final project: synthesis

Both novels, Beloved and Uncle Tom’s cabin, try to show how slavery affected people. They are different in a sense that Uncle Tom’s Cabin is narrated in a white persons point of view as where Beloved is narrated through an African Americans point of view. We can see the difference in these two novels. Uncle Tom’s Cabin tries to almost sugar coat the horrific events of slavery and there are many gaps and silences. Beloved fills those gaps and silences and is a very real novel not holding back any horrific truth from slavery events. At the end of Uncle Tom’s Cabin they move away and we don’t really get to follow their story on how slavery affected them afterwards. Beloved shows not only how slavery really was at the time, but how deeply it affected everyone years later.

We can take what happened in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and bring it to the time frame of Beloved and see how the events that happened in the time period of Uncle Tom’s Cabin still affected people years later. In thinking of it this way, Beloved crosses over from the time period Uncle Tom’s Cabin took place to the place where her family ended up. Beloved brought those memories to the present time. In my Uncle Tom’s Cabin blog project I reflected on how Eliza did not stop running till she got to Canada. She did not stop in the north because no one in the north was safe, because no African American was safe in the north. This comes into play in Beloved. The text says, “ Inside, two boys bled in the sawdust and dirt at the feet of a…woman holding a blood-soaked child to her chest with one hand and an infant by the heels in the other…. Right off it was clear, to schoolteacher especially, that there was nothing there to claim”. We can see that even in the North, Sethe’s children were not safe, and she did what she did because she thought what she was doing was saving them, saving them from all the horrific things she had been through, so they would never have to go what she had been through. These horrific things that drove Sethe do to what she did and cut “Beloved’s” life short were not mentioned in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. We can see how the perspectives of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Beloved differ.

In my Critical Commentary I talk about the character of Beloved and what role she plays. I wrote about how Morrison gives a voice to the “unspeakable”. I think the character of Beloved helps play role in showing how slavery still affects people. Slavery is abolished but the horrific things still happened, and you can’t change it or forget about it. You can only move forward. Slavery has affected Sethe in a way that can’t be undone. She had killed her child to prevent her child from having to endure the pain of slavery. This outcome slavery had on Sethe’s life would haunt her for years after. Beloved helps aid Sethe in not forgetting about what happened when she was in slavery and how it affected her, but helping her move on.

We can see that slavery affected Sethe and even her dead daughter who haunted Sethe and then, who I think, came to the present as Beloved. We can still see in 2015 that the impact of slavery is still around today, through racism. Some may take racist comments and even jokes lightheartedly; but for many it’s a different story. Racist comments and jokes are not okay. They show that we still have a barrier between equality as we did in the past. In the news article I read, a sophomore in college told of how she was beat up when she was a child for being black. Everyone had a different experience with slavery back then and we still have different experiences today. Treating people differently based on race in 2015 brings back the painful memories of how people were treated differently in horrific ways back then. I think what we can take from Beloved is to keep moving forward and learn from the past. There may be racism still today but we can take our imperfect time period now and learn from it as well, and hopefully one day have a colored blind nation where every race is treated equally. 

final project: Reader Response

On Goodreads the Reviews were mostly good reviews. The readers loved the book for the most part but there were a few people who absolutely hated it. They didn’t understand what was going on or were just offended by it claiming Morrison was trying to make them feel guilty for things they themselves couldn’t control. A lot of people loved the ghost part of Beloved and the rememories that Sethe had. Although they themselves didn’t go through slavery they felt the impact that Beloved had on them. They felt the pain and suffering of slavery that Morrison gave the novel. One person wrote, “ Slavery is such an essential part of all our heritage that reading this treatment of it felt very personal, like listening to secrets about your grandparents”. The reviews from Barnes and Noble were similar to Goodreads reviews. There were more good reviews than bad. Many say it’s a “masterpiece” and a “must read”. Someone who had been apprehensive about reading the book because they had heard bad things about it went into reading with a bad attitude. They say, “ After reading the first couple chapters I understood Toni’s writing style and was able to really get into it. I was never bored and was able to put myself in the story”. Other peoples opinions are, “ it is a complex novel and a waste of time to read” and “ read it only if you’re forced”. They couldn’t keep up with different voice narrating and the constant changing time periods. Many others connected to the novel and say its,  “the most moving, soulful story of the slavery experience I have ever read”. There were also mixed reviews on amazon. “ One of the most challenging books I’ve read. But also one of the richest probing stories”.

I agree with both the people that loved it and hated it in a way. I agree with the people that hated it on how the book was a bit confusing at first. To the people that were offended by it, I can see where you might be coming from but I myself was not offended. I don’t think Morrison was trying to make us feel guilty, as we personally did not do anything. Morrison was just trying to fill in the gaps and silences and help shed light on the slavery experience from an African American woman’s point of view. I think although that the history of slavery for the majority affects African Americans more than white people, it also still has an impact on many whites as well. I agree this book can definitely take you to a different time period and make you feel the emotions that this book entails. After a while I think the confusion diminishes and once you realize what’s going on, its easier to follow along. I think this is a very moving story and I think it is a beneficial novel to read. I don’t agree that this is the most challenging book I have ever read but it definitely is one of the most historical and real-life emotional layered text I have ever read. Although it is a complex novel, I don’t think it is a waste of time to read. 

final project: Contemporary Connections

In 2015, the topic of race is still an issue. The topic is such a fragile one that one little comment that is meant inoffensively could be taken into account as racist comment. We can see the issues of race through a WBUR news article by Fred Thys titled, “ Incoming BU Professor Criticized for tweets on race; students rally to support”. A sociology teacher at Boston University, Saida Grundy had made several tweets about race in the last couple months. The comment that sparked this attention was when a fraternity from a university in Oklahoma tweeted about how they would never accept an African American member. Grundy made a tweet in response to them saying, “ Why is white America so reluctant to identify white college males as a problem population?” Although many were offended by this comment, others supported her. Jaimee McGruder, a student at Boston University made this statement concerning the comment, “ And we really, really hope that professor Grundy can come to BU and hopefully, maybe educate the largely white population, if they decide to take her class and learn more about these issues and why her tweets were not racist”. McGruder, a black woman, has experienced racism fist hand. She grew up in a white area in Louisiana. “Back home, I used to get beat up for being black. I was told in elementary school, ‘Nobody cares about black people’ by other children, by white children. This is something that students of color have to deal with. We’re told from the beginning of our lives that we don’t matter.” Grundy did not make a comment and declined to be interviewed for this article but she did make a statement, “ In the past year alone, the inconvenient matter of race has made itself an unavoidable topic of discussion in our country…I regret that my personal passion about issues surrounding these events led me to speak about them indelicately… I am committed to ensuring that my classroom is a space where all students are welcomed”.

I think this article really brings to light an issue of race, in different ways. The first is through social media. I think a lot of people don’t realize that they are making racist comments or being biased in terms of race on social media, where it can be seen by everybody. I think it’s interesting how not a lot of people saw these white fraternity males comments as a problem. I think a lot of people, not everyone, don’t think about these racist comments affects the other race. Grundy’s response to the fraternity was her response in dealing with the racial problem we have yet in America. We can see that she is role model for many who are trying to shed light there is still a race problem within society. The white fraternity members, don’t understand what it’s like for a different race because America, for some reason, sees white a the “dominant” race. Racist comments against whites isn’t nearly as big of a deal compared to racist comments made against African Americans. I think it would be beneficial for everyone, including those fraternity members, to think about those racial comments from the other sides perspective or viewpoint before putting them out there in the world. They’re experiences as white men are probably a lot different compared to McGruder’s experiences. It is very saddening to see that still in this era that African American children have to grow up getting bullied because of their race. This is something that McGruder says, “ This is something that students of color have to deal with”.

            In Beloved, Morrison shows us a different side to the slavery experience, from an African Americans point of view. She shows us how the experience was different than those of white people. African Americans were beaten, used for sex to produce more children, their children were taken away from them, and they were degraded as human beings and treated like animals. These are all things that whites never had to deal with. Racist comments they made towards African Americans such one like school teacher made about Sethe, making the men of SweetHome divide Sethe’s into human and animal characteristics. They had disregard for human feelings and degraded them by comments that had to do with race. Today, African Americans are still not treated equally by some people, although many people think they are. These racist comments that are still being made are degrading. I think that the horrible way African Americans were treated that are brought to light in Beloved can really help understand why the African American professor spoke up against racism. African Americans had to endure a different history than whites, and still have to put up with such racist comments in our world today.

Works Cited

Thys, Fred. "WBUR news station." 13 05 2015. Bostons NPR News Station. 13 05 2015 <www.wbur.org/2015/05/13/saod-grundy-bu-professor-tweets>.

Final Project: Critical Commentary

In “Hearing Reading and Being ‘Read’ by Beloved” by Angeletta Km Gourdine, the character of Beloved is brought to light. Instead of focusing on Sethe as a main character she analyzes the character of Beloved and the role she plays in the novel. What the author is trying to do is make sense of Beloved’s character. She talks about how Morrison “speaks the unspoken” and also gives the voice to the “unspeakable”. She also makes the claim that Beloved’s body represents a history of cultural pain. Beloved’s body portrays the future, one doomed by forgetting and remembering. Beloved resists being forgotten by placing herself in the present time, making the characters remember her. The characters in the novel spent years trying to forget about the child and now that Beloved is present it doesn’t make sense to try to forget; because Beloved is there, it is impossible. Beloved points out that although remembering seemed unwise, it is unavoidable. Denver “ actively manipulates the world and the past so as to create a future,” the author sees Beloved “as a vision of a future world where the past is manipulated, so that black women are prohibited from reclaiming an identity they taught us to despise”. Beloved’s rage manifests this identity.  The author believes that Beloved coming back to the present shows people living in the present that trying to bury past and forget pain that had occurred will not work. You can’t go into your future thinking that you can just forget, the past will haunt you. We must live in the present with the idea that there must always be a place for the past in the future; we can take the past and learn from it instead of trying to bury it. Just as Sethe’s child is still with her even though shes gone, the memory of slavery is still with us even though it was abolished. The authors says that “The idea of disremembrance and its consequences are the foundations of her response to Morrison’s novel. The novel Beloved relies upon amnesia about the horrific historical background our history has and it reminds everyone the price we pay for being comfortable with forgetting what happened. She explains how “there are two ways of existing in the textual and physical world of Beloved”. You handle your business, which is becoming involved with the reconciling with your past and if you don’t your business will handle you: you will be controlled or manipulated by the things that haunt you.

I think this authors response and interpretation of Beloved is an interesting way to look at it. I agree with all her points and I think her response achieve what she was looking to do. I think the way she describes Beloved and what she symbolizes is a true representation of Beloved. Beloved is this mysterious character who I think comes back to present to bring back the memory of Sethe’s deceased child. When in doing this, she also shows people that you can’t escape the past and you must face it in order to move forward peacefully in your future. I think this brings to light our past history and show how some may be okay with forgetting, others it affects much longer to reconcile with what happened. Our history’s horrific past was a different experience for different people and we all must not forget the past, but instead learn from it. I think this line from Sethe really reflects how you cannot escape or forget your past; it will always be there:

“I was talking about time. It's so hard for me to believe in it. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place—the picture of it—stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don't think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened."

            Sethe reminds us that although something is gone, it still remains as part of present. The memory of it will always be there even if it is no long physically there. I think a lot of us can relate to that. We think of our childhood, and the house we grew up in or our childhood friends might be physically gone, but the memory will always be there, and you can picture it in your mind, as if it were yesterday. The character of Beloved/her deceased child will always be in Sethe’s mind although Sethe is trying to bury the memory. Because of that, Beloved crosses over to the present to rekindle that memory and show that you can’t just pretend like the past never happened and that it is okay to remember the past.

When first reading Beloved, the character of Beloved was sort of confusing. The book would jump to present and past, and the character of Beloved showed up out of nowhere and was quite a mysterious character. Throughout the novel, we can piece together who we think Beloved is, but an article such as Gourdine’s can help explain and help you to connect who Beloved is and what she means. By reading this article you can faster piece together who Beloved is and not only get a deeper understanding of the character but you can then more quickly piece together your own interpretation of Beloved’s character and decide for yourself what she means to you.

Works Cited

Gourdine, Angeletta Km. "Hearing Reading and Being "Read" by Beloved." NWSA Journal 10.No. 2 (1998): 13-31.