Afro-American Wildness Of Nature

Toni Morrison’s main purpose of animal imagery throughout Beloved is to more deeply connect the underlying question of self-identity that African Americans experienced as a result of slavery. This question specifically relates from the widely accepted subhuman treatment of African Americans in the South even years following the emancipation of slavery, and it provides a deeper understanding of the brutal dispositions of white slaveowners. Characters in Beloved, including Sethe, Stamp Paid, and Paul D, who have directly experienced this type of animalistic dehumanization as former slaves find themselves frequently question their own fundamental self worth and identity. Through constant abuse and antagonization, these slaves unavoidably accept themselves as subordinate to animals. This sentiment derives from several instances throughout the novel where these characters directly confronted with comparisons to animals as a result of this sub humane treatment by former slave owners. Toni Morrison uses animal imagery to more effectively emphasize the relation between the brutal and dehumanizing experiences in the South with the actual barbaric dispositions of white slave owners.

This turns out to be an ironic contrast to life at the Weylin plantation, where a slave who visits his wife without his master's permission is brutally whipped. Perhaps a more painful realization for Dana is how this cruel treatment oppresses the mind. "Slavery of any kind fostered strange relationships," she notes, for all the slaves feel the same strange combination of fear,

property that can be “tied up to the limb of a tree, with [his] feet chained together” and “repeatedly whipped” (Douglass 35). In contrast, there is a disregard for black perspective

To begin, Douglass uses imagery to describe the heart wrenching experience of a slave child on a plantation. Without adequate food or clothing, slave children begin the process of dehumanization. Denied blankets or beds, the children slept on the cold and damp floor and Douglass describes with horrid detail his “feet [being] so cracked with the frost, that the pen which [he is] writing might be laid in the gashes”(1836). This painful description creates empathy for a mistreated child whose only “crime” results from his birth to a black mother. In the most dehumanizing comparison, Douglass uses animal imagery to reveal the conditions and manner in which the children are fed. Douglass writes:

House slaves were given nicer clothing to wear, as to be presentable in the home, while field slaves often received merely a “homespun shirt that was made on the plantation”. Clearly, a distinction can be made between then house slave and field slave and although one might conclude that the house slave was treated better it truly depended on the plantation owner and his or her treatment of the slave.

Slavery is a contradictory subject in American history because “one hears…of the staid and gentle patriarchy, the wide and sleepy plantations with lord and retainers, ease and happiness; [while] on the other hand on hears of barbarous cruelty and unbridles power and wide oppression of men” (Dubois 2). Dubois’s The Negro in the United States is an autoethnographic text which is a representation “that the so-defined others

It is the most dehumanizing and intrusive aspect of every human’s life that it touches. Slavery is the very institution that affects the social, economic, and cultural aspects of every person’s life. Although many people viewed slavery as a necessity, others have strong critiques of the institution. We are able to gain knowledge of these very critiques by the first-hand accounts of Mary Prince in the narrative The History of Mary Prince and From the Darkness Cometh the Light by Lucy Delaney. In the narratives, Prince and Delany communicate to the reader a plethora of critiques to slavery. The most powerful critiques that Prince and Delaney agree upon are the destruction of family, the condition of the slaves, and the moral that it creates

The Glymph reading revealed the abuse of slaves that was not just common, but in some cases expected from mistresses. The brutality depicted in the accounts caused me to wonder whether these offenses were ordinary, or extraordinary offenses. However the journal entries and WPA narratives first person narratives complimented the Glymph reading giving evidence and credibility while displaying the mentality of slaves and slave-owners of the era. Although Brevard appeared an image of southern hospitality, piety, and spirituality in her dealings with her neighbors and animals, she viewed slaves with great disregard and disrespect. The WPA entries further explained that discrimination and abuse was the norm on southern plantations. Even slaves

The jungle in this case can consist of unknown entities, cruel creatures, and hidden horrors. All these elements mirror the life of not only Jurgis and his family but also the other victims of corrupt practices.

Achille Mbembe articulates how slavery results from a loss of home, loss of rights over one’s body, and loss of one’s political rights. This degrades the person to only retaining the value of being a property whose master dictates their life. Yet, the plantation world they live in gives them an alternative perspective that allows them stylize and adapt to a life possessed by another. Slavery takes away personal freedom and gives power over someone’s life to another, forcing a unique lifestyle that molds a person to be able to survive such a condition.

White Americans had to explain black subjugation as a natural condition, not one they imposed by brute force for the nation’s economic profit. Treating race as biology constituted the only suitable “moral apology” …for slavery in a society that claimed equality as its most cherished ideal. (24)

The flashback provides insight on how the slaves are not allowed to be humans by comparing slaves to animals. Slave owners dehumanize their slaves and treat them worse than animals. Even the chicken on the plantation had the privilege of a name while the slaves did not even get that right. The title of ‘mister’ shows respect for a man which is given to a chicken who is not even human. Slave owners gave more rights to chickens than slaves, and this memory haunts Paul D. Sethe also feels trapped from past memories.

Henry Ford was a car mogul who through his Model T car and high wage to workers became a symbol of US progress. He had multiple projects that tried to follow his philosophy of progress through a community that was self-sufficiently maintained through agriculture and manufacturing. Although his initial project of creating a model city Muscle Shoals failed, he tried to create his model city in Brazil which came to be known as Fordlandia. Fords goal in Tapajós region, similar to US involvement in Latin America, was motivated both from his economic interest and his desire to implant his ideal town into Latin America, promising change and prosperity for those in the region. The way to understand

A main issue that occurred among former slaves was the difficult rebuilding of identity since they were made to feel like nothing more than cattle under the slavery system. African Americans laid in the mercy of their owners who methodically broke down the spirits of the enslaved until they lost all hope of obtaining individuality. Former slave and Sweet Home inhabitant, Paul D, expressed anguish over feeling dehumanized in the lines, “Schoolteacher changed me. I was something else and that something was less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a tub” (72). To feel worth less than a chicken

 The character, Paul D., worked as a slave under both Mr. Garner and Schoolteacher, and although they treated him differently, the final outcome was the same.  Paul D. acknowledged that Garner called his slaves men, " but only on Sweet Home, and by his leave" ( Morrison, 220).  Paul D. did not need some white master telling him who was a man or not, he knew for himself.  But as soon as Schoolteacher came , any confidence Paul D. had, vanished.  Paul D. came to believe he was worthless due to his captivity, as described in a scene about a rooster called Mister.  Paul D. replayed that scene for Sethe, saying," Mister, he looked so...free.  Better than me.  Stronger, tougher....Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was.  But I wasn't allowed to be and stay what I was...no way I'd ever be Paul D. again...Schoolteacher changed me.  I was something else...less than a chicken"  (Morrison, 72).  Paul D. said it himself, slavery changed him into something lower then an animal, and he would never be the same again.