Toni Morrisons: Beloved Mother or Monster?

Beloved and the Gothic Mode: Is Sethe a monster? – Frankenstein/ Dracula “ When you go out to hunt monsters, take care that you do not become one. And when you look into the abyss, remember that the abyss looks back at you.” --Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Binaries : Animal and human Good and evil Subject and object Black and white Mother and Monster

Is Sethe a monster? – Frankenstein/ Dracula

“ When you go out to hunt monsters, take care that you do not become one. And when you look into the abyss, remember that the abyss looks back at you.” --Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Binaries :

Animal and human

Good and evil

Subject and object

Black and white

Mother and Monster

Female Monster Characteristics Source of evil Unattractive Appearance - Ugly feet - Chokecherry tree back (p. 272) Killed her own child Opinions of others Bad Mother

Source of evil

Unattractive Appearance

- Ugly feet

- Chokecherry tree back (p. 272)

Killed her own child

Opinions of others

Bad Mother

Good and Evil 'I took and put my babies where they'd be safe' Dracula – imprisonment, binaries, blurred distinctions Dracula & the Klu Klux Klan : "Desperately thirsty for black blood, without which it could not live, the dragon swam the Ohio at will“ "Dracula" literally means "son of the dragon" or "son of the devil"

'I took and put my babies where they'd be safe'

Dracula – imprisonment, binaries, blurred distinctions

Dracula & the Klu Klux Klan : "Desperately thirsty for black blood, without which it could not live, the dragon swam the Ohio at will“

"Dracula" literally means "son of the dragon" or "son of the devil"

Human and Animal: Sethe's humanity is challenged throughout the text, especially by school teacher and Paul D, who compare her to a predatory bird, a horse, and hounds. Sethe herself hears the "wings"--"little hummingbirds [that] stuck their needle beaks right through her head-cloth into her hair and beat their wings" when she murders beloved. a "beaked face" that "flew" to the barn, "snatching up her children like a hawk“ “ when you over beat an "animal"--beyond the point of education, "you just can't mishandle creatures and expect success".

Sethe's humanity is challenged throughout the text, especially by school teacher and Paul D, who compare her to a predatory bird, a horse, and hounds.

Sethe herself hears the "wings"--"little hummingbirds [that] stuck their needle beaks right through her head-cloth into her hair and beat their wings" when she murders beloved.

a "beaked face" that "flew" to the barn, "snatching up her children like a hawk“

“ when you over beat an "animal"--beyond the point of education, "you just can't mishandle creatures and expect success".

Mother Characteristics Feminine Instinctive love for child Protective She felt that "anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill or maim you, but dirty you" ( Beloved 1997, p.251). "And though she and others lived through and got over it, she could never let it happen to her own" ( Beloved 1997, p.251). Sethe felt the only way to protect her child from a life of slavery was to remove them from life.

Feminine

Instinctive love for child

Protective

She felt that "anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill or maim you, but dirty you" ( Beloved 1997, p.251). "And though she and others lived through and got over it, she could never let it happen to her own" ( Beloved 1997, p.251). Sethe felt the only way to protect her child from a life of slavery was to remove them from life.

Mother or Monster Acting on impulse – killed her child Can you really blame Sethe after everything her family and she has been through? Tries to explain to Beloved that she could not allow slavery to ‘dirty’ her children. Something good came out of in the end

Acting on impulse – killed her child

Can you really blame Sethe after everything her family and she has been through?

Tries to explain to Beloved that she could not allow slavery to ‘dirty’ her children.

Something good came out of in the end

Subject & Object / Black & White Sethe takes on the role of a white man in the murder of Beloved. She takes back the power but in turn she becomes a monster. Slavery & the super natural – possession Sethe posses a sense of freedom in her act, which transforms, shape shifts, her into something "new," as Paul D says, that lies outside all the familiar social constructions of normal, human, mother, woman, lawful, blackness, and whiteness Chokecherry Tree Colour

Sethe takes on the role of a white man in the murder of Beloved. She takes back the power but in turn she becomes a monster.

Slavery & the super natural – possession

Sethe posses a sense of freedom in her act, which transforms, shape shifts, her into something "new," as Paul D says, that lies outside all the familiar social constructions of normal, human, mother, woman, lawful, blackness, and whiteness

Chokecherry Tree

Colour

Symbolism The Colour Red “ I don’t believe she wanted to get to red and I understand why because me and Beloved outdid ourselves with it.” (p. 237) Trees Chokecherry tree, Flowering trees. The Tin Tobacco Box Rusted over, then bursts open again.

The Colour Red

“ I don’t believe she wanted to get to red and I understand why because me and Beloved outdid ourselves with it.” (p. 237)

Trees

Chokecherry tree, Flowering trees.

The Tin Tobacco Box

Rusted over, then bursts open again.

References http://www.eng.umu.se/monster/eva/documents/female_monsters.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beloved_%28novel%29 Peter Brooks, “What is a Monster?”: New Casebooks:Frankenstein (Houndmills: MacMillan Press, 1995) Toni Morrison, Beloved (Great Britain, Chatto & Windus, 1987)

http://www.eng.umu.se/monster/eva/documents/female_monsters.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beloved_%28novel%29

Peter Brooks, “What is a Monster?”: New Casebooks:Frankenstein (Houndmills: MacMillan Press, 1995)

Toni Morrison, Beloved (Great Britain, Chatto & Windus, 1987)