Slavery

Not all people expose their opinions through books, but Toni Morrison believes that language and storytelling are main parts of revealing the “truth”. She makes it obvious in her novel Beloved, that slavery should not be seen just as something that physically harmed but sometime thing that also altered the emotional state of slaves. In the book Morrison presents this view through a family’s past and present experiences. She makes this “truth” noticeable with the constant use of repetition, parallel structure and metaphors throughout the book.
Toni Morrison consistently uses repetition to emphasize that slavery has a mental effect on blacks. One significant instance where she uses repetition was during the flashback Paul D had about the various times he has escaped from slavery throughout his lifetime. The author repeats variations of the phrase “he tried hard not to love it” emphasizing that he enjoyed the freedom that he felt while escaping because there was no owner or master to rule over him, but he made himself not adore it (316). He knew that once he was brought back into slavery he would miss the independence he experienced, so to spare himself the pain and longing he tried to not appreciate his escapes. Slavery has affected his thinking because it made him restrict his feelings. Not only did whites constrain him from freedom, he restricted himself from it. Slavery withdrew any hope of being free; he thought he would always be a slave. Through repeating this particular phrase Morrison is trying to show the reader that Paul D himself had to remember to not love it. Another instance where Morrison used repetition to get her point across was in another flashback of Paul D’s. He is remembering the time he spent in Georgia and ...

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... to this place from the other (livable) place. It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them” (234). Morrison wants the reader to realize that white people assume that a quality of the black race is being crazy. Although the abuse of whites that the slaves experience is actually what creates this “crazy” mental state. The exact reason for their acts of insanity and unpredictability is slavery. By using several metaphors, Morrison reveals her views on the effects of slavery.
Toni Morrison supports her “truth” that slavery causes mental alterations in her novel Beloved by using repetition, parallel syntax, and metaphors. From the time of being young children in elementary school, it is drilled into society’s mind that owners of slaves were wrong for whipping and beating blacks, yet not often do we discuss that these violent actions affected them mentally as well.