. While she notices the statue of the slave, she is indifferent, demonstrating the blacks’ acceptance that the whites can never fully detach from racism.

Although the white characters all express different degrees of superiority through verbal or physical means, both result in the subjugation of the blacks. The schoolteacher and his nephews illustrate the extremity on the spectrum of racism, through their violence and shameless “studying” of the slaves as animals. Additionally, the Garners’ benevolent actions toward their slaves at Sweet Home are negated by their condescension, and ultimately still rob the slaves of their humanity. Furthermore, Amy is so enraptured in her mission for velvet that she becomes the one that is less human and almost robotic. She doesn’t care about anything else—not the welfare a runaway slave, not the future of the newborn baby, nothing—just carmine velvet in Boston. Even in Sethe’s time of need, she persists with the racist remarks. Finally, the Bodwins fail to comprehend the implications behind the statue, that it is analogous to the physical, mental, and emotional attack by whites and slave owners—and thus, fail to be the exception amongst the white people. Though the whites’ belief in their own superiority enables them to treat the blacks as innately inferior creatures, Morrison reverses this cycle by presenting the perspectives of the blacks, and ultimately, depicts the whites as being inhumane themselves.