*Trigger Warning*- This post contains \u00a0close-readings of violent scenes that involve sex and physical abuse.<\/p>\n
Throughout Toni Morrison’s Beloved,<\/em>\u00a0a consistent thread appears that depicts the dehumanization of slaves at the hands of those with privileged identities. Within\u00a0<\/i>the text, Morrison uses animalistic language to describe different scenes in which Sethe and other slaves are being beaten, coerced into sexual acts, and controlled by someone of privilege.<\/p>\n One of the first moments in which Morrison uses language related to animals to describe a scene of abuse and powerlessness occurs when Sethe partakes in a \u00a0sexual act with the engraver in order to have the name “Beloved” written on her daughter’s head stone. The narrator describes the scene once saying, “she thought it would be enough, rutting among the headstones with the engraver, his young son looking on, the anger in his face so old; the appetite in it quite new,” (pg. 5). This graphic scene was extremely disturbing for me to read, indicating it was a passage worth noting. Here, a key aspect of the scene is the nature of the son and the engraver who both contribute to the dehumanization of Sethe. By describing the son as, “looking on,” Morrison creates a sense of spectatorship, as if Sethe was an interesting object to gaze upon. Furthermore, the engraver is said contain an amount of “anger” and an “appetite.” This image immediately evoked a dynamic of predator and prey, as the words “anger” and “appetite” indicate a sort of animalistic, instinctual need for satiation. The juxtaposition of the engraver’s “old” face yet “new” appetite emphasizes the instinctual nature of his need for sexual gratification. It’s as if despite his age, the act of asserting himself upon Sethe ignites feelings of youth and power. Lastly, the word “rutting” in this context contains significant meaning. I decided to look up the definition of this word and its connotations. I found that “rutting” has another meaning and often refers to the sexual acts of farm animals, mainly deer. This term is repeated later in this section as the narrator says, “Rutting among the stones under the eyes of the engraver’s son was not enough,” (pg. 5). The repetition of this word refers to the way in which the engraver and his son treat Sethe as non-human. Instead, she is an object with little importance to them, similar to an animal. This can be connected back to Mulvey when thinking about the object of the gaze and the performer of the action.<\/p>\n Another instance in which animalistic language is used to describe a scene of abuse when Sethe recalls slaves being forced into wearing bits generally used on farm animals. The narrator ays, “She already knew about it, had seen it time after time in the place before Sweet Home. Men, boys, girls, women. The wildness that shot up into the eye the moment the lips were yanked back. Days after it was taken out, goose fat was rubbed on the corners of the mouth but nothing to soothe the tongue or take the wildness out of the eye,” (pg. 84). This instance is one more of many examples in which Morrison uses animalistic language to emphasize the dehumanization of slaves. The terms “wildness” and the picture of one’s lips being “yanked back” evoke images of a horse being tamed. Generally, this is called “breaking” a horse and often involves using a bit to tame the wild creature. The practice is based upon removing the independence and power of the horse in order to serve its master. The same practice is being used here on people as means of control. Ultimately, Morrison seems to be using both this scene and that which Sethe is at Beloved’s gravestone to depict the way in which African Americans were treated as though they were animals. The language here is not only rooted in referenced to animals, but also to the body and the lack of power. Both of these scenes depict an act being committed against the will of the recipient. The language is centered upon the body and contains notions of forced penetration, whether the mouth or other areas of the body. This constant referral to animals throughout the text furthers the central theme which is the deep-rooted pain that is a result of years of torture and abuse. It highlights the lack of agency had amongst slaves and the cruel practices held by their owners who often performed violent acts centered upon penetration and disfiguration of the body.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" *Trigger Warning*- This post contains \u00a0close-readings of violent scenes that involve sex and physical abuse. Throughout Toni Morrison’s Beloved,\u00a0a consistent thread appears that depicts the dehumanization of slaves at the hands of those with privileged identities. Within\u00a0the text, Morrison uses animalistic language to describe different scenes in which Sethe and other slaves are being beaten, … Continue reading Dehumanization in Toni Morrison’s Beloved<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3297,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145910,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-blog-posts","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}