Saturday, April 13, 2019
¿Shock factor?
I think one of the most important features of Toni Morrison’s “the beloved” is her willingness to describe anything. She holds nothing back when she writes. She isn’t scared to depict the ugly, the horrific, or the unjust. For example the description about Pail d’s Bit in his mouth is truly horrific. But it sheds some light to the true situation.
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2 comments:
Ritchie, I agree with your observation of Morrison’s writing technique. She stuns the reader into vulnerability and therefore the horror of the events that occurred is all the more impactful.
I never thought about this. This is an excellent observation Ritchie! There are actually quite a few horrific moments in this story that are casually described by Morrison. For example, at the beginning of the story’s we learned that the male slaves all wanted Sethe but waited until she chose one of them. As a result, they havem sexual intercourse with COWS!..ugh....Just typing. This makes me a little uncomfortable. The men are also described as “dreaming of rape”. Speaking of which, rape is very casually described as well. For example, in chapter 12 Sethe describes how Ella is locked up and repeatedly raped by a white man and his son. I think that Morrison is inclined to deacribe these horrible experiences so casually so as to make the book more realistic. She is bringing up issues that very well exist within our world like rape and beastality with the point that our world is not all “sunshine and rainbows” as some people would say. Slavery itself fits into this description too. None of the disturbing things she describes are a shock to her as indicated by her casualness.
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