Summary Of Slavery In Toni Morrisons Beloved - 996 Words

Beloved is a book not written to teach, explain, or tell you about slavery. Beloved was written to show slavery, show the punishment, the suffering, and the agony. Morrison blends many aspects of the pain endured by her characters throughout Beloved into a tale that illustrates the true extent of the damage slavery causes. One of the main themes, and a focus of this suffering, is Motherhood. Morrison creates Sethe’s motherhood to be a critical aspect of her character, then targets this trait with abuse and violence to illustrate the depth of pain slavery inflicts on its subjects. Morrison shows the damage slavery causes through the vein of motherhood by combining the use of breastmilk as a symbolic effigy for motherhood that can be†¦show more content†¦Beloved’s blood mixing with milk represents the contamination of Sethe’s motherhood. The milk acts as the representation of motherly connection and support, the blood portrays the destruction of family, th e spilling of kin’s blood. The blood mixed with the milk signifies the sacrifices that need to be made to survive in a world of slavery, the death that Sethe believed was necessary to protect her children. Milk is a symbol made to be acted upon, to be corrupted, stolen, saved; it shows the perils and importance of Sethe’s motherhood. When analyzing the importance of milk to the theme of motherhood, Mock reiterates the importance of breastfeeding and asserts that the act of breastfeeding to Morrison is more than just nurturing, but the creation of a bond, â€Å"Within the theme of the maternal sphere, Morrison stresses breast-feeding as essential to the natural unity of the mother-child bond; she exemplifies more fully the mutilation of this sphere by depicting the enslavement of mother and child within as they are separately and individually buffeted by the forces of slavery, belonging not to each other, but to their captors† (Mock). The system of slavery enacts its atrocities upon Sethe’s capacity to be a mother by taking away her sense of maternal ownership. Slavery made it so that her daughter was not her own, thatShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Beloved By Toni Morrison2078 Words   |  9 PagesAn Analysis of Beloved as a Portrayal of American History Toni Morrison’s 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Beloved is clearly a work of well deserved literary acclaim. It has been hailed as one of the most revolutionary, poetic, and poignant pieces of modern American literature. 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