Beloved Case

Beloved

One of the most overlooked issues when it comes to ex-slaves is the mental state after slavery. People may have expected living a life of freedom after slavery to be sweet, but in actuality, this was not the case. After years of being treated no better than an animal, being forced to do inhumane labor, and having loved ones killed or sold, an ex-slaves mind set was very fragile. "But there's no such thing as free. There are only different and more horrible ways to be enslaved" (166 Quotes). This quote by Lauren DeStefano sums of the general idea of the book in which throughout all the main characters, freedom is not really free. Instead of physically being a slave, you are mentally enslaved to your past. In Toni Morrisons Novel Beloved, through Paul D, the author is able to present to the readers what life is like after slavery and how the past continues to affect the present.

One evident effect of slavery was the inability to move on in life. The main character Paul D struggled with this immensely. When Paul D is introduced in the story, we find out that back at Sweet Home, the plantation in which he lived on, him along with his brothers were all infatuated with Sethe . They had this yearning desire to be with Sethe and while they waited for her to choose one of them, they had sexual relations with cows. When Paul D arrived at 124,Sethes home, it was evident that he was still living in the past because after 25 years, he still had those same desires for Sethe which led to them having a sexual encounter. "His dreaming of her had been too long ago. Nothing could be as good as sex with her Paul D had been imagining off and on for twenty-five years. His foolishness made him smile and think fondly of himself as he turned over on his side facing her"(29). After having sex with Sethe, Paul D's feelings towards her suddenly changed. Before sex, Paul D still had the mentality that she was still the same women that he desired to have back at Sweet Home. But after having sex, reality set in for him as he realized that she was no longer that woman. He was disgusted by her breast and the scars on her back, both which were things he admired about her before they had sex. Paul D's sudden change of feelings represents one of the effects of slavery being not being able to move on in life. A part of Paul D hadn't moved on from Sweet Home because he thought that Sethe was still that women that he desperately wanted to have sex with. His mind was still stuck in the days at Sweet Home. Although sex with Sethe was disappointing to Paul D, It helped him to come to terms with is past in that he no longer had this strong sexual desire for Sethe anymore.

A loss of self-worth leading to a buildup of emotions was another reoccurring effect of slavery. An example of this in the novel is seen when Paul D opened up what he called his "tobacco tin". In this tobacco tin was his cold heart that stored all the anguish and shame from his past. As Paul D begins to elaborate on about a demeaning experience with Schoolchild and the rooster, he states:

Mister, he looked so... free. Better than me. Stronger, tougher. Son a bitch couldn't even get out the shell by hisself but he was still king and I was... Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasn't allowed to be and stay what I was. Even if you cooked him you'd be cooking a rooster named Mister. But wasn't no way I'd ever be Paul D again, living or dead. Schoolteacher changed me. I was something else and that something was less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a tub.(87)

In this quote, Paul D expresses exactly what it was like being a slave. The Rooster named Mister whom he caught at a younger age had more freedom than he did. In saying this, Paul D gives off a jealous tone because of the fact that a rooster is given more respect than him. While Mister is prancing around free, Paul D was walking around with a bit in his mouth treated like an animal. The rooster had a name, was able to roam around free and do whatever it so pleased. The sight of this really hurt Paul D to the core because for an animal, with essentially no heart no mind or no conscious to have more importance than him, it was demeaning. Being that Paul D's masculinity was inferior to a bird really created a lot of shame and anguish in his heart in which he was forced to store in the "tobacco tin" because as a male slave he was not allowed to show emotion. Paul D's experience with Master helps to put into perspective just how degraded slaves were. Coming to the realization that an animal was more superior than a human being can mentally scar the minds of slaves creating a loss of self-worth. It has been argued by critic Virginia Kearney, that Morrison's use of birds is to symbolize the entrapment, hatred, and terror to help dramatize the horrors of slavery. She believes that Morrisons ability

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