Study the Masters by Lucille Clifton
like my aunt timmie.
it was her iron,
or one like hers,
that smoothed the sheets
the master poet slept on.
home or hotel, what matters is
he lay himself down on her handiwork
and dreamed. she dreamed too, words;
some cherokee, some masai and some
huge and particular as hope.
if you had heard her
chanting as she ironed
you would understand form and line
and discipline and order and
america.
Greetings, Class.
In Beloved, we are exploring the ways gender and intersectional identity may have impacted the experiences of the characters, former enslaved people. This poem by Lucille Clifton may help us to unpack some of the complexities associated with gender in slave communities.
Consider how gender (male or female) and intersectional identity (black/African American and female) impacted the individual experiences of the characters because they were people that once lived in enslaved communities.
How are Paul D's memories of slavery different from Sethe's or Ella's? How might the traumas associated with slavery impact the ways certain communities or individuals remember America and negotiate 'freedoms'?
You may include examples from Beloved. Feel free to include links and additional resources as examples.
How are Paul D's memories of slavery different from Sethe's or Ella's? How might the traumas associated with slavery impact the ways certain communities or individuals remember America and negotiate 'freedoms'?
You may include examples from Beloved. Feel free to include links and additional resources as examples.
Dr. Hill
First, one way that their experiences are similar, excusing gender, is that as a harsh punishment they would be whipped. An example is Sethe has what she calls a "tree" on her back from whippings, and this is what I consider a go to punishment for slaves whether a woman or man. But ways that they were different was that Paul D had a horse bit in his mouth and was in a location where he could see the other men at Sweet Home take Sethe's milk. This was a traumatic time for both of them but in different physical and emotional ways. Those who have been enslaved might have a different view on the meaning of freedom. Some whites would consider freedom to be the ability to voice our opinion, to have personal ownership of houses, cars and even bank accounts. Basically we have the ability to choose for ourselves instead of the government, but people who were once enslaved may perceive freedom as the ability to live for oneself and not under an owner. Slavery can skew the mindset of someones thoughts on freedom or even America based on traumatic experiences.
ReplyDeleteBoth gender and intersectional identity have impacted the main characters Sethe and Denver greatly. They are not able to find true freedom for very long because of these factors. For example, Sethe is not even able to keep all of her children because of her and her children's ethnicity. Her children would have been taken for slaves because there were laws stating that they can't be born free. These laws are explained in the article "Slavery and Indentured Servants" (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/slavery.html). Also, because Sethe was a woman, she was abused by the boys on Sweet Farm, and there was no one willing to stand up for her.
ReplyDeleteI think that men and women experience and process trauma in different ways. In Beloved men almost solely receive physical trauma, along with some emotional trauma. Women, as shown through Sethe's descent into madness, receive more emotional trauma, along with some physical trauma, as shown in the "tree" on Sethe's back. This is still evident today, as men are supposed to be more manly and take on physical trauma, possibly through contact sports or hazing. Women still are experiencing more emotional trauma through bullying and harassment.
ReplyDeleteThrough out the novel Beloved, both men and woman seem to indue great amounts of trauma. Although both men and woman endure physical trauma it seems that the physical trauma also has a emotion and mental effect on the woman more then it does the men. Such as Seethe killing of her daughter beloved has evolved into a mental trauma where she believes the ghost in her house is her dead baby.
ReplyDeleteI feel like being an African American woman in this time period would be a lot more difficult then being an African American man, because not only were woman tortured as bad as men were, they were also rapped and assaulted. Woman were less then powerless during this time.