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Essay on Literary Devices in ‘Beloved’
It has been argued that motherly love has challenged the horrors of the institution of Slavery. Examine Harriet Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1850) and Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) in light of this view.
Toni Morrison illustrates Beloved as ‘reflecting the harrowing legacy and long-term effects of Slavery as it chronicles the life of a Black woman’. Morrison’s description reflects the dehumanization of African American slaves and how it continuously affects descendants of Slavery as shown through Paul D, who was treated like an animal when fastened with iron cuffs. Morrison aimed to illustrate motherly love as a force that challenged slavery. For instance, Sethe’s killing of her daughter demonstrates how the deepest act of motherly love can prevent her children from further enduring the horrors of the institution of slavery. Similarly, Harriet Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin portrays black women as trustworthy and courageous. Their moral actions influence their children and husbands, and are willing to make sacrifices to protect close ones.
Both Beloved (1987) and Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1850) illustrate the struggles that African Americans experienced. Harriet’s novel aimed to expose the injustices that happened during slavery, especially against black women. The themes within reflect the conflict between the evil of slavery and the good of Christian love shown by the mothers, similar to Morrison’s novel where various characters were affected by the burden of Slavery. The point of view in Harriet’s novel is that of an omniscient third-person narrator. Stowe’s narrator uses this insight to tell us things about the characters and events, rather than showing them through action. Readers because of this, would have a deeper understanding of the suffering endured. Despite Harriet’s limited knowledge of slavery, it moved her deeply and she felt the need to share some of these experiences through this point of view. In Morrison’s words ‘these women were not mothers but breeders’. The novel educates readers on how slavery denied black mothers the right to feel maternal love, leading them to feel uncertain about their offspring. I hope to examine how different audience readers might interpret these characters, eventually demonstrating how motherly love challenged the horrors of the institution of slavery, even after death.
Morrison’s Beloved (1987) is composed of memories, flashbacks, and nightmares which break up the chronological flow of the story. The audience would feel more connected to the characters as this effectively provides a deeper insight into their lives. Beloved demonstrates Toni Morrison’s ability to expose the unapologetic effects on the many characters who faced the horrors of slavery. We learn how maternal morals have an impact on the novel and foreshadow decisions. Sethe is haunted by the memories of her slave past and the death of her daughter. She has also been disturbed by the fact that white people only see her as an animal and nothing more. In her philosophy ‘nothing ever dies,’ which elaborates how past events can occur not only in one’s memory but somehow in the real world. Sethe believes that it is possible to collide into past events again, which makes her main priority to shield her children and Denver by any means necessary, even if death is an option. In her mind, the ending of her child’s life was her form of expressing maternal love. Much of her decisions derived from her mother’s abandonment. Whether her mother was trying to escape or not, it deeply affected her mentally and physically.
Morrison’s novel also substantiates how motherly love can have an impact even after death. Morrison uses the character Beloved as a representative of the spirits of multiple people who passed away because of slave labor. She is a microcosm of Morrison’s dedication to the ‘sixty million and more’ including Sethe’s unnamed child and the unnamed masses who died and were forgotten. They were all beloved, such as how a child is a mother’s beloved one. Sethe’s maternal love for her dead daughter may have resulted in Beloved’s ‘return’. Beloved may have been a reincarnation of Sethe’s dead daughter who came back to comfort and heals ‘her mother’. She, however, ‘haunts’ Sethe which results in her going into an unhealthy and obsessive relationship, reflecting her pain of loss due to her sacrifice. The haunting could be symbolic of slavery that haunts families such as hers. Despite this, we still see how motherly love can aid a person in times of need.
Harriet Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1850) illustrates the problem of a specific evil: the enslavement of human beings as property. Harriet’s novel tells the story of the protagonist Uncle Tom who is a devoted Christian. While on his way to a slave auction, he saves the life of Eva. Eventually, however, Tom ends up with a new owner after the previous owner’s death. Simon whips Tom to death after not revealing the whereabouts of runaway slaves. Symbolically, the evil morality of slavery is shown to eventually eat up the Christian good inside someone. However, the novel also illustrates many aspects of motherly love being able to combat this evil as shown through the character of Eliza.
Harriet Stowe shows slavery as ‘harmful and harmful to individual slaves, physically and emotionally,’ knowing that this would have a distressing effect on her audience now and potentially back then as the true horrors of the institution are shown. The brutal whippings endured by Tom, George, and Prue to Eliza’s painful journey away from her home reflect Harriet Beecher Stowe’s thoughts on slavery as a whole.
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