LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:3 March 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Euthanasia in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

A. Sivaraj, M.A., M.Phil. B.Ed.
Dr. R. Bharathi, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Dealing with the Psyche of Slaves

Toni Morrison is one of the most gifted novelists in the history of African American literature. She delivers her voice to the black women, and makes them the protagonist of her novels. Her novel Beloved deals with the psyche of the slaves. Her writing is essentially humanistic and is a social document which deals with the past experiences of African Americans. It examines the old issues of the black. The traditional theory of naturalism is adequate to deal with their experiences. It is really heart-rending to know how blacks were victimized and oppressed in those days.

Beloved – Racial and Gender Discrimination

In Beloved, Morrison explicates both racial and gender discrimination in the white dominated African American social life. Since the novel speaks about society which is disorderly, the narration of the novel is not in order. The broken narrative is the symbolical representation of the disordered status of society. The novel explores the trauma of the protagonist, Sethe. It revolves around the power of memory and history. The society of the black does not enjoy the recollection of the past; but tries to forget their position in the past. Sethe’s past will showcase nothing but trauma. Sethe is the protagonist of the novel and she is the mouthpiece of Morrison. Her past is not sweet to think about so that she tries to forget it. But the past is embodied in memories of slavery and is inescapable. Her only hope is her daughter Denver. She tries to protect Denver from the white and male chauvinistic social framework. But she fails to do that. At one point she kills her own daughter in order to save her from the life of slavery. It seems to be cruel in the eyes of the society, but it is an act of mercy to her.

Sethe’s Story

The novel Beloved begins with Sethe’s story; it evolves into a story that Mirriam Horn states, “these people who don’t know they are in an era of historical interest. They just know they have to get through the day . . . and they are trying desperately to be parents, husbands and a mother with children” (75). Morrison’s conscious focus on the collective rather than Sethe’s personal history is clarified when she says that the novel “has to be the interior life of some people, a small group of people and everything they do is impacted on by the horror of slavery, but they are also people”(33). The impact of slavery on a people involves the way internalization of oppressors’ values can misrepresent all intimate human relationship and even the self.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

A. Sivaraj, M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed., Research Scholar
Department of English
Annamalai University
Annamalainagar
Tamilnadu
India
anandansivaraj1982@gmail.com

Dr. R. Bharathi, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant. Professor
Department of English
Annamalai University
Annamalainagar
Tamilnadu
India
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