Dehumanization

= As the motif of Dehumanization emerges, record moments when the theme is developed interestingly. Add your ideas about what Morrison is trying to say and how she explores the theme. See Motherhood Motif and Themes for an example =


 * Theme
 * p. # "quote"

Fake understanding and non-sincere sympathy is just as hurtful/dehumanizing as not hiding disgust toward another person.
 * Section 1.1, page 14 "It had been a long time since anybody (good-willed whitewoman, preacher, speaker or newspaperman) sat at their table, their sympathetic voices called liar by the revulsion in their eyes."

Cruelty and hatred leads men to do terrible things causing others to feel powerless and like less of a person.
 * Section 1.1, pg. 17, "They beat you and you was pregnant?"

The boys come and "milk" Sethe like she is an animal which is dehumanizing. Violence dehumanizes a person and makes them feel inferior for the rest of their life.
 * Section 1.1 page 19, "After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk. Thats what they came in there for. Held me down and took it."
 * Section 1.1 pg. 20 "Schoolteacher make one open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree. It grows there still."

Paul D remembers many of the slaves he has seen over his lifetime and each memory he thinks of shows the depth of what they had to go through just to survive. Most of the memories show situations animals don't even resort to, let alone a human being.
 * Section 1.7, pg. 66 "Who, like him, had hidden in caves and fought owls for food; who, like him, had stole from pigs; who, like him, slept in trees in the day and walked by night; who, like him, had buried themselves in slop and jumped in wells to avoid regulators, raiders, paterollers, verterans, hill men, posses and marrymakers."

When Paul D tells Sethe about having a bit in his mout, he tells her that the worst part was not tasting the metal, but being watched by the roosters. He hates this because he feels like they are mocking him. At this point, he feels like he is beneath an animal as insignificant as a rooster. He feels dehumanized. Another thing about the bit in Paul D's mouth. Part of the punishment was not being able to communicate with others, which is shown in the following quote. This quote shows how little respect whites had for African Americans and lower class people. Instead of helping in a significant time of need the pateroller would laugh and only continue on his way.
 * Section 1.7, p. 72 "'Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was... I was something else and that something was less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a tub."
 * Section 1.7 p. 82 (hardcover) "'Did you speak to him? Didn't you say anything to him? Something!' / 'I couldn't, Sethe. I just... couldn't.' / 'Why!' / 'I had a bit in my mouth.'"
 * Section 1.8, p.99 (hardcover) " A pateroller passing would have sniggered to see two throw-away people, lawless outlaws--a slave and barefoot whitewoman within unpinned hair--wrapping a ten-minute-old baby in the rags they wore."

Baby Suggs doesn't see white people as humans on page 104, she sees them as a crusher/robber of dreams, which was very true. Paul D was talking to Sethe about the past; He mentioned the rooster he saved ,Mister. This rooster had caused him to realize he was less valueble even compared to the rooster. " Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasnt allowed to be and stay what I was." Section 1.7 page 86.
 * Section 1.9 p. 104 hardcover "'Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed,' she said, 'and broke my heartstrings too.'"

Hardcover, 1.7, Page 81 - "The day I came in here. You said they stole your milk. I never knew what it was that messed him up. That was it, I guess." Not only was it a vile act of inhumanity when Sethe's milk was stolen, but when her lover had to witness it and keep it inside without acting on it, he went through his own dehumanization.

Hardcover, 1.6, Page 73 - "Hung. By the time they cut her down nobody could tell whether she had a circle and a cross or not, least of all me and I did look." The fact that the slaves were hung to the point that their bodies received discoloration, is a cruel injustice and Morrison is trying to bring to light the fact that this was by no means irregular.


 * White people treated the African Americans like animals, completely dehumanizing them.
 * hardcover, section 1.10, pg. 126, "When all forty-six were standing in a line in the trench, another rifle shot signaled the climb out and up to the ground above, where one thousand feet of the best hand-forged chain in Georgia stretched."


 * The whites put the African Americans in cages like they were animals, which was dehumanizing to them. Page 126 Section 1.10 "But then they shoved him into the box and dropped the cage door down, his hands quit taking instruction."


 * When a slave was caught doing something they were well aware that they had no chance of getting out of it. At this point they kind of let their "animal" instinct to takeover in order to save themselves. Furthermore, their dead bodies were not treated with respect and said to be worthless compared to an animal.
 * Section 1.16, pg. 174 "The very n-word with his head hanging and a little jelly-jar smile on his face could all of a sudden roar, like a bull or some such, and commence to do disbelievable things./Unlike a snake or a bear, a dead n-word could not be skinned for profit and was not worth his own dead weight in coin."
 * Section 1.12 "Something liek that happened to Ella except it was two men-a father and son- and Ella remembered every bit of it. For more than a year, they kept her locked in a room for themselves." This shows dehumanization in Ella because she was locked up the way and animal would be and it shows that these memories stick with her forever because of how badly she was hurt.

In Section 1.15 Page 159 it reads, "Nobody could make it alone. Not only because trappers picked them off like buzzards or netted them like rabbits, but also because you couldn't run if you didn't know how to go." This shows the direct relationship between the animals and the people that are the slaves. This shows that the people see the slaves just like the animals. The author uses this as a direct relationship to show that they are doing the same things to the slaves, that they do to the animals.
 * When trying to explain to Sethe that he had sex with Beloved, Paul D strips himself of his own humanity.
 * Section 1.13, page 151. "I am not a man." - Paul D.
 * Section 1.13 pg 125: "There were only Sweet Home men at Sweet Home. One step off that ground and they were trespassers among the human race. Watch dogs without teeth; steer bulls without horns; gelded workhorses whose neigh and whinny could not be translated into a language responsible humans spoke."
 * In Section 1.11 pager 135 (hardcover). Beloved is somewhat pushing Paul D out of the house doing this through his sleep. Sleeping is necessary to live, so when she is constantly pushing Paul D around he isn't getting enough sleep, causing him to be irritable. "It went on that way and might have stayed that way but one evening, after supper, after Sethe, he came downstairs, sat in the rocker and didn't want to be there. He stood up and realized he didn't want to go upstairs either. Irritable and longing for rest, he opened the door to baby Sugg's room and dropped off to sleep on the bed the old lady died in."


 * In Section 1.15 on Page 164 it reads, "When she hurt her hip in Carolina she was a real bargain..." This shows dehumanization because of the fact that they are selling humans like they would with livestock.


 * In Section 1.15 on Page 165 it reads, "Never brought them to her cabin with directions to "lay down with her," like they did in Carolina, or rented their sex out on other farms." This shows that the slaves were sold for sex and told to do things that they didn't want to do for money. This is a form of dehumanizatiion because people shouldn't be sold for anything.


 * In Section 1.15 on Page 167 it reads, "Cause thats whats on your sales ticket gal." This shows dehumanization because the slaves are humans and they have sales tickets on them the same way that livestock would at an auction.


 * In Section 1.15 Page 174 it reads, "Otherwise you would have ended up killing what you were paid to bring back alive." This shows that the whites were "hunting" the slaves like they are animals.

When Schoolteacher finds Sethe, he blames her actions on the nephew that beat her. He thinks that Sethe, like an animal, was led to run away and kill her children because the nephew "overbeat" her.
 * Section 1.16, page 149-150 "But now she'd gone wild, due to the mishandling of the nephew who'd overbeat her and made her cut and run. Schoolteacher had chastised that nephew, telling him to think -- just think -- what would his own horse do if you beat it beyond the point of education...See how he liked it; see what happened when you overbeat creatures God had given you the responsibility of -- the trouble it was, and the loss."

When Sethe overhears Schoolteacher giving a lesson about her characteristics to the schoolboys, she doesn't understand what "characteristics" means. When she finds out what it means from Mrs. Garner, she is deeply disturbed that Schoolteacher thought of her as part animal and she confides in Halle, who is no help. At this point Sethe feels embarrassed and alienated by how Schoolteacher has dehumanized her and even her husband doesn't seem to care.
 * Section 2, pg. 193 "I was about to turn around when I heard [Schoolteacher] say, 'No, no. That's not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right. And don't forget to line them up.'"

Schoolteacher beat nephew as well. It made nephew so mad that he took it out on the horse. He felt dehumanized and the only thing that made him feel better was to take out his anger on something that was of less value than himself.

Schoolteacher talks about Paul D right in front of him. He talks about his monetary value and how Garner ruined the slaves by letting them do human things.
 * Section 2.6 pg. 297 Hardcover "Voices remind schoolteacher about the spoiling these particular slaves have had at Garner's hands. There's laws against what he done: letting nig**rs hire out their own time to buy themselves. He even let em have guns! And you think he mated them nigg*rs to get him some more? Hell no! He planned for them to marry!"

When Paul D hears Schoolteacher discussing the price of each slave, he continues to think about himself and his friends in terms of monetary value. This shows us that Schoolteacher's cruel bahavior has caused the slaves to think of themselves merchandise rather than human beings.
 * Section 2.6, pg. 228 "He wasn't surprised to learn that they had tracked [Sethe] down in Cincinnati, because, when he thought about it now, her price was greater than his; property that reproduced itself without cost."

After finding out what Sethe did to her children, Paul D sees Sethe as an animal and openly expresses this to her.
 * Section 1.15 pg. 165, "You got two feet, Sethe, not four".