hite people’s attitude was based on ownership, punishment, and fear. Morrison presents this through Sethe, Paul D, and Baby Suggs.
Black People as Property: White people considered slaves not as humans but as property. Even at Sweet Home, where Mr. Garner was considered a “kind” master, the men were still owned. After Garner’s death, Schoolteacher reduced them further. Morrison writes about the Schoolteacher in Part One. The schoolteacher says about Sethe:
“Put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right.”
This line shows how white people denied humanity to slaves. They classified them like animals, erasing their dignity.
Physical Violence and Punishment: White people kept power through brutal punishment. Sethe remembers being whipped until scars grew into a tree-like mark on her back. Morrison describes in Part One, Ch. 3:
“It was as though a whole tree sprouted on her back.”
This “chokecherry tree” is a symbol of slavery’s cruelty. Violence was the language of white masters. It left scars on both body and spirit.
Sexual Exploitation and Humiliation: Morrison also shows how white men abused Black women. Schoolteacher’s nephews held Sethe down and stole her breast milk. In Part One, Ch. 1, Sethe bitterly recalls:
“They used cowhide on you? And they took my milk!”
Stolen milk from Setahe’s breast is not only rape but also theft of motherhood. White men robbed Sethe of her ability to feed her baby. Their racism was mixed with sexism, which created double pain for Black women.
Breaking Families: White people destroyed Black families by selling children and separating husbands and wives. Baby Suggs lost all but one of her children to the slave trade. Sethe, in terror of Schoolteacher’s return, tried to protect her children. She explains in Part One, Ch. 16:
“I stopped him… I put my babies where they’d be safe.”
She kills her baby girl because she believes slavery is worse than death. White cruelty forced a mother into this unthinkable act.
Psychological Control and Fear: Slavery also attacked the minds of Black men. Paul D remembers being chained in Georgia with forty-six others. He was locked in boxes, and treated worse than animals. He even thought a rooster named Mister was freer than him. In Part Two, Ch. 18, he admits:
“Mister, he looked so…free. Better than me.” (Paul D)
This shows how white oppression destroyed identity and manhood. Slavery reduced human beings to less than animals.
Lasting Scars of Racism: Even after slavery ended, white people’s attitude left deep scars. Sethe, Paul D, and Baby Suggs cannot escape trauma. Beloved herself becomes a ghostly reminder of slavery’s violence. In Part One, Ch. 5, Morrison writes:
“Anything dead coming back to life hurts.”
This line shows that remembering slavery is painful, but forgetting is impossible. White people’s cruelty continues to live in memory.
In short, in “Beloved”, Morrison shows that white people’s attitude was built on cruelty, racism, and domination. They treated slaves as property, whipped their bodies, stole their dignity, and broke their families. Even after slavery, its memory haunted lives. The novel proves that the scars of cruelty that whites have left on blacks have not ended.
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