The hegemonic slave narrative, perpetuated by the collective American psyche, oppresses the African-American perspective; censoring the debilitating physical and psychological trauma caused by institutionalised racism that continues to permeate preceding generations present-day. Toni Morrison, through her text Beloved, challenges this dominant paradigm due to her unapologetic, holistic portrayal of humanity and dominant culture after the Civil War that revives the stories purposely omitted from collective memory. The novel exposes how man can be wolf to man and depicts the devaluation of African-American lives through the metaphor of being recklessly moved around like pieces of a board game. Most poignantly, Morrison focuses on the human experience
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The Fugitive Slave Act provided freedom to slaves in northern states but not those in the south. Those who made it across Ohio river were granted freedom if they were not caught up to by their previous slave owners. The context of the novel has enduring legacy because it highlights, to contemporary audiences, the intergenerational effect that racism has on the individual and community. Through Beloved, Morrison conducts her own revisionist history; attempting to rewrite the white washing of American history, demonstrated through the dominance of white in my visual …show more content…
She has constructed the novel strategically to acknowledge the events during slavery but doesn’t blame a racial group; evident in the inclusion of characters, like Amy Denver, who show the humanity of Euro-Americans. This is significant and gives her text value as it avoids alienating and provoking her audience, allowing for her message to be heard. Rather, Morrison presents the accepted mental framework during the context of the novel which allowed for the disregard of African-American humanity. It is in this socio-cultural paradigm that man was wolf to man. To show this, I have used wolves to symbolise Euro-Americans. In the novel it states, “White people believed that...under every dark skin was a jungle…swinging screaming baboons…red gums ready for their sweet white blood…But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place…The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own.” Here, Morrison articulates the collective American psyche that praised white supremacy; a way of thinking which still effects dominant culture
The Fugitive Slave Act provided freedom to slaves in northern states but not those in the south. Those who made it across Ohio river were granted freedom if they were not caught up to by their previous slave owners. The context of the novel has enduring legacy because it highlights, to contemporary audiences, the intergenerational effect that racism has on the individual and community. Through Beloved, Morrison conducts her own revisionist history; attempting to rewrite the white washing of American history, demonstrated through the dominance of white in my visual …show more content…
She has constructed the novel strategically to acknowledge the events during slavery but doesn’t blame a racial group; evident in the inclusion of characters, like Amy Denver, who show the humanity of Euro-Americans. This is significant and gives her text value as it avoids alienating and provoking her audience, allowing for her message to be heard. Rather, Morrison presents the accepted mental framework during the context of the novel which allowed for the disregard of African-American humanity. It is in this socio-cultural paradigm that man was wolf to man. To show this, I have used wolves to symbolise Euro-Americans. In the novel it states, “White people believed that...under every dark skin was a jungle…swinging screaming baboons…red gums ready for their sweet white blood…But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place…The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own.” Here, Morrison articulates the collective American psyche that praised white supremacy; a way of thinking which still effects dominant culture