Dehumanization Of Slavery In Beloved
Slavery is a system of dehumanization. It can cause physical scars as well as psychological effects. Slavery has been the result of war, broken families, and destroyed the self-esteem of many people. In Beloved, Morrison shows what it means to live as a slave and what destruction have been brought to the lives of slaves. The author of this novel reveals the buried experiences for a better understanding of the effects of slavery on African Americans.
The protagonist of the novel Sethe, a black woman and previously slave was orphaned by the death of her slaved parents. Being owned strongly influences Sethe's behaviors throughout the novel. After being raped by school teachers’ nephews and being whipped severely, she remembers her time at Sweet
Home very vividly. She remembers what is like to have no identity, to be unable to have a say in her own life. Her trauma from being a slave causes her to kill her own children. Many people make the argument that Sethe killing her children was unjustifiable. However, no one today has ever experienced what it is like to be treated like an animal and to go throughout life without a sense of self. Sethe had. And she didn’t want the same life of abuse that she had endured to be passed on to her own children. Sethe had already experienced what it was like to be unable to make any type of decision for herself and what it was like not being treated like a human being. And she didn’t want that for her own children. She killed them because she believed a fate of death was better than to go through life without having a say or even an identity. It doesn’t make what Sethe did right, however, she felt a life without identity was worse for her children than anything else. Therefore, being owned, and her subsequent loss of identity as a slave strongly influenced her actions later on in life.
The protagonist of the novel Sethe, a black woman and previously slave was orphaned by the death of her slaved parents. Being owned strongly influences Sethe's behaviors throughout the novel. After being raped by school teachers’ nephews and being whipped severely, she remembers her time at Sweet
Home very vividly. She remembers what is like to have no identity, to be unable to have a say in her own life. Her trauma from being a slave causes her to kill her own children. Many people make the argument that Sethe killing her children was unjustifiable. However, no one today has ever experienced what it is like to be treated like an animal and to go throughout life without a sense of self. Sethe had. And she didn’t want the same life of abuse that she had endured to be passed on to her own children. Sethe had already experienced what it was like to be unable to make any type of decision for herself and what it was like not being treated like a human being. And she didn’t want that for her own children. She killed them because she believed a fate of death was better than to go through life without having a say or even an identity. It doesn’t make what Sethe did right, however, she felt a life without identity was worse for her children than anything else. Therefore, being owned, and her subsequent loss of identity as a slave strongly influenced her actions later on in life.