The inability to form one's sense of self is directly related to the physical or psychological trauma experienced earlier in one’s life. In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, the most prominent way slaves are haunted by their past is seen through the dehumanization they endure and how that makes it impossible to form a stable sense of self.
One of the easiest ways to dehumanize a female slave is to deny them of motherhood. The protagonist in the novel, Sethe, lost every part of what it meant to be a mother after her infant was taken from her in attempt to disallow any chance of emotional attachment. By doing this, the natural desire to mother made it easier to dehumanize female slaves by depriving them of femininity and motherhood. The idea of …show more content…
The dehumanizing effects of slavery transformed Paul D into a shell of a human being with a fractured identity, despite his efforts to preserve what little humanity he had left. After an attempt to murder his owner, Paul D was ordered to go to a prison, as Morrison described it: “A door of bars that you could lift on hinges like a cage opened into three walls and a roof of scrap lumber and red dirt” (Morrison 125). Subjected to shameful treatment, Paul D, alongside forty-five other men, worked chained together like animals. To preserve the little humanity Paul D had left, he locked his memories away into a “tobacco tin-heart” which were tarnished shut from years of repression and animalistic abuse. After years of internalizing such dehumanization, Paul D became so crippled both physically and mentally, he was taught that he was undeserving of any human affection or …show more content…
“How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay.” LinkedIn SlideShare, 30 Aug. 2010, www.slideshare.net/Jennabates/how-to-write-a-literary-analysis-essay. “Literary Analysis: Using Elements of Literature.” Roane State Community College, www.roanestate.edu/owl/ElementsLit.html. Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 9th Ed. New York: Bedford, 2008.
Print.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved, Vintage,
One of the easiest ways to dehumanize a female slave is to deny them of motherhood. The protagonist in the novel, Sethe, lost every part of what it meant to be a mother after her infant was taken from her in attempt to disallow any chance of emotional attachment. By doing this, the natural desire to mother made it easier to dehumanize female slaves by depriving them of femininity and motherhood. The idea of …show more content…
The dehumanizing effects of slavery transformed Paul D into a shell of a human being with a fractured identity, despite his efforts to preserve what little humanity he had left. After an attempt to murder his owner, Paul D was ordered to go to a prison, as Morrison described it: “A door of bars that you could lift on hinges like a cage opened into three walls and a roof of scrap lumber and red dirt” (Morrison 125). Subjected to shameful treatment, Paul D, alongside forty-five other men, worked chained together like animals. To preserve the little humanity Paul D had left, he locked his memories away into a “tobacco tin-heart” which were tarnished shut from years of repression and animalistic abuse. After years of internalizing such dehumanization, Paul D became so crippled both physically and mentally, he was taught that he was undeserving of any human affection or …show more content…
“How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay.” LinkedIn SlideShare, 30 Aug. 2010, www.slideshare.net/Jennabates/how-to-write-a-literary-analysis-essay. “Literary Analysis: Using Elements of Literature.” Roane State Community College, www.roanestate.edu/owl/ElementsLit.html. Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 9th Ed. New York: Bedford, 2008.
Print.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved, Vintage,