Toni Morrison’s Beloved is an examination of the fundamental human rights and relationships that the institution of slavery has prevented blacks from claiming. From parent-child relationships to basic assurances of physical safety, there is nothing that can be sacred or protected to the slave. True freedom, therefore, necessarily requires the tremendous audacity of claiming the relationships and rights that slavery had forbidden and maintaining them. The slave’s access to God should be no exception to this pattern of loss and audacious claim. Indeed, the divinity that blacks create performs the only miracles present in this story. These expressions of divinity, however, are overcome by condemnation within the black community itself and by displays
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She preaches what Stamp Paid calls the “Word,” an emotionally charged sermon that exhorts blacks to love their own bodies and claim ownership of them. Moving from one body part to another, Baby Suggs identifies the damage that whites have inflicted upon them and grounds everyone in the physical reality of their bodies. “We flesh,” she emphasizes, “flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass” (103). In the face of white dehumanization and control, her claims to black empowerment and ownership of self are incredibly audacious and elevate her to divine proportions. The divinity that she claims, however, is not overseen by God. Morrison describes Baby Suggs as an “unchurched preacher” who visits pulpits “uncalled, unrobed, unanointed” (102). God may not have blessed Baby Suggs but neither does she adhere to traditional religious rhetoric or institutions. She is “Baby Suggs, holy” with no title of honor before her name but a small “caress” after it (102). In the context of her sermon on the importance of loving one’s own flesh, it is important to recognize the order of her name and divine tag (102). Since “holy” follows Baby Suggs and does not precede it, it seems to take secondary importance in her naming. “Baby Suggs” comes first, for she is first and foremost an ex-slave whose name carries remnants of her former life and partner. The access to …show more content…
He is separate from Baby Suggs’ claim to divinity and cannot be reached by anyone who has been tainted by the black experience. Although he exists, white domination has usurped his connection to the blacks and rendered him powerless to interfere. In Morrison’s story, whites seem to play God more often than God plays himself. Is this interference in the connection between mortal and divine not the greatest audacity of all? Throughout this entire story, we see that the effects of slavery are insidious and lasting and permeating through every facet of life. We are preoccupied with the incredible audacity of ex-slaves in their pursuit of the fundamental human rights long denied to them by white power. But no matter how extreme the claim, it will not and cannot match the awful presumption of power that is slavery itself. God himself is compromised in his relation to
She preaches what Stamp Paid calls the “Word,” an emotionally charged sermon that exhorts blacks to love their own bodies and claim ownership of them. Moving from one body part to another, Baby Suggs identifies the damage that whites have inflicted upon them and grounds everyone in the physical reality of their bodies. “We flesh,” she emphasizes, “flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass” (103). In the face of white dehumanization and control, her claims to black empowerment and ownership of self are incredibly audacious and elevate her to divine proportions. The divinity that she claims, however, is not overseen by God. Morrison describes Baby Suggs as an “unchurched preacher” who visits pulpits “uncalled, unrobed, unanointed” (102). God may not have blessed Baby Suggs but neither does she adhere to traditional religious rhetoric or institutions. She is “Baby Suggs, holy” with no title of honor before her name but a small “caress” after it (102). In the context of her sermon on the importance of loving one’s own flesh, it is important to recognize the order of her name and divine tag (102). Since “holy” follows Baby Suggs and does not precede it, it seems to take secondary importance in her naming. “Baby Suggs” comes first, for she is first and foremost an ex-slave whose name carries remnants of her former life and partner. The access to …show more content…
He is separate from Baby Suggs’ claim to divinity and cannot be reached by anyone who has been tainted by the black experience. Although he exists, white domination has usurped his connection to the blacks and rendered him powerless to interfere. In Morrison’s story, whites seem to play God more often than God plays himself. Is this interference in the connection between mortal and divine not the greatest audacity of all? Throughout this entire story, we see that the effects of slavery are insidious and lasting and permeating through every facet of life. We are preoccupied with the incredible audacity of ex-slaves in their pursuit of the fundamental human rights long denied to them by white power. But no matter how extreme the claim, it will not and cannot match the awful presumption of power that is slavery itself. God himself is compromised in his relation to