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Light And Darkness In Toni Morrison's Beloved

Decent Essays

“Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.” President Obama’s 2004 keynote speech gives a timeless message of hope, which especially resonates with minorities who face an uncertain future. Similarly, in her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison demonstrates through the relationship between darkness and light that hope gives the oppressed a sense of purpose and the strength to overcome persecution. The contrast between light and darkness is prominent throughout the novel and parallels the polar opposites of hope and despair. The relationship between good and evil is the most basic example of this symbolism. Denver is persistent …show more content…

Schoolteacher strips the slaves of their humanity when he and his “boys [come] in... and [take] [Sethe’s] milk. [Hold] [her] down and [take] it” (Morrison 19). They treat the slaves like savage animals, which have no place in society. The abuse and violence that Sethe endures makes her feel inferior and unworthy of respectful treatment. This “darkness” can only be resolved by Sethe focusing on her “light,” i.e. towards emancipation. Another mechanism of this dehumanization is when the African-American slaves overhear Schoolteacher reducing their human identity to monetary value. The white slave master talks about the slaves as a matter of “price... [and] property that reproduce[s] itself without cost” (Morrison 228). The continuous talk of slaves being property causes members of Sweet Home, like Paul D, to think of himself as a commodity rather than a human individual. This is key because dehumanization operates both internally and externally; Schoolteacher abuses the slaves so much that they may begin to believe that are just material objects. This eventually motivates Paul D to find his “light” and escape; he then travels as a nomad before making it Ohio, where he can live a life free of

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