African Slavery Essay Research Paper African slavery — страница 2

to demand things. ?Anything she wanted, she got and when Sethe ran out to give her, Beloved invented desire? (p.240). Beloved began to order around the household and Sethe, like an obedient child, fulfilled all her needs. Her power over Sethe is present in the following: ?Was it past bedtime, the light no good for sewing? Beloved didn?t move; said, ?Do it?, and Sethe complied?(p.241). She also physically abuses her mother: ?this daughter beat her, tied her to the bed and pulled out all her hair? (p.255). Beloved?s goal to make Sethe suffer was a success. The presence of Beloved, which once brought Denver joy, now caused her grief. Denver had a difficult childhood as her mom murdered her sister; her brothers, Howard and Buglar, ran away because they could no longer bear to live in

a haunted house and Baby Suggs, who she looked up to, died. Denver lived in fear of her own mother: ?I love my mother but I know she killed one of her own daughters, and tender as she is with me, I?m scared of her because of it?(p.205). Denver grew up alone and waited for the day happiness would come into her life. Paul D?s presence enforced her misery as he chased away the ghost, her only friend, from her home and by occupying much of her mother?s time which was once reserved for herself: ?Now her mother was upstairs with the man who had gotten rid of the only other company she had? (p.19). The resentment towards Paul D enhanced until she could no longer tolerate him: ?Denver ran a mighty interference and on the third day flat-out asked Paul D how long he was going to hang

around? (p.43). Her hatred for Paul D diminished as Beloved emerged and gave Denver company. She finally felt like she had a companion: ? She smiled then and Denver?s heart stopped bouncing and sat down-relieved and peaceful like a traveler who had made it home?(p.55). Denver lived in a confined world that Sethe had created for her. Denver was extremely content to have someone, Beloved, to share her feelings with. Denver began to notice how Beloved?s attachment to Sethe surpassed her desire to be with her: ?Denver noticed how greedy she was to hear Sethe talk? (p.63). As time progressed, Beloved and Sethe increasingly neglected Denver and ?cut her out of the games?(p.239) until she was isolated once again. Denver felt that unless she did something about the present situation they

would all die. She built up enough courage and decided to do something even though ?they were too busy rationing their strength to fight each other. So it was she who had to step off the edge of the world and die because if she didn?t, they all would?(p.239). Although Beloved?s presence seemed to be ideal for Denver in the beginning, the chaos that inevitably arose made her suffer more than she ever had previously. Moreover, Beloved represents the suffering of all black slaves. The physical and psychological traumas of slavery are depicted through the use of a slave on a slave ship. She mentions this man to demonstrate the conditions slaves underwent on a slave ship from Africa to America. The latter where clustered up together in unsanitary conditions and rarely nourished.

Hence, not only were they starved but also beaten if they did not conform to the captain?s demands: ?knelling in the mist they waited for the whim of a guard, or two or three. Or maybe all of them wanted it. Wanted it from one prisoner in particular or none-or all.?(P.107). On pages 210-213, the narrator presents passages of a slave on the slave ship. Through this man, we begin to get a sense of what it was like living in the times where your future was in the hands of the unknown: ?I am always crouching the man on my face is dead his face is not mine his mouth swells sweet but his eyes are locked some eat nasty themselves I do not eat the men without skin bring us their morning water we have none at night I cannot see the dead man on my face daylight comes through the cracks and

I can see his locked eyes I am not big small rats do not wait for us to sleep someone is trashing but there is no room to do it in if we had more to drink we could make tears.?(p.210) Here, we see the horrible conditions in which slaves lived where they are all stuck together, with no food, having to face death right in their face. The ?men without skin? are the white people who put them in the state that they are in. ?Daylight comes through the cracks? refers to how they were put in to these confined areas in which the only daylight they saw was through the cracks of the wood: ?a door of bars that you could lift on hinges like a cage opened into three walls and a roof of scrap lumber and red dirt. ?(p.106). ?The small rats do not wait for us to sleep? demonstrates once again