Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 34 views

    Outline 1 Paragraph 1: "Bad" White Attitudes

    Uploaded by

    Vicky
    The document summarizes key aspects of slavery's dehumanizing effects on African Americans as portrayed in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. Specifically: 1) "Bad" white attitudes emasculated and dehumanized black people through actions like forcing Paul D to wear a humiliating bit and characterizing Sethe's features as animal-like. This caused deep psychological trauma that individuals often kept private. 2) "Good" white people, like the Garners, still viewed blacks as inferior, such as denying Sethe an official wedding. 3) The best method of overcoming these effects was for blacks to collectively release feelings and share experiences, as at the Clearing, rather than

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Outline 1 Paragraph 1: "Bad" White Attitudes

    Uploaded by

    Vicky
    34 views2 pages
    The document summarizes key aspects of slavery's dehumanizing effects on African Americans as portrayed in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. Specifically: 1) "Bad" white attitudes emasculated and dehumanized black people through actions like forcing Paul D to wear a humiliating bit and characterizing Sethe's features as animal-like. This caused deep psychological trauma that individuals often kept private. 2) "Good" white people, like the Garners, still viewed blacks as inferior, such as denying Sethe an official wedding. 3) The best method of overcoming these effects was for blacks to collectively release feelings and share experiences, as at the Clearing, rather than

    Original Title

    Beloved FRQs

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document summarizes key aspects of slavery's dehumanizing effects on African Americans as portrayed in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. Specifically: 1) "Bad" white attitudes emasculated and dehumanized black people through actions like forcing Paul D to wear a humiliating bit and characterizing Sethe's features as animal-like. This caused deep psychological trauma that individuals often kept private. 2) "Good" white people, like the Garners, still viewed blacks as inferior, such as denying Sethe an official wedding. 3) The best method of overcoming these effects was for blacks to collectively release feelings and share experiences, as at the Clearing, rather than

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    34 views2 pages

    Outline 1 Paragraph 1: "Bad" White Attitudes

    Uploaded by

    Vicky
    The document summarizes key aspects of slavery's dehumanizing effects on African Americans as portrayed in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. Specifically: 1) "Bad" white attitudes emasculated and dehumanized black people through actions like forcing Paul D to wear a humiliating bit and characterizing Sethe's features as animal-like. This caused deep psychological trauma that individuals often kept private. 2) "Good" white people, like the Garners, still viewed blacks as inferior, such as denying Sethe an official wedding. 3) The best method of overcoming these effects was for blacks to collectively release feelings and share experiences, as at the Clearing, rather than

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 2

    Outline 1

    Paragraph 1: "Bad" White Attitudes


     "Bad" whites emasculate and dehumanize the blacks & Blacks seem to feel ashamed; avoid speaking about
    it to cope individually
    o Schoolteacher “broke into children what Garner had raised into men. And it was that that made
    them run off”
     school teacher emasculated the Sweet Home men
     Paul D keeps all these memories bottled up in his tin heart
    o The bit schoolteacher forces Paul D to wear: Page 84-85
     "'I was something else and that something was less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a
    tub."
     Dehumanizing
     Paul D sang about it, but has never told anyone how he felt, except finally Sethe Pg. 85
    o Schoolteacher scene characterizing Sethe's features: page 228
     "'I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right.'"
     Dehumanizing
     "I never told Halle or nobody": Sethe avoids telling people about it
    o Schoolteacher & nephews stealing Sethe's milk:
     Convince Sethe that death is better than slavery: she tries to kill children
     Slavery's dehumanizing effects too bad to deal with -> death better
     "And no one... would list her daughter's characteristics on the animal side of the
    paper" (296).
     As a community, Blacks release feelings, through singing/Clearing meetings
    o Page 103: "Here... we flesh... Love it... Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it..."

    Paragraph 2: "Good" White Attitudes


     Despite being considered "good" whites, they still view blacks as inferior
    o Mr. Garner- always said that he raised his slaves to be men
     But it made Paul D wonder if “Garner called and announced them men only on Sweet
    Home”
     allowed them to give their opinions and sometimes decide for themselves (pg 260)
     it's paradoxical, because while they are allowed to be "men" they aren't free men, and still
    have to serve the Garners as slaves
     made Halle and Paul D contemplate whether there was any difference in
    Garner’s and school teacher’s treatments of the slaves
    o Sethe asks Mrs. Garner for a wedding, Mrs. Garner just laughs it off (pg 31)
     Usually treats Sethe well, but still degrades her by rejecting a ceremony
    o Not allowing the wedding to be official: not allowing them to be “human”
    o Sethe tries to make herself a wedding dress
    o Mrs. Garner asking Sethe to bring her water: page 229
     Treats her like a servant
    o Mr. Bodwin's black figurine: page 300
     Even "good whitefolks" have these stereotypical racist parts of them
     "Oh, yeah. They good. Can't say they ain't good. I wouldn't trade them for another pair,
    tell you that"
     Blacks realize that fact and cope by acknowledging that it is the better of two evils, but that they are still
    not completely satisfied
    Conclusion: How "best" Blacks might overcome effects/which methods seem to work better

     Trying to hide past memories and the history just brings more pain
    o As seen in Sethe and Paul D’s tin heart
     Collectively, through support from one another, they are able to overcome past pains
    o The Clearing, and purging Beloved from 124= letting go of the memories of slavery that Beloved
    had represented
    Outline 2
    Paragraph 1: Feminine experience of slavery & aftermath + point of view
     Female point of view: tend to use thick love -> slavery especially painful since tears apart families
    o Aftermath: understanding towards other women who have experienced similar bad stuff, like rape
    (ex. Ella)
     Sethe defending Beloved from Paul D's questioning, saying that she could be like Ella
    o Experiences of female & male slaves differed
     Since Sethe and Baby Suggs were both mothers, they had an especially hard time letting go of their kids
     Sethe’s “milk being taken” -The effect on Sethe was to kill her kids instead of seeing them become slaves,
    they were her “most precious”

    Paragraph 2: Role of women in overcoming effects of slavery on Black community & members
     Women bring together the community; thick love; allow community to move on from past
    o Baby Suggs bringing everyone to the Clearing/party: thick love, since she earned her freedom she
    decided to use her time to help the slaves learn to love themselves (self-love) and to preach the
    Word; though later she becomes thin love
    o Sethe says "Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all." (194)
    o Women spread news of Beloved: 300 and come together to exorcise Beloved: 307
    -Paul D and other men travel instead as individuals: 78

    You might also like