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?