How Gothic Themes Relate to Race and Culture in Beloved

How Gothic Themes Relate to Race and Culture in Beloved
By Jeremy Ezrin

Themes In Beloved represent the greater pain and suffering of the
victims of slavery.

Beloved by Toni Morrison is a complex and extremely symbolic novel. The themes of race and culture are extremely prevalent throughout the entirety of the plot, with nearly every action or event having a plausible deeper meaning or representation of the pain and suffering of Sethe and the sixty million of which Morrison references in the dedication. Hush, Little Baby-Ghost: The Postcolonial Gothic and Haunting History in Toni Morrison’s Beloved by Ruth Van Den Akker offers a unique analysis of race and its incorporation into the book. Den Akker focuses on the postcolonial and gothic influences of the novel and how they reveal themes that exemplify the murder and genocide of which is so prevalent. Furthermore the article argues that Morrison uses characters and events to assert aspects of the story that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. These euphemistic representations combined with the overarching themes of race and culture embedded within the deeper gothic and post colonial themes allow Morrison to portray the pain and stolen lives of slavery in a magnitude that stands for sixty million victims.

The influences of race and culture in Beloved’s overall plot cannot go unnoticed. There are multiple instances in which Morrison writes from the first person of the book’s characters, perhaps the most influential of these first person point of view is beloved’s. Beloved’s odd memories and horrific stories of the middle passage fill a gap in the story and reveal the book’s true motif. “I cannot lose her again  my dead man was in the way like the noisy clouds  when he dies on my face I can see hers she is going to smile at me  she is going to” (250). This quote exemplifies the confused and dark feelings that pertain to Beloved, while also alluding to gothic themes that Den Akker repeatedly references. This grotesque imagery exhibits her feelings towards Sethe, showing pain and a need for love and companionship. Furthermore this quote also exhibits the race/gothic theme which is prevalent in order to represent slavery as a whole. The numerous references to “faces” show the magnitude of slavery and how individuals lose their personal identity.

While the Den Akker effectively draws correlations between beloved and gothic theme that express pain and suffering, the themes are more isolated than that. The pain and infanticide referenced throughout the book are not meant to exhibit images of hell, but to show the pain of slavery and Sethe’s remorse towards herself and her actions.

Throughout the novel Morrison draws clear connections between the past and present via constant flashbacks as well as changing the point of view by which the book is narrated. The gothic influence of slavery and Beloved’s initial ghost form highlight the communal pain and suffering slavery has inhibited to slave and former slave families throughout the United States and abroad. While her later physical form highlight the family and content that was ripped away from millions by slavery. This complex theme of the novel is alluded to in numerous instances including the following, “Beloved, she my daughter. She mine. See. She come back to me of her own free will and I don’t have to explain a thing” (236), this quote exemplifies Beloved’s return from the dead and her love of which Sethe has longed for. Furthermore it also clearly shows the gothic themes by which Den Akker references by showing paranormal events such as Beloved’s return and it representation as the pain of slavery.

These examples as they pertain to gothic themes and symbolic representation throughout the novel are tools by which Morrison reveals themes of race and culture. Van Akker makes numerous references to such representations that give greater meaning to the book and the magnitude of its themes, this technique is represented in the following “The dedication of the novel, “Sixty Million and more”, draws attention to the vast amount of (hi)stories that are silenced of which Beloved is merely one”. The fact Morrison would reveal such an important theme in the book’s dedication only places further emphasis on its scope and magnitude. Furthermore Van Akker also argues “the gothic becomes a means to allow a disclaimed history to resurface into the present”. This further exemplifies a common theme throughout the novel of individuals and events representing over arching emotions or actions.

What does Beloved represent?

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Critical Lens: Race and Culture

Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a compelling novel that deals with a racial difference after the time of slavery. The novel deals with a racial and cultural difference between the blacks and whites is relevant throughout the text. One person that can be perceived as the racial and cultural difference from the past is Beloved. Beloved brings back memories to Paul and Sethe from the past and from their time during slavery. Sethe was forgetting about slavery until Beloved showed up. So, Beloved represents the cultural and racial difference from the past because she brings back memories to Paul and Sethe

In the article, “Hush, Little Baby-Ghost: The Postcolonial Gothic and Haunting History in Toni Morrison’s Beloved,” Ruth Van Den Akker writes about the cultural significance of the dead baby Beloved. She writes, “ As Wisker also argues, ‘the unbearable history of slavery is embodied in the presence of [this] baby-ghost’ (2005: 175). Therefore, Beloved is not merely a repetition of the  familiar ghost story, but functions as an appropriation of this genre in foregrounding cultural haunting.” In the novel, the ghost baby known as Beloved has some significance to the past. I think that when she uses the reference of the baby ghost, it represents a cultural haunting from the past because when she came into Sethe and Paul’s life she brought back memories of slavery. Beloved brings back a memory to Sethe about slavery and how she killed Beloved so she didn’t have to go through slavery. Her bringing back memories to Sethe cause racial and cultural tension with her and whites toward the end of the book. Since the ghost baby brings back memories of the past she could represent the culture from the past.

Another point that Ruth Van Den Akker talks about is cultural memory. She writes, “Cultural memory likewise connects past and present: ‘cultural memorization’ is ‘an activity occurring in the present, in which the past is continuously modified and redescribed even as it continues to shape the future’ (Bal, 1999: vii).” When Beloved shows up at 124 she brings memory from the past for Sethe and Paul. There was a lot of cultural memory in the book especially for Sethe. When Beloved comes she brings cultural memory to Sethe. Sethe starts to remember about her time at the slave plantation and about why she killed Beloved. Her remembrance about her time at the plantation was evident in the book with how protective she was when the white man came to pick Denver to work. When Denver was getting picked up to work from a white man, Sethe became all defencive and nearly killed the man with a ice pick.

Beloved can represent a cultural aspect of the past and about the time Sethe had at the plantation. Beloved gives Sethe memories which showed us in the book the relationship and difference of the cultural difference. When Beloved came into Sethe’s life she brought the cultural memory of the plantation.

If you would like to read the article yourself click on this link

https://drive.google.com/a/mysummitps.org/folderview?id=0BwWQODZGx-hZSGU1czQzTk4tN28&usp=drive_web.

Then click on the article that says Deconstructionist_Race_Hush Baby Ghost.

-Cormac Keegan

WHY I CHOSE THIS LENS PROMPT

Specifically in beloved, race culture is a central theme and it will be interesting to view the story through this particular lense. Many aspects of life have unexpected associations with race and culture. I have extensively studied race and culture in many aspects. Specifically my sophomore and junior year I took Holocaust which went in depth in analyzing how race and culture has contributed to crimes like the Holocaust. I think it will be interesting to look at the crime of slavery through this same lense. My personal belief is that many actions have a relation to race and culture. Specifically in relation to how be base opinions and view others. I also looked at the feminist lense books at looks at events through a similar viewpoint. I hoping to understand how race and culture had affected the total plot of the story in a more in depth fashion. The story being about slavery obviously has profound influence from race/culture, but I want to better understand the psychology behind this.

Race and Culture : Beloved

Now at Sweet Home, my niggers is men every one em. Bought em thataway, raised em that-away. Men everyone”.

Reading a text through the Race/Cultural Lens focuses on the cultural backgrounds and race of the characters. This helps the reader have a bigger perspective on the author's attitude towards race.  

The whites during this time were always portrayed as high class, and better than everyone else, especially to the slaves. The slaves in this house at Sweet Home do have it better than other slaves. The different races that are portrayed in this novel is African American. The family live in Ohio  at the beginning of the book. This book was based on the time period after slavery. Meaning that the characters in the book were not currently slaves. The main character, Sethe, escaped from slavery to go to Ohio, when she was 18.  The entire family in the novel are African Americans. Before, Mr and Mrs Garner were the owners of Sweet Home. During a conversation with young men that work with Mr.Garner he tells them, “Now at Sweet Home, my niggers is men every one em. Bought em thataway, raised em that-away. Men everyone”. This quote is saying that everyone that works there is treated like a man because they deserve to be treated like a good person. However, Paul D, who as well as Sethe come back to Ohio, is confused with this reaction because he thinks that everyone treats the slaves wrong and it was suspicious of him saying they deserve to be treated right. After telling all the men this he says, “I wouldn’t have no nigger men round my wife”. It was very suspicious because now he is saying that he does not trust the men around his wife, but he treats them a different way than other owner would treat the slaves. This gives us two different perspectives of the race and cultural lens because it shows that the slaves are treated differently, in a better way because they deserve to treated as good people. They are not treated as slaves but as employees that are capable of handling themselves without an owner treating them disrespectfully, as other owner might of.  However, he does not truly trusts because he does not know what the men are capable of doing. The owners of the Sweet home are portrayed as more high class because they own Sweet Home but also because of their race. The slaves in other places were more lower than anyone else. When the book flashbacks into the times when they were slaves, it shows that they were lower than others.

Why I chose this Lens

My first choice was feminist and Gender lens, I considered this because this book does focus more on a certain woman that went through a lot and was still haunting her through the entire novel. But I would like to explore more of the race and culture lens because the book was made at a time where slavery was happening and how race influenced stereotypes that we see today.  

Oppressed due to race ...

In the story beloved, the character Sethe is oppressed various times in various situations. Reading the text through race and culture lenses allows you to focus how the characters race and culture affects the way she is oppressed throughout the novel.

An example of her being oppressed is when they take her milk from her. “‘And they took my milk.’ ‘They beat you and you was pregnant’ ‘And they took my milk!’” (20) This is an example of Sethe being oppressed by the schoolteacher in Sweet Home. This shows her oppression because they treated her poorly. They know she was pregnant and still mistreated her. They took her milk just because she was a slave. They believed that just because she was a slave she didn’t need her milk that her pregnancy wasn’t important. She was oppressed due to her race. The white people that owned the slaves in Sweet Home thought it was okay to oppress Sethe and beat her knowing she was pregnant. Sethe being African American meant she was bound to be mistreated. That her destiny for being African American and a slave was that the treatment she received was acceptable. She was not good for anything, but for sexual pleasure for the man at Sweet Home.

Sethe is also oppressed by the five guys that are there when she first arrives to Sweet home. “All in their twenties, minus women, fucking cows, dreaming of rape, thrashing on pallets, rubbing their thighs, and waiting for the new girl” (13). In this example you can see that Sethe is oppressed by the six man at Sweet Home because they are all desperately waiting for her to arrive. The way they describe themselves makes it seem like they only looked forward to her for sexual pleasure. Since there were no women they’d get sexually frustrated and her coming probably made them think that with her they’d get the sexual pleasure they’d been wanting and waiting for. Since Sethe was a slave and African American they’d know that no one would help her from not getting touched by men and that no one would help her. The men thought that Sethe being a slave would be easy sexual pleasure for them. That no one would go out of their way to help her or defend her. After Sethe being oppressed as sexual pleasure for men she believed that due to her race that is what she was meant for him and that was all she was really worth. Sexual pleasure for men.

Why I Chose This Lens ...

This particular lens interested me more than the other ones because Sethe’s life is portrayed through her race and slavery influencing her life. Race is an important factor in the way her life is affected and decisions she’s had to face. The whole book is about how her race was impacted her and her life. This lens will also demonstrate how she is classified and lowered in society due to her race and cultural beliefs. When race is something that is far from someone’s control you can’t pick what race you are born into and how people classify you based off something you have no control over. I thought this lense would be a better fit for me because it is mentioned throughout the whole book and the book basically talks about how her race hasn’t been good to her and life has made her faced difficult decisions and made her seen and live difficult things throughout life.

Race and Culture in Beloved

From “Beloved” by Toni Morrison

“‘Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed,’ she said, ‘and broke my heartstrings too. There is no bad luck in the world but the whitefolks.’”(104-105).

Reading a book through a race/cultural lens you can see how different races are perceived throughout the book and determines the author’s attitude towards race.

In “Beloved” Baby Suggs, a former slave, is at 124 with Denver and Sethe. Soon a mysterious woman comes along named Beloved. Beloved looks like the baby that died that Sethe later named Beloved. Baby Suggs is talking to Denver and Sethe when she makes a reference to the past when she says, “‘Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed,’”. Author Toni Morrison uses diction and characterization to show how different races are portrayed.

In this book the two races are perceived very differently. Since the book is taken place after slavery there is a lot of references to the past and about slavery. One thing that Baby Suggs makes a allusion to the past when she says, “‘Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed’”. This type of language show anger and hatred to whites. One word that she used in her saying was “thing”. She describes white people as things rather than people. When referring to people as things it is showing that you don’t respect them. Also when she uses the word “taken” she is referring to her freedom. Baby Suggs is referring to the past when she uses the word "taken". She is talking about how her freedom was taken away from her by the white people. Baby Suggs thought that her freedom and her dreams were taken away from her because of the white people and slaver.

Through the characterization of Baby Suggs, Morrison is highlighting the anger and hatred within Baby Suggs about slavery. When Baby Suggs say “‘and broke my heartstrings too.’” shows that she still has anger within her about white people. She has overcome so much but still has that anger and hatred towards whites. This especially evident when Baby Suggs says “‘no bad luck in the world but the whitefolks.”. This is showing that she thinks the white people are a mistake. Thus, showing her anger toward the white people. Toni uses race to show the characterization of anger for Baby Suggs by showing how the whites took something from her and is still angry about the past because her freedom was taken. She portrays  white people as bad and have taken everything from black people. The white people are portrayed as bad people in the book.

Some other words that Baby Suggs used was “bad luck”. These two words have a connotation of something that is not good. This means that Baby Suggs is referring to the white people as bad to the world. She uses "bad luck" and in the same sentence as the word “white folks”. This means that for Sethe and other black people at the time they really disliked white people. They didn’t think they were good and were bad to America. The white people are portrayed as bad in this quote and not good to blacks. The white people are kind of seen as bullies in the world and controlled the black people for a long time.


Cormac Keegan

How race incorporates into the themes prevalent in Beloved

“White people believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a way . . . they were right. . . . But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place. . . . It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew. It spread . . . until it invaded the whites who had made it. . . . Made them bloody, silly, worse than even they wanted to be, so scared were they of the jungle they had made. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own” (234).

The entire plot of Beloved is based on the long lasting emotional implications of slavery on its victims. Systemic racism which essentially embodies slavery is presented as the overarching cause of the pain Sethe and her remaining friends and family feel on a momentary basis. This pain and suffering is represented by Beloved in her ghost/physical form. The novel presents an in depth analysis of the psychology behind crimes so heinous as slavery.

Toni Morrison uses specific word and phrases that provide connotations that represents the utter hatred and despair of which slavery is a result of. In order for a horrific system as slavery is to be effective on such a large scale there must be a level of hate and racial ideology that is so indoctrinated within its perpetrators that only extreme imagery and detail can present its horror. Such is prevalent throughout Beloved, Morrison refers to african Americans as “screaming baboons” and “jungle blacks” phrases that illustrate the degree to which systematic racism has been engulfed by southern culture at the time. Specifically referring to african americans as “screaming baboons” coincides with common racial stereotypes at the time that often view others as animals or subhuman. Such names and phrases could become so embedded in the mind of slave owners that they see nothing wrong with the pain and suffering they are causing.

Furthermore viewing the specific passage exemplified through a racial lense allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the text past the basic implications of slavery. Specific words in the text are consistent with racial ideology among most whites at the time. Such phrases as “sweet white blood” portray whites as genetically superior, while language such as “under every dark skin was a jungle” portray african Americans as inferior relative to their white masters. This specific example of imagery uses opposing adjectives such as “sweet white” and “dark”/“jungle” to illustrate the racial segregation prevalent in the novel. This effect is an indirect example of a juxtaposition, by comparing two ethnicities.

The passage also presents a counterargument of sorts presenting the irony of the slavery system and its effects on the white populations that created it. This portrayal of the slave master behavior is evident in the fallowing: “The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own”(234). This quote not only exemplifies the insanity and structure of systematic racism that has poisoned many people through-out the southern United States at the time but reflects the irony of the situation. Throughout the passage and the entire novel racial slurs and demeaning terms are used when referring to african slaves, but the irony of the situation is that many of the names that whites are calling slaves only reflect their own barbaric behaviors.

These instances of literary devices prevalent in the passage are a small example of the novel’s central theme. The word choice and comparisons made allow the reader to identify the structure of racism embedded throughout the text and as a result gain a deeper understanding of the text.

My Lens for Beloved:Race

I chose race and cultural because I like to see how a book develops based on what the person's race is. I think that looking into the lens of race can be seen in many books and the author usually focuses on one race. My personal beliefs are that there was a racial divide between whites and blacks and that creates a hostile situation. Many books have a racial divide that affect the way the book was written and the ways different races interact with one another. One lens that I thought about choosing was historical lens because I like to see how the background and history of the author affects the way the book was written. I didn’t choose this to be my lens though because I find that the interaction between different races is important in a book. The racial divide can usually be seen in a book and I like looking at that and how it affects the essay. One thing that I’m hoping to get out of this project is to become a better writer. Also focusing on one idea and expanding my own ideas around this one idea.


Cormac Keegan