Beloved

In the Novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison unmasks the horrors of slavery, and

depicts its aftermath on African Americans. The story is perfect for all who did

not experience nor could imagine how it was to be an African American in America

circa the 1860's. Beloved lends a gateway to understanding the trials and

tribulations of the modern African American. The Novel has many things that

occur that are very striking, most of which have to deal with the treatment of

the African Americans. The book as a whole is very disturbing, and even shows to

what lengths African Americans were willing to go to avoid enslavement of

In the novel the most extreme case of someone avoiding enslavement comes from

the main character when she attempts to kill her children. The main character ,

Sethe, is not willing to let her children end up re-enslaved and would rather

see them dead and in Heaven then in an earthly hell of being slaves. I believe

that from Sethe was justified in her actions. Slavery is a very hars

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What I am referring to in particular

are the living conditions at the work camp in Georgia. This was quite

possibly the most bothersome and abhorrent item that occurred to the slaves in

the book. Even modern day

criminals, those that have murdered large numbers of people are treated more

humanly then the average slave ever was. This was disgusting and at the

same time seemed very weird. This all goes

back to the fact that they would never be human or treated as humans, so based

on this I believe that Sethe was justified in killing her children and

preventing them from becoming enslaved. The white men considered the African Americans to

be animals, yet they still made them perform oral sex on them. The fact that the men

were in little cubbie holes in a trench in the ground is very disturbing. Slavery degraded African Americans from humans, to that of

animals. This goes back to the

roots of slavery to the fact that families where split up and the slaves had not

control, and thus could not protect the ones that they loved.

The fact that the slaves where treated like animals, and where traded and sold

like cattle is well depicted in the book. The life that the children would of

lived would of been one of complete servitude, they would of never of known what

it was like to live on their own and make their own decisions.

It also brings to light the many cruelties inherent in slavery and the affect

this had on an entire race of people and their development in the U. They were not treated with any respect, or proper care. The other thing that was really

disturbing at the same camp was the "breakfast".

Approximate Word count = 708
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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