African-American Slavery: Pained People or Naive Children - NM

Beloved: A Close Reading through the Marxist Lens

From Beloved, by Toni Morrison (1987)

“Halle and me want to be married, Mrs. Garner.”

“So I heard.” She smiled. “He talked to Mr. Garner about it. Are you already expecting?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Well, you will be. You know that, don’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Halle’s nice, Sethe. He’ll be good to you.”

“But I mean we want to get married.”

“You just said so. And I said all right.”

“Is there a wedding?”

Mrs. Garner put down her cooking spoon. Laughing a little, she touched Sethe on the head, saying, “You are one sweet child.” And then no more.

In the marxist lens, one observes the social classes represented in the book, and how those classes interact and conflict with each other. Some aspects of the story one might want to explore are the characters’ specific classes, the social norms supported or subverted through the text, and which class holds power over the other(s).Through this process, the reader is able to realize how the author views these social classes and which class the author identifies with. There is one main difference between visualizing any other literary piece and one which focuses on slavery. In Beloved, the Marxist lens mixes in with the Racial lens as the lower class identified in this book are the African-American slaves, making any interaction between the slaves and their owners also an interaction between social classes.

On pages 30 and 31, Sethe is reminiscing about when her husband Halle proposed to her and her attempt to organize a sort of wedding or celebration in honor of the marriage. Sethe believes that her marriage should have some formal event to indicate that the marriage is legal, so she goes to Mrs. Garner to request a wedding. In return, Mrs. Garner merely laughs of the request and ends the conversation. Through the use of characterization and dialogue, Morrison conveys the idea that Mrs. Garner expects irresponsibility from Sethe and views her as some sort of innocent, ignorant child. When Sethe first mentions her plan to marry Halle, Mrs. Garner asks, “Are you already expecting?”, anticipating that the idea of marriage was formulated based on the possibility that Sethe and Halle have already had sexual intercourse and might have a child, rather than in result of love between the two. This portrays Mrs. Garner’s view of her slaves as irresponsible and fundamentally errored. Mrs. Garner’s expectation of immoral motive behind marriage was not the only way she portrays her belief of Sethe and the other slaves as inferior beings. In the passage, Mrs. Garner, when pushed to create a formal celebration for the marriage, laughs at Sethe and calls her “one sweet child.” This characterizes Sethe as a sort of ignorant and naive child who has not been subjected to reality. In the eyes of Mrs. Garner, the simple act of celebrating a marriage between African-Americans is laughable and unrealistic. In these ways, Morrison portrays Mrs. Garner’s, and most of the other white characters’, beliefs of African-Americans as children which have neither the fundamentals to live in society nor the wisdom to raise themselves or others.