Carol Iannone describes “the psychological and emotional effects of being owned—of having no sense of self, of fearing to trust or to love when anything can be taken away at any time.” (“Toni Morrison’s Career,” Commentary 84(6), December 1987, 63). Choose one or more characters from Beloved and analyze the psychological effects on them of being owned.
One of the most affected characters by being owned is Baby Suggs. Slavery taught her the hard lessons of not loving anything of yours, not your own body nor your own child. When Baby Suggs reached Cincinnati, she began preaching, having stated that slavery had taken everything from her but her heart, and that her heart was all she owned. Rather than keep the last of her possessions to herself, Baby Suggs felt compelled to share her big heart with all of the former slaves in her community, because she knew what they had been through and wanted them to feel some sense of ownership to themselves. Although Baby Suggs had it in her to tell herself to never love any of her children, when she reached free country she started to loosen up. Yet, when Sethe killed Beloved and took Denver to the prison with her, and the people began to reject her and her family, having opened up, it began to kill Baby Suggs little by little until she was a bedridden old lady whose only ambition in life was to contemplate color.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion one character that suffers with emotional and physiological effects of being owned is Paul D. Morrison explains to the reader about the ill-treatment and dehumanization of slaves especially through the character of Paul D. He informs the reader about the savage treatment that he endured while shackled and transported to a brutal prison for a crime he committed, in a flashback. For Paul D to undergo this horrible experience, it leaves a lasting impression on his character because the reader can see that he struggles to open his heart to anyone. Morrison shows Paul D's inner conflicts throughout the novel by explaining that he wonders if he should have died with Sixo because he believed that to allow himself to have feelings will kill him.
ReplyDeleteIts obvious that being owned by another person will psychologically damage a person. All of the effects of being owned that Carol Iannone explains is very accurate to many character in Beloved. Each character in Beloved that was owned by another person was deeply affected by this dehumanizing act. Sethe in particular was disturbed psychologically due to her past of being owned. As a slave, Sethe had no control over what her owners made her do, or what they did to her body. Sethe was gang raped, and treated like an animal just because she had different color skin. It is evident that these acts permanently scarred Sethe. The whole reason Sethe murdered her own child was because of the scars being owned left her. The idea of her daughter going through the things she went through was unfathomable to Sethe, which is why she was convinced she was saving her baby. Paul D was also psychologically affected do to slavery. Slavery mainly affected Paul D’s ability to open up to other. So many people were taken from him, which is why it seemed hard for him to open up to Sethe. Paul D was never fully loyal to Sethe because he was scared to fall for a person when everyone he has ever cared about was taken from him. Although Sethe and Paul D were freed slaves, the scars of slavery stuck with them forever and affected the way they lived freely.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Sethe has faced a tremendous amount of psychological trauma while being enslaved at Sweet Home. She had to have any individuality stripped away from her and become a unit. She had to follow orders and do what was instructed for her to do or else she would face the consequences. However, what makes Sethe's enslavement different from most is that she was raped. This left severe trauma on Sethe, so much such that she killed her oldest daughter so that she would never have to experience a life of slavery the same way she did. As tragic as it was, Sethe's psychological trauma will forever linger behind her, even if she tries to block it out.
ReplyDeleteSethe, being both a slave and the murderer of her child, is owned by a combination of fear and guilt. Sethe’s life is shaped around her past and forged by the fears of what could happen to her and her family in the future. She was physically owned by the plantation owner when she was at Sweet Home, but the fear slavery created within her is what governed the rest of her life. It can be said that she escaped from Sweet Home to live a free life, and while this did physically happen, Sethe was not put in a place to mentally recover. Her mind was filled with what happened as a slave, and every action she made was controlled by what could happen to her and her family in the future. Sethe was owned by individual people throughout her life, but her fear of slavery owned her for her entire life, with no chance of recovering.
ReplyDeleteIt is evident that Sethe was very psychologically damaged from the effects of slavery. For years on end, she was owned at Sweet Home and was forced to live a life that was controlled by another person. The experience of Sweet Home left Sethe feeling destroyed and dehumanized in the long run. This experience seriously took a toll on her for the rest of her life and impacted all of the decisions she ever made, especially those in which effected her family. An obvious example is when she killed Beloved to protect her from ever having to live a life even anywhere near as the one as she had. However, towards the end of the novel, it was like Beloved owned Sethe. So, Sethe falled right back into the trap of being owned. Sethe said and did anything that Beloved wanted because she felt so incredibly guilty from Beloved’s murder. She owed Beloved her life, which in a sense she gave. She physically and mentally drained her life to please Beloved, losing sense of control and sense of herself.
ReplyDeleteBased on Carol Cannon’s description of the effects of being owned, I think Sethe exhibits these effects quite well. However I do think that she has a sense of self because she knows that she can not stay at Sweet Home and continue to be controlled or told what to do. Because she was owned, Sethe wears this shield of imaginary armor to protect herself and her children from anyone or anything that can harm them. This comes from the fear of the past repeating itself and in this case would be any act of slavery. Most notably, the physiological effects on Sethe after being owned creep up when she kills Beloved. She sees or hears of the white men approaching and out of fear takes her children to the barn and choses to kill Beloved. This is done out of love because she could not stand to have her loved one’s taken away from her and into slavery. Instead, she makes the difficult decision to kill her where she knows Beloved will be in heaven. This impulsive decision is made rather than the fear and anticipation Sethe would have if Schoolteacher did take her away and the thoughts about what Beloved’s life could be like as a slave.
ReplyDeleteOut of all the characters in the novel, I believe that Sethe has faced the most psychological damage from being owned as a slave. She learned over the years, that she had no rights. She didn’t even have the right to protect her own body from others. As a slave she experienced having her milk stolen, being whipped, and being raped by men on the plantation. The lack of control caused her to fear the next moment of misery that could arise at any moment.
ReplyDeleteWhen Sethe finally escapes Sweet Home and arrives at 124 she lives in fear. She doesn’t dare to leave the house because she doesn’t want to end up a slave again. She is haunted by memories from her dark past.
It is when the school teacher and slave catcher track her down, she goes into panic mode. She doesn’t want her children to be mistreated and hurt the way she has been through her life. So she drags them into the shed and tries to murder them to save them from the pain of slavery.
One character who suffered the most would be Paul D. Morrison writes about his horrifying and traumatic experiences of being chained and also running away. In the novel, he is always running, never really finding a home until he was with Sethe. Sethe welcomed him with open arms and showed him how to love. Throughout the novel, he also dealt with many issues with his manhood and what it meant to be a man. Slavery stripped him of his identity.
ReplyDeleteAfter many years of being owned, Paul D is clearly affected by his time enslaved. Most notably, he shuts all of his emotions and memories away in his “tin can,” or his heart. He says that his heart (tin can) is rusted over and sealed shut. He does this to stay sane after everything that has happened to him. Some of those memories include his time spent in a bit and his time underground in Georgia, chained to forty-six other men. He keeps these painful times locked away so that he doesn’t become like other slaves who are traumatized, like Halle, crazy after seeing Sethe raped, unable to speak. He tells Sethe she loves too much, because after so many years of being owned, he is scared to love too much because he has lost so much.
ReplyDeleteLike Katherine, I also believe that Baby Suggs was the most affected by being owned. She never had the opportunity to take care of her 9 children except Halle and got used to having losses. When you're a slave, you're property. You can't claim anything for yourself, not even your own body. But living a whole life as a slave made her appreciate when she was free, she decided to help others by preaching and welcoming everyone into her life. She never turned anyone away, she made sure he whole neighborhood was well fed and if anyone needed anything, she would provide it. She used her hardships as a positive beacon, to help others who were struggling with the horrors of being owned. At the same time, she fell when Sethe killed Beloved. All those people steered away and 124 was never the place Baby Suggs had created again. But I think her search for color meant she was still in there. She didn't want to be in a world filled with black and white like when she was owned. She still wanted to feel free.
ReplyDeleteBeing owned as a slave is something that takes a tole on many characters in this piece. To me, Sethe is the most noticibly effected by this idea of being owned. She lived in a life of struggle. She was never truly free, although feeling most safe with the Garners. Sethe was whipped and continuously rapped, putting mental and emotional scars in her. She found love at one point, but was forced to give it up in an act to save her family. In my opinion, Sethe is by far the most effected and that is proven when she kills her daughter. She is so mentally, physically, and emotionally distraught to the point that she thinks her kids would be better off not living than experiencing what she went through. I think the magnitude of that idea speaks for itself in proving how Sethe was the most effected in being owned as a slave.
ReplyDeleteBoth Sethe and Paul D have suffered a great deal from being owned for years on end. They are traumatized for life because of what they went through while enslaved. Agreeing with Sarah E, Paul D tells the reader that he rarely opens up his heart to people, thinking they will be taken away from him as soon as he begins to get attached. As for Sethe, she literally killed her child as a result of the suffering from being owned as a slave. Yes, her actions were meant to protect her children from going through what she had endured, but that psychotic behavior is all due to her past life. Both characters would definitely not have such abnormal behaviors if it wasn't for the trauma and horrible situations they went through as slaves at Sweet Home.
ReplyDeleteSethe had some of the most significant emotional and psychological effects of being owned. Most of her life she belonged to Sweet Home, being forced to do certain things even though she did not want to.Her experiences with abuse and dehumanization made her the way she was in the present time of the story. Killing Beloved took a huge toll on her emotional and psychological well being. Of course it was a traumatic experience for her, killing your own child is not a pleasant experience. She lives with the burden for most of her life, that is until Beloved returns to her in human form. It gave her somewhat of a chance to forget how it felt to be owned. This changes when Beloved begins to sort of take control. She seems like she is Sethe’s owner and the only way Sethe can escape it is Beloved’s “exorcism.”
ReplyDeleteBeing owned had a tremendous psychological effect on Sethe. Sethe spent the entirety of her young life owned by white people as a slave. However, the slave owners at Sweet Home did not treat her all that poorly so she was lured into a false sense of security while she was there. Then when Schoolteacher took over and was measuring the slaves, and when his pupils raped Sethe, she was lost. She had gone from being comfortable to being abused, and she now felt as though she had to leave. When she left she was never able to escape the mental effects of what was done to her as she was even willing to kill her daughter over her becoming a slave. Being owned by these people had damaged Sethe to the point that she could not trust whites, nor could she see any other option than killing her child. Being owned took away some of Sethe’s sanity and integrity.
ReplyDeleteSlavery is a hardship that affects a person not just physically, but psychologically as well. Many believe it is the physical burdens faced by a slave are the worst aspect of slavery, however I believe that the psychological hardships are much worse, if not the same. It is evident that due to her time as a slave Sethe has been affected both psychologically and physically. It can be said that the physical burdens she faced, the whippings and rape, are the biggest contributors to her current psychological state. Because of the mental hardships she faced Sethe was never truly able to escape slavery as she, as well as other characters find it nearly impossible to adapt to life as a free person due to the fear that all they know may be taken away. Also, Sethe was willing to kill her own daughter to prevent her from experiencing the hardships that Sethe had to endure. Both of these highlight the negative psychological impacts that slavery has had on her.
ReplyDeleteSethe was definitely owned by the owner of Sweet Home, mostly being the schoolteacher. She lacked the freedom that white people were granted, and was forced to comply to the rules of the plantation. Not only did she have to follow the rules, but she was brutally punished, sometimes without reason. Sethe was raped, and beat, and can definitely be thought of as being owned by the schoolteacher and those who helped run Sweet Home. On top of the physical cruelty she endured, Sethe's mentality was impacted by the ownership and they owned her mental sanity. The thought of her children being taken have served as reasons how this ownership affected her life too. Sethe was unable to recover from the horrors she faced daily as a slave.
ReplyDeleteSethe and Paul D had the greatest effects of being owned. For example, Sethe was raped and physically abused at Sweet Home. She lacked rights and experienced oppression and brutality. This caused Sethe to kill her daughter as she didn't want her to experience life as a slave. By killing her daughter, she was haunted by a ghost at 124 and reincarnated Beloved for a long period of time. The spirit and Beloved haunted Sethe throughout the novel about her actions. However, the murder of her daughter was directly connected to being owned. Additionally, Paul D is affected because he cannot achieve manhood due to his life as a slave.
ReplyDeleteOne character who suffered major psychological effects from being owned was Sethe. During her enslavement, Sethe was beaten and raped mercilessly. Also, when attempting to escape from slavery, she was separated from her husband and never saw him again. She was treated horribly and the effects showed years later. Sethe was affected by her enslavement so much that she attempted to kill all of her children so that they would not have to suffer the same experiences that she had too. Additionally, Sethe spends most of her time trying to forget the past. The events that occurred while she was enslaved scarred her so badly that all she wants to do is forget what happened.
ReplyDeleteThe psychological effects that Sethe has due to being a slave has left a permanent imprint on her. She was left with no identity or freedom to be a normal woman and was treated as property. Her life went to shambles when the schoolteacher came into Sweet Home and her mindset led her to even kill her child out of love. To go through extremes such as killing you child out of goodness is such a detrimental effect of what the owners were doing to their slaves. They didn’t leave any chance for things to get better and tore families apart. Sethe went through being raped, overworked, and beaten which will now always be present in her thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThe obvious individual who faced the feeling of being owned is Sethe, since she used to be a slave. Sethe used to be tortured and raped and she is a character who was made to present the overall meaning of the novel. Slaves were made with tough decisions, an example is Sethe killing Beloved. Slaves also have many flashbacks and terrible memories to the past, like Sethe as she has flashbacks throughout the novel. Her scars are still with her and are permanently printed on her. This was all made to portray the overall meaning f the book, which is the horrors of slavery.
ReplyDeleteI believe psychologically, Sethe suffers the most trauma from being enslaved. Sethe's experience caused her to murder her daughter, Beloved, in order to save her from the pain and suffering inflicted on Sethe during her years as a slave. Sethe is also forever scarred, both physically on her back, and mentally by being robbed of her milk and raped.
ReplyDeleteOne of Morrison’s main messages in the novel is that slavery leaves a lasting psychological impacts on those who were affected by it. This is evident in many of the characters in Beloved, especially Paul D. Memories of Paul D’s life as a slave are presented to the reader both from Sethe’s point of view and his own. Morrison describes how Paul D was tortured by slavery, constantly escaping only to be recaptured, being dehumanized and treated like an animal. Because of what Paul D experienced at Sweet Home, at the jail in Alabama, and on his various escapes, he has become closed off to people and refers to his heart as a tin box. He has a hard time trusting people and opening up to them. It takes Paul D a long time to share the details of his journey with Sethe, and when he learns about Beloved and leaves, he regrets opening up to her. After he leaves, he stays in a church basement because he would feel too bad to accept an offer to stay in someone’s home. Paul D is untrusting. He is afraid of having anyone care for him because he had never gotten that kind of care as a slave. He is greatly independent, but it negatively affects him because he is unable to make close connections to people who he knows he loves somewhere deep down.
ReplyDeleteThings you own are your personal belongings, things that you could potentially do whatever to. So to own a person sounds outrageous. You give that person a sense that they are worth nothing, that they have no rights. Causing them to constantly live in fear because they cannot protect themselves. Baby Suggs is one of the many characters who were affected by slavery. She even states that slavery had taken everything from her. This will make a person feel worthless, it makes them feel as they have nothing. Eventually all of this weakness a person, just like it did to Baby Suggs. When Baby Suggs died that is when she was finally free from slavery and the terrifying memories.
ReplyDeleteSethe and the other slaves in the novel were affected psychologically because they were owned. At Sweet Home, Sethe most definitely struggled through harsh and cruel treatment that left her psychologically traumatized and it is evident that these events had a lasting impact on her present actions. Sethe was raped during her time as a slave which severely traumatized her. Then, she willingly murdered her daughter in order to prevent her from a life as a slave. This goes to show that the effects of slavery will never leave her and psychologically affected her in such a way that she justified killing her own baby girl. Sethe is constantly worried about her family’s future because of her torturous past. Even though Sethe physically escaped, Sethe will never escape the traumas of slavery she experienced.
ReplyDeleteOf all the characters who were slaves in the novel, the most obvious character who was affected by this owning was Sethe. Under the ownership of the Garners at Sweet Home, it was in fact an ironical “sweet home” for her. She had never known anything different and although she was still a slave, her life was not as bad as other slaves. She was able to stand on two feet, rather than four, and able to make decisions for herself. When School Teacher took over, Sethe was unaware that people were actually treated like this. She was raped and whipped, leaving everlasting affects on her. When given the chance to be free, she took it, but the slavery never left her. She would do anything to protect her children from the life that she lived, including murdering them. She never wanted them to experience what she did and the actions she took made her an outcast at 124. Although she is no longer a slave, she is a slave of her past, haunted by what she lived through and what she did.
ReplyDeleteWhen presented with this prompt, the character that jumped to my mind was Paul D. Paul D's story of multiple owners, each worse than the one before, showed how deep down he was broken. When he was catching up with Sethe about the years they were apart, even she could see in his eyes how broken down he had become from those long years. Although he had no hope at some points and wished for death, he kept his humanity, and his hardship made him stronger in both physical and mental ways. This lasting effect is what kept him at 124 even when Beloved was forcing him to sleep in the shed, and it's also what drove him away from the house. Although he was willing to fight against Beloved for Sethe, once he found out what she had done, his reaction was the opposite of what was expected. Even though he suffered just as much as Sethe (maybe a little bit less,) he could not justify her killing her own child. In my opinion, this is because he knows what it is like to be haunted by his past but the child was too innocent to be killed, even if it was to save her family from slavery.
ReplyDeleteSethe was owned as property but also by her own fear. On Sweet Home, Sethe was physically owned. She was seen as property and experienced traumatic situations, such as being raped, which shaped how she lives once she is “free.” I feel that Sethe is never truly free as she is constantly reminded by her thoughts of the past. When not on sweet home, she is still metaphorically owned by her fears. This is also present when Beloved returns and pushes Sethe to near death. Sethe fears her past and actions concerning Beloved so she becomes a slave to her own thoughts.
ReplyDelete“the psychological and emotional effects of being owned—of having no sense of self, of fearing to trust or to love when anything can be taken away at any time.” Sethe being a slave totally destroyed her mentally, I mean she killed her child. The idea of fearing love or trust because anything can be taken away is very evident in the novel. Sethe killing her child is a perfect example of this, not only did she do it because she didn't want her kid to grow up to be a slave, but she also did not want to have her child taken from her, so if she couldn't have her child hey smarty pants one could, and she got to kill it, or something like that. This is also y Sethe has such a hard tie with love, and why people leave her, because not being loved as a slave, she was not able to love as people should. She had trust issues, its a "its not you its me" type situation.
ReplyDeleteI consider Baby Suggs to be one character that is the most effected by the psychological trauma of being owned. For starters she was a slave. Being owned and treated like an animal changed Baby Suggs view on life and family. She made it a point to be stern and cold towards anyone who might've meant something important to her (like her children), because she knew as a slave that could all be taken away in the matter of seconds. Slavery took everything good away from life. The fact that Baby Suggs felt like she couldn't love her own children is heart breaking. I can't even imagine going through something like that. Baby Suggs lived an unfortunate life but she was strong.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to expand upon just one character’s experiences with being owned, since many characters endured the harshness of slavery in their own way. Two characters whose mental and physical states were very much compromised from slavery are Sethe and Paul D. Paul D experienced much physical pain as a slave, such as being chained up, whipped, attempting to run away, and being treated like the dirt on the ground. This took a toll on his mental state because it affected his capacity to love and open up to people. Paul D says he has a “tin heart” which is closed off and keeps him at an arms length from others. He has trouble trusting people and establishing strong relationships because of the extreme mistreatment he received as a slave. The effects of slavery are evident in Paul D’s appearance and attitude, but the bond he has with Sethe clearly helps to rejuvenate him in ways unimaginable. Also, obviously Sethe is horribly haunted by her years spent as a slave. Being beaten and raped, the scars of her physical wounds will forever be with her, but the mental degeneration she endured also impacts her life. Sethe’s experiences as a slave were treacherous enough to the point where she was motivated to kill her own children to prevent them from going through what she did. Even after being relinquished of the chains that held her down, her life was nothing close to normal, for she lived in constant fear.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Paul D was one of the characters that was most severely affected by being owned. While Sethe has her home, has her job, and has Denver, Paul D has nothing. While Sethe successfully escaped Sweet Home, Paul D was recaptured as a prisoner and lived in a hole in the ground. Despite being free, he just wanders from place to place, he has no sense of self and he fears loving someone and losing them so much that he insists that he is incapable of love. It has been almost 20 years since he was free, yet the memories of being treated like nothing more than a farm animal, of his friends and family killed or gone insane, restrict him of forming his own sense of humanity. He is so unsure of his manhood that he allows himself to be kicked out of Sethe's house by Beloved, and he is easily manipulated by her. His experiences as a slave have left him with almost no hope for humanity, and he thinks that "no ex-slave should love someone as much as Sethe loves Beloved". The only thing that might be able to heal him is helping Sethe out of her bedridden state and learning to apply his memories to their future without falling into a pit of negativity.
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