Sense of Self
One aspect of Beloved that I found especially fascinating was the way that Toni Morrison explored the sense of self and identity of a lot of the characters. Through Slavery, the identity of those who are enslaved is greatly reduced. Some of it is intentional, like how Schoolteacher talks about Sethe in terms of “breeding” and her “foals.” Some of it is a byproduct of the system, like not knowing your real mother or language. The disconnect between families causes many enslaved people not to know about who they are. They also work so much that they don’t have time to discover who they truly are. Some of the lack of sense of self or connection is almost a form of self-protection. Lots of people were prepared for the inevitability of being torn from their parents or children so they didn’t allow themselves to become fully connected as mothers, fathers, sisters, or brothers. We’ve talked about Sethe, Beloved, and Denver a lot in class so for my blog post I want to focus on Baby Suggs and Paul D.
One passage of the book that stood out to me was when Baby Suggs was talking about herself and how she “never had the map to discover what she was like” (Morrison 165). Morrison writes on page 165:
“Could she sing? (Was it nice to hear when she did?) Was she pretty? Was she a good friend? Could she have been a loving mother? A faithful wife? Have I got a sister and does she favor me? If my mother knew me would she like me?”
This passage was extremely powerful to me because of how easily most of us know these things about ourselves. Baby Suggs gives herself a name and doesn’t even know her own children. It's also interesting how this passage shifts between 'I' and 'she.' It's almost as if she's seeing herself from the outside. She comes into herself when she becomes Baby Suggs, holy and the only way she is able to do that is because of her freedom.
Paul D manifests his disconnect from himself as running. Constantly running from his past, his thoughts. To be fair, he is often scared of being caught and re enslaved, however, even when he starts to settle down with Sethe he is always moving internally. However, Paul D is grounded in his love for his brothers. The way that identity and discovering himself is woven into his character also helps him discover who he is. Slavery repressed some of the most central parts of who people were at heart. Even if it’s not a physical sign of slavery, the psychologial issues have a big effect on the formerly enslaved people even after they’re freed.
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I like your blog and how you articulate the idea of self-identity and how slavery suppressed who people were. Reading 'Beloved' and novels alike put into context how bad slavery was and how it divided black families. You mention how mothers and parents in general were emotionally detached from there children because they knew how there was a good chance they may be sold and/or taken from them. Toni Morrison depicts this through Sethe. Sethe kills her own children without seemingly any regrets. This shows that slavery was so emotionally torturous that it bred parents to not care for there children. I like your blog and the commentary you make on the book.
ReplyDeleteI love the passages where Baby Suggs is discovering her "self" for the first time, when she arrives in Cincinnati ("these *my* hands" etc.). One important aspect of the concept of self in this novel (and throughout Morrison's fiction, in fact) has to do with names and naming: throughout this novel we have examples of characters naming *themselves* in some personally meaningful way, remaining completely ignorant of their "bill of sale name." The woman we know as Baby Suggs is called "Jenny" by Garner, and she never understands why--but she names herself "Baby" because that's what her husband called her, and "Suggs" because it's his name. If he ever tries to find her, he won't be looking for "Jenny." We have Stamp Paid, who named himself once he no longer owed anyone anything (he used to be "Joshua"). Sethe is named for her father, by her mother (who knows what Garner called her). Sethe names her daughter Denver after the whitewoman who helps her during her escape. Characters in part establish their identity by naming or renaming themselves.
ReplyDelete(And of course "Beloved"--who also apparently has a "given name" we never learn--is another prime example of this.)
DeleteI love that you decided to focus on Baby Suggs in this blog post. She's a really complex character (like basically all of Morrison's characters) and I feel like we just didn't have time to talk about her unfortunately. I think one thing really interesting about Baby Suggs is the way she was set up in the beginning of the novel. Personally, I read her as a bit of a crotchety old woman on her death bed demanding things. But seeing her later in the book as this motherly caretaker is so interesting, and to see this other layer of her identity that you've pulled out also adds a ton to her.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting blog post! I love how you explore the characters and their stories and personalities in terms of their sense of self. I had not thought much about the novel in these terms before! What you wrote about Baby Suggs in particular resonated with me, with the idea that she doesn’t know things about herself that most of us probably are more familiar with or confident in. The switch between “she” and “I” is particularly interesting too. The change between perspectives throughout all of Beloved was certainly one of my favorite aspects of the structure of this book (among many others!). Although we think a lot about how the character’s past and past memories shape their present (“rememory” and “haunting”), the idea of how this emotionally and personally affects the perception that they have of themselves and their thoughts and awareness of themselves simply as people often gets left behind. Thank you for exploring it and writing! Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteHey Madeleine, this blog post is really insightful. I love how you find specific examples of many characters lacking knowledge of their own identity - it makes me think of Paul D and his tin can heart. I think it's interesting that at the end of the novel, we are able to get some sort of seeming resolution for some of the characters. Like that Sethe is finally able to be be dependent on Paul D and he is able to be vulnerable with her. But I really enjoy that you focused on Baby Suggs because we didn't get that much with her.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great insight, and it connects to the historical context of the characters. Like you stated, under slavery the identity of characters' is reduced, such as schoolteachers explicitly dehumanizing language. This is a good representation of the psychological aspects of slavery, specifically the tactics that slave owners would use to break down their slaves. Which makes it all the more powerful that characters like Ella and Sethe managed to not be broken down, and keep moving on. The exact same thing applies to Baby Suggs, like you said. Great post overall.
ReplyDeleteDespite the efforts of slavery to steal identity, and the way that made lots of the characters somewhat insecure about their understanding of themselves, as a reader it was actually always very easy to understand the essence of the characters. This probably has to do with how good Toni Morrison is at writing, and comments on how you can't really steal a person's self, no matter how hard you try.
ReplyDelete