Reader Response

After reading this book, I took a look on multiple different sites to read the reviews that other people have given the book “Beloved.” I myself found the book fairly interesting, intense at times and I also found myself confused, using the internet to look up the deeper meaning behind some aspects of the book. The three sites I looked at were, Goodreads.com, Barnes and Noble and lastly, Amazon.

            The first one I looked at was goodreads.com. Like any other site will have, there were a lot of people that had different responses to the book. It seemed like either they loved it, or they hated it. Some people however, hated it for silly reasons I think. They didn’t like her writing style, they didn’t want to read “another” book on slavery, etc. I found one quote that was particularly interesting to me, “Unfortunately, I just could not get into this book. I tried reading it as a class assignment and again on my own, but alas. It wasn't the writing style, which was...a cute attempt for creativeness but resulted in harming the progress of the story (much like Faulkner's Sound and the Fury actually). Don't misunderstand me, I love being exposed to different styles such as stream-of-consciousness, magical realism or what have you - but I feel that this book fails, miserably. I am also not a fan of Morrison, I don't particularly care for her personal opinions and I am confused why this title is so revered. I wasn't entertained by it, I felt no remorse or sympathy for any characters and I was just glad to be done with it. I rarely throw books into a recycling bin, but this was one of those that deserved to be tossed aside, in my opinion.”

I found this to be a little harsh, especially when they said they felt no remorse for anyone in the book. How can you hear what Sethe went through in the barn and not feel bad? How can you not be sad when reading what happened to Beloved and Sethe and her other children that day? How does someone read about slavery and not feel bad for the thousands of people that were forced into slavery? I think this person, along with all the other people who didn’t like the book because it was written on slavery, doesn’t have a heart!

            The second website that I was looking at was Barnes and Noble’s. Again, I found a range of people who felt differently about the book. I found a quote from someone that I really liked and thought it was a great response to all the haters, especially the person who I found on goodreads.com. “To all the people complaining that this novel is difficult, boring, weird, senseless, etc and calling Morrison a bad writer or overrated, I can't have any other reaction but to smile and feel bad that those people do not have the mental capacity to understand such incredible writing. If Toni Morrison was not an extraordinary writer, she would not have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, or the Pulitzer. Yes, this is a difficult book to read. Yes, it will take very close reading and sometimes rereading but please do not diminish the value of this absolutely beautiful and haunting literary work. Morrison is an absolute genius and if you cannot understand her or think she's “ overrated”, just accept that you will never be able to grasp this work of ART or the level of language/literature it's written in. Do yourself a favor and enrich your library and soul with this novel.

I found this very funny and satisfying. I also thought that, while reading some of the reviews, that the people bad mouthing the book clearly didn’t understand it. They must not have the ability to dig deeper into the book. I’m not saying that it was a walk in the park to read, but reading and rereading as well as using other resources to help me at times, I was able to better understand the book.

Lastly, I looked on the Amazon website in hopes that I could find some better reviews. I found one that rated the book with five stars rather than the one stars that the previous reviews did. This person says “If you can allow yourself to put yourself in the place of a slave, as is described in this book, you can feel the humiliation, grief, indignity, disgrace, fear, degradation and submissiveness that was a slave. Through Toni Morrison's words, I felt these feelings. I don't know how they survived. This is a hard book to read, but I'm glad I did. I believe we all need to understand what was done.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I could definitely feel the pain, humiliation, the dehumanization, the fear and the shame that took place in the novel. I felt like I was experiencing everything along with Sethe and Denver and Beloved. This book truly was a good book and Morrison did a great job writing it. The style of her writing and the way she didn’t do it chronologically left me using my head to piece everything together, in return making me feel like apart of the story.

Sources:

Morrison, Toni. "Beloved." Barnes & Noble. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

<http://www.barnesandnoble.com/reviews/beloved-toni

morrison/1001875673?ean=9781400033416>.

Morrison, Toni. "Beloved." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

<https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6149.Beloved?from_search=tr

e#other_reviews>.

"Customer Reviews." Amazon. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

<https://www.amazon.com/Beloved-Toni

Morrison/dp/1400033411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493002453&sr=8

1&keywords=beloved>.

Contemporary Connections

              I think everyone can think of one major racial issue that’s going on in America at the moment. One thing that came to mind when reading the directions for this blog, was the Black Lives Matter movement. It started a couple of years ago in regards to the violence that African Americans were facing in the public, including with law enforcement. It’s gotten stronger and in many cases, out of hand recently with the election of Donald Trump. So one article that I found and will talk about is “Bleak days for black America.”

                This article discusses how in the past few years, shootings of African Americans has been on the rise. Particularly shootings involving police officers. Some even feel like the violence has gotten worse and will only continue with the presidency of Donald Trump, a “white supremacist,” (1). With the all the shootings and horrors of society, black parents are warning their children “never, ever run in the presence of a police officer; say ‘yes, sir’ or ‘yes, ma’am,’” (1). They’re doing everything they can to make sure their children come home safely each night. The article states “A century and a half after slavery, and 50 years since the end of legal segregation, ‘They Can’t Kill Us All’ impressively brings us up to date with America’s fraught history of racial injustice,” (1).

            This relates with the books that we read because this movement was created to get awareness out there that black lives matter just as much as white lives or any other lives for the matter, which is what Beecher-Stowe was trying to portray in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It’s 2017 and black lives are in need of help to make sure that people see them as equal members of society, something that was done, like the article states, a century and a half ago. This can also relate back to our books because black parents are telling their children to say “yes ma’am” and “yes sir” to police officers and nothing else, which is what they did as slaves how many years ago? They weren’t able to talk, just obey by saying “yes sir.” It’s reducing their worth as human beings.

            The second article that I found was “A reflection on the Black Lives Matter movement and Its Impact on My Scholarship,” by Wil Gafney, an instructor at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth Texas. The very first thing that is written in this article is a quote from none other than Toni Morrison from the book “Beloved,” saying “… they do not love your flesh.” It then has the words, “Black Lives Matter,” (1). This article is about an African American who claims this movement affected her teaching greatly. She is working to take the “whiteness” out of things. She claims that what made her first realize “the degree to which black folk are not regarded as fully- if even at all- human,” was the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012. This, along with all the other recent shootings has paved the way for her work.

            This obviously can relate to both books but “Beloved” especially because the very first thing in this article is a quote directly from the book. How cool that I just happened to click on an article that had a quote from the book we just read? It’s true though, this article on Black Lives Matter can relate back to our book on slavery because today, like during the time of slavery and shortly after, people did not accept the color of blacks’ skin. If they had a different color skin than white people, they were not accepted. Just like Gafney suggests, it’s as if African Americans are not being seen as human beings by some people to this day. Whenever a black person is seen on the streets in some areas, it’s automatically assumed that they did something wrong. This can also relate to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” because like I said with the previous article, black people are not given the same rights as white people are, just like in the time period of the books.

            I think that after reading both of these books on slavery and how African Americans were treated back then and then also reading all the poems and short stories on lynchings and all of that, I have become more aware of what is going on. After reading these articles on today’s racial issues, as well as seeing and hearing about all the riots, I realized that there is a problem. There’s no reason some of these problems are still occurring in 2017, hundreds of years since the end of slavery and about 50 since the end of segregation. 
Source One:
   Biswas, K. “Bleak Days for Black America.” New Statesman, vol. 146, no. 5352, 03 Feb. 2017,            pp. 44-45.. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.uwc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?              direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ipcpid&custid=s5805083&db=a9h&AN=121117984&site=ehost-        live&scope=site
Source Two: 

    Gafney, Wil. “A Reflection on the Black Lives Matter Movement and Its Impact on My

Scholarship.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 136, no. 1, Mar. 2017, pp. 204-207.

EBSCOhost

Critical Commentary

                The essay that I chose to read and talk about is titled, “The ‘Scent of Ink’: Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the Semiotics of Rights,” by Elizabeth S. Anker. This essay goes on to talk about the novel “Beloved,” and summarizes some of the main events. I agree with much of what she says about the book and I found that this essay can relate to my theme of runaway slaves.

 Anker states how this is a book that “has become a foundational point of reference in its portrayal of the ongoing legacy of American slavery,” (2). She claims it takes place during time of Reconstruction for the United States after the abolishment of slavery. She also mentions that it’s about a runaway slave that tried to kill her children, succeeding with only one, in order to protect them from having to endure life as a slave. Of course, we all know what happens in the book so I won’t go into detail about the rest of her summarization of the book. Anker says that this book’s “illustration of how slavery’s wounds still infect the present is what endows Beloved with its ‘heroic’, even ‘epic’ power,” (3). She’s saying basically that everything that went on in the book, shows how the pain and horror that went on during the time of slavery, still affect the lives of everyone involved after the fact.

The article itself is title “Scent of Ink” because it’s mentioned how Schoolteacher wrote in his notebook all the time and in the book on page 6, Sethe’s own trigger was the ‘scent of ink,’ (4). One particular example given in the essay is when Schoolteacher and his nephews attack Sethe in the barn on page 178. The boys take her milk, beat her violently, all the while their uncle is recording it in his notepad. Anker exclaims that this crime “defiles her maternal bequest and reduces it to fungible good,” (4). Another example given, on page 229, a time when Sethe overhears a lesson given to the nephews on her value, talking about her body and what she’s worth. This gives her a lesson than human status, almost as if she’s equal to an animal, which brings the essay into talking about rights.

I agree with everything that Anker says in this article. It’s a long article that goes in depth about what the book was about, and the rights of slaves, giving examples as the essay goes on. I agree with her statements about how the lengths that Schoolteacher goes to, it took away their rights as people, the rights that they had when Mr. Garner was still in charge. The dehumanization that these slaves endured during the time at Sweet Home, lead them to take matters into their own hands. This leads me into my theme for the project. The slaves try to run away. Some fail at it the first time, but when Sethe tries to escape with her children she is successful. This is an important part of the book because the entire story wouldn’t have taken place if it weren’t for a slave trying to escape her owner.
Source: Anker, Elizabeth S. "The 'Scent of Ink': Toni Morrison's Beloved and the Semiotics of                          Rights." Critical Quarterly, vol. 56, no. 4, Dec. 2014, pp 29-45. EBSCOhost,                                        ezproxy.uwc.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?