Project Part 2: Synthesis

While Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, stand quite different from one another, the two novels do share some similarities in their stories of characters living under the conditions and torment of slavery.  The clearest theme the two share is the effects of slavery on the African American race and psyche. While the two novels do share this characteristic, it is striking how many aspects of this theme are portrayed differently, and to what extent as well.

In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, readers clearly see the negative effects slavery has on the characters. Like Sethe in Beloved, Eliza flees with her child to escape a future life of slavery for her son. Tom and his family and friends, must bear the emotional and physical weight slavery takes on them, as well. For the cruelty of masters such as George’s left them feeling exhausted, and like they were less than a person, as George said, “My country! What country have I, but the grave, --and I wish to God that I was laid there!” (Stowe, 99).

In Stowe’s novel, characters such as Tom turn to religion as a means to deal with the effects and torments they face at the hands of slavery. As I mentioned in the first part of this project, and as we talked about in class, Tom was portrayed as being a Christ figure in the novel, as he would bear everyone’s struggles and die a martyr for them. Tom still remained heartbroken over his situation and being sent South, but his strong belief in his religion and redemption in the afterlife kept him carrying on. The audience sees him breaking down in emotional defeat at both St. Clare’s and Legree’s plantations, as he grapples with the emotional and physical effects of slavery. However, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, religion is continually shown to lift the spirits and emotional burden of the slaves, seeming to free them from many of their problems. Yet, with this in mind, Stowe really glosses over the trauma and damage of slavery to both the slaves themselves, and the African American race as a whole, in her novel.

However, Morrison’s novel shows a much different picture in regards to the effects slavery has on the characters. Morrison’s novel depicts both the physical and psychological torment of slavery and the long lasting effect this has on the former slaves and their families, as well. In Beloved, Sethe and Paul D. are constantly reliving the memories of Sweet Home, and their own separate experiences after their escape from the place. Living in this aftermath left them treading conversations and memories lightly, as “Saying more might push them both to a place they couldn’t get back from” (Morrison, 86). After the death of her child, Sethe’s remaining daughter Denver lives in a life full of questions and fear as she’s confined to the house, the ghost of Beloved, and the memories Sethe and Paul D share. Characters in Morrison’s novel also suffer from the severe physical effects of slavery. Sethe lives with the memory of being caught in her escape and having her milk stolen, and the scar on her back remains a daily reminder of this. Paul D too is faced the remembrances of being in an iron collar, and seeing his friends being burned, beaten and shot.

Additionally, we spent time in class answering the question, “Who/what do you think Beloved is and what might she symbolize?” I think this again relates to my personal synthesis, and the effects of slavery that are seen in Beloved. For I thought that whatever Beloved was, she symbolized the lingering torments of slavery, because she had such a profound and psychological effect on all the characters she came in contact with in the story. She consumed the mind of Sethe in particular, just like the experience and memories of Sweet Home and her escape from the place constantly flooded her mind. As Sethe spoke to Paul D of the memories of Sweet Home, “Comes back whether we want it to or not” (Morrison, 16). The effects of slavery were so strong that it remained a part of her memory and identity that she couldn’t break away from.

The way the effects of slavery are dealt with in both novels, relates back to an article I read by Sophia Cantave for the first part of this project on Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In her article, Cantave had argued that among other things, Stowe’s book didn’t accurately portray slavery and left out a lot of its horrors. Since Stowe was also a white woman, Cantave argued that she was able to speak for this experience, as it became what people in society took to be both accurate and relatively truthful, simply given her race. Thus causing the dismissal of the stories and experiences of African Americans, as she wrote of their struggles stating, “African Americans who step outside the accepted parameters of slavery’s discourse risk shutting down discussions, arousing white defensive or apologetic barrages and black desires to acquiesce and make nice in the face of such responses.” (Cantave, 591) I think we can definitely see this difference after reading the two novels, as Morrison’s novel certainly depicted slavery and its effects as what it truly was. Furthermore, we discussed in class how people tried to ban Beloved because of its content, which helps provide evidence for Cantave’s point on the authenticity and acceptance of the work of African American writers like Toni Morrison.

Even though Morrison’s novel was written quite a long time after Stowe’s book, I think it’s important that readers take to Beloved, even if it is a little dark and complex of a novel. For Morrison’s novel shows the effects that slavery had into the next generations, and how it completely left former slaves with torment, trauma, and brokenness that they tried hard to recover from. I think most often the psychological effects of slavery and racism can go unnoticed, and Beloved offers the audience this missing piece of the puzzle. In portraying this torment, I think Morrison is also able to appeal to the emotions of readers by showing the bigger picture of slavery, as compared to Harriet Beecher Stowe. While it is rather dark and disturbing material, it allows readers to become more aware of some of the hardships faced by slaves and their families, both during slavery and in the aftermath of its existence. Being that Morrison is of African American heritage, and brings these horrors to light, she’s able to give voice to the African American community instead of letting white authors speak for the whole experience. In doing so, I think she not only educates her audience but also offers us material to look to in order to understand racial issues and make racial progress.

                 

                                                                                         

Cantave, Sophia. “Who Gets to Create the Lasting Images? The Problem of Black Representation in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Uncle Tom’s Cabin. (2010) 582-594. Print.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print.