Picture of racial violence in “Beloved?”

Answer

What picture of racial violence do you find in “Beloved?” [NU: 2015, 19, 21] ★★★ 

In “Beloved” (1987), Toni Morrison (1931–2019) gives a powerful picture of racial violence in slavery. She shows how slavery damages the body, mind, and family of African Americans. The novel explains that racial violence is not only physical beating. It is also humiliation, sexual abuse, and destruction of identity. The story of Sethe, Paul D, and Baby Suggs makes these horrors real.    

Physical Violence and Scars: The novel shows how physical violence leaves lasting marks. Sethe remembers being whipped at Sweet Home. The beating cut her back so badly that scars formed a tree. Morrison writes in Part One, Ch. 3,    

“Your back got a whole tree on it. In bloom.”  

This “chokecherry tree” is not just a scar. It is a living symbol of slavery’s cruelty. It shows how racial violence entered the body and stayed forever. 

Dehumanization by Racism: Slavery also attacked the mind. The schoolteacher reduced slaves to animals. He told his pupils to list Sethe’s “human” and “animal” traits. Sethe recalls a line said by Schoolteacher in Part One, Ch. 4, 

“Put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right”.  

This cruel act shows how Black people were treated as less than human. Such dehumanization gave white masters the power to justify violence.

Sexual Violence and Control: Racial violence was also sexual. Schoolteacher’s nephews assaulted Sethe, held her down, and stole her breast milk. Sethe says in Part One, Chapter 1:

“They used cowhide on you?” 

“And they took my milk!”

This moment is more than physical abuse. It robs her of her role as a mother. Slavery not only beat women but also attacked their love for children. It combined racism with sexism. It shows the double oppression of Black women. 

Violence Against Families: Slavery destroyed families through sale, separation, and death. Sethe makes a shocking