In Beloved Toni Morrison sets the novel after the end of the civil war where slaves freed by Emancipation and those who were given or bought their freedom earlier were victims of random acts of violence. There are several power relationships that Morrison links together to show the aftermath of the civil war from the blacks point of view. The key relationships Morrison focuses on are master and slave, and marriage . In every political and power relationship there is one side that holds most of the power if not all. The same is true in the power relationships of Beloved. In the master and slave relationship the master holds most of the power but there is a difference how the power is wielded. Mr. Garner and School teacher represent two different groups of whites, one who believes that slaves should be treated as human beings and the other sees slaves as inferior and should be treated like so. Sethe rebels and asserts her power to kill her children because she believes that she has more right to them than school teacher does. School teacher represents the idea of the master race where there are physical differences between whites and blacks. Sethe said, 3school-teacher1d wrap that string all over my head, cross my nose around my behind. Number my teeth. she though he was a fool.2 (191) Morrison deliberately created both characters, Mr. Garner and School-teacher as opposites to reflect the different white masters of that time. Slavery presented by Morrison also show how most people behave when they are given absolute power over other people. First they start believing in their own superiority and justifying their decisions by it. This can be seen when Mr. Garner doesn1t use violence to get his slaves to work instead he listens to them, allows them to use guns and calls them men (88). This contrasts to school teacher who feels the need to demonstrate his power and separate himself as the superior and the slaves as the sub race. This can be...