To really convey and discuss my posts, I'd like you all to understand the overarching theme for this blog. So, here's my abstract: Morrison recreates the historical representation of African American agency by creating a parallel to the family of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved. There are going to be THREE (this is 1 of 3) posts the deal with this subject... there is more than enough per each characterization for a whole post. Remembering this will help you navigate my blog, and put together my thesis as a whole.
The history and family parallel begins in a very loose manner. There are many similarities between the two. Both things have a beginning, for the sake of the novel, the beginning is Sethe, the mother. So, how does characterization create the parallel to history? Sethe represents agency during a time of slavery in America.
Sethe's background here says it all...All we know about Sethe's past involves slavery... We can look at her experiences with Schoolteacher (her direct relationship with slavery), her relationship with both Halle and Paul D, and her relationship with her children (Beloved and Denver). Sethe is greatly characterized by her actions, and is also characterized by the people that surround her.
The most prominent point of characterization that directly correlates is her experiences with schoolteacher, and her time spent in slavery. The schoolteacher's lesson on her animal like nature, and the community shunning Sethe tell us a lot about agency during the time of slavery. So? What does it say? What is the point? Here, Morrison is trying to say that African American agency/indenty was not molded by African Americans... Instead, it was prescribed by white slave holders as a means of control and manipulation.
But that wouldn't do, for Sethe. That is clear when Sethe steals food instead of waiting in line, again when she insists on an appropriate dress for her union with Halle, and yet again when she is willing to kill her children. Sethe's willingness to make that sacrifice, an ultimate sacrifice for love, is how Morrison represents the African American response to a lack of agency. It is a way of saying "No future is better than this future." Without children, the familial history dies... Therefore, Sethe's willingness to kill her children, shows the willingness of one to reach an end of slavery, by any (extreme) means necessary.
This is of course, the very beginning of the timeline and metaphor Morrison is making in Beloved. In the next post, we will discuss where and what Denver represents... But before I log off this post, I'd like to add a few notes on why agency, and creating agency for myself, is so important. Historically, agency has been a problem for many people... African Americans, Native Americans, the Jewish, etc. Being part of a minority (Native American, and Western Buddhist) I have been prescribed my agency, instead of letting it speak for itself. I cannot count the number of people who have told me I cannot be Buddhist, because I am American and white... and it that way, I identify greatly with Sethe. However, in contrast, she is being told what she is: an animal, beneath, minor. Historically, I am wondering if we are ever going to get to point where the self defines the self... Meaning, we are who we are... without these prescribed (and often wrong) outside influences.
