Essay on Beloved: Examining the Destructive Legacy of Slavery

Beloved by Toni Morrison is a novel that was published in the year 1987 (Anand, 2019). It critically examines the destructive legacy of slavery that is experienced by a black woman by the name Sethe right from the pre-civil war period in Kentucky to her slavery life in 1873. Even though she strives to live as a free woman, the memories of slavery continue to traumatize her. The woman had escaped from slavery in Kentucky together with her husband and children.

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On the other hand, Walden presents the story of a young man named Thoreau who conducts about 26 months of the experiment to obtain as much as he could for himself from nature. He is determined to flee away from the materialistic society and set up a shelter apart from human interactions. In this light, there are significant similarities and differences between Walden by Henry David Thoreau and Beloved by Toni Morrison (Anand, 2019). Thus, this paper is aimed at comparing the two novels in terms of the thematic concern as well as the figurative language used therein.

In the story Beloved by Toni Morrison, Sethe faces the persistence of memory. She owns a series of memories of her past traumatized atrocities, such as having to kill her daughter to escape from slavery, which forms the basis for her current sources of injury. Her unresolved pain and anguish as a slave manifest in the form of 'haunted' present. For instance, the ghost of her murdered daughter continues to haunt Sethe's home resulting in oppression in Sethe's life. Therefore the prime thematic concern of this piece is the degradation of the non-white slaves. She notes that the effort and existence of the black slaves were neither appreciated nor recognized by the whites.

In Henry's book Walden, Thoreau is interested in staying away from the material society from which he comes. The significant reason for staying away from the rest of the community is to demonstrate that the members of the community are capable of living more simple lives. Therefore, the main similarity between the two books is that both of them involve significant characters fleeing from their usual places due to various reasons (Ferguson, 2017). For instance, the black woman in the Beloved is escaping from the condition of slavery that is meted on the Africans in Kentucky. She makes final decisions to kill her daughter to the chance of escaping away.

On the other hand, in Walden, Thoreau is a white who is fleeing from the materialistic society in which he finds himself (Ferguson, 2017). He is interested in living a simple life and making efforts to find himself in nature. The society in which he lives has little to no human interactions; thus, he opts to set up a cabin from which he walks around exploring various natural resources structures, forests, et cetera (Thoreau, 2015). Thus, both books focus on personal liberation; liberation of the mind and the soul.

In the event of fleeing from their usual areas, both Thoreau in Walden and Sethe, in the story, Beloved is leaving behind some crucial possessions of their lives (Ferguson, 2017). For instance, Thoreau leaves behind all the material possessions he owns in Concord. He notes, "The necessaries of life for man in this climate may, accurately enough, be distributed under the several heads of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel." As such, the book is a combination of symbolic and physical writing levels.

However, unlike the Beloved, Walden is a symbol since it is structured based on the seasonal cycle (Ferguson, 2017). For instance, the story both begins and ends in the spring season. The book also lacks precision since it covers the two years of experience at Walden Pond into one comprehensive experience for convenience. According to Thoreau, the spring season is a period meant for renewal and personal growth. Thus, unlike the Beloved, which is centred entirely on human physical experiences, Walden goes ahead to explore the symbolic aspects of human experience (Ferguson, 2017). The theme of personal independence is also indicated when Thoreau constructs the house in spring and does not enter the house till summer on Independence Day to show his freedom from the society.

Transcendentalism is one of the significant themes in Walden by Henry Thoreau. For instance, the book was set a time when tremendous changes were taking place within America. The changes had greatly affected the life of Thoreau. For example, he watched cutting trees in the woodlots, which were to keep the factories burning within the country. Slaves were always subjected to harsh conditions working in the fields and the industries.

Just like in Beloved, Thoreau was undoubtedly affected by the various activities going on within America perpetuated by industrialism (Anand, 2019). For instance, he was influenced by the exploitation of the workers and the natural resources within America. The period of industrialization in America implied that cheap labour was required. The work conditions were also horrible, thus like Beloved, Thoreau was more much disappointed by such practices of slavery (Thoreau, 2015).

Thoreau was so sceptical about slavery that he even served as a stopover for the slaves that were fleeing for freedom from the white farms and industries. The story Beloved also focuses on a story of Margaret Garner having to escape from the plantation in Kentucky together with her husband, Robert, and children (Anand, 2019). The family seeks refuge in Ohio, but their owner and the law officers, unfortunately, catch them. The conditions that they had escaped from is so horrible that the woman kills the daughter to prevent her from recapture into slavery. The same novel also brings out the story of Sethe, a devoted mother who runs away with her children from the abusive owner referred to as 'headteacher.'

As such Beloved and Walden are similar in the sense that the main characters in the novels are fleeing either from physical exploitation or emotional distress. However, from another dimension, it is essential to highlight that although Beloved talks of slaves who have directly suffered exploitation, Walden talks of Thoreau, who is only affected by watching workers being exploited (Thoreau, 2015). Therefore he faces more emotional distress than physical harm. One of the significant differences between the two books is that unlike in Walden, where the author Henry David Thoreau tells of his experience, Beloved by Toni Morrison immensely talks about the experiences of other African slaves during the period of American industrial revolution (Anand, 2019).

In the story Beloved, Sethe is presented as a passionate and loving mother who cannot afford to watch her children getting into slavery (Ferguson, 2017). Therefore she attempts to kill them, but only a two-year-old daughter dies. Sethe later decides to ensure 'Beloved' is inscribed in her daughter's tombstone (Anand, 2019). Even though she would have loved the tombstone written 'Dearly Loved,' the poor woman does not have the energy to pay for the painting of the other word. She notes that painting of the new word would cost her ten minutes of sex with the grave painter.

Thus, like in Walden, Beloved offers an in-depth look at slavery and portrays the lasting influence it had on the subjects (Ferguson, 2017). Both books question the physical, spiritual and emotional devastations that were brought about by slavery during the period of American Industrialization. Such ruins continue to affect the significant characters in the two books, most of which are former slaves even upon being freed from slavery.

In the novels, former slaves and the witnesses of slavery are severely affected by the encounters with the effects being portrayed in the form of self-alienation and emotional solitude. For instance, just like Thoreau in Walden, Paul D in Beloved is experiencing self-alienation to the point that at one example, he cannot decipher whether the scream he hears is his or someone else's scream.

In both the books, slaves were portrayed as subhuman and that they were traded like any other community whose value could be ascribed in terms of dollars. Just as in the case of Henry David Thoreau, Paul D feels highly insecure about himself, and he is left wondering about his value as a person and what it could take to be a 'real man.' Similarly, Sethe is also treated as subhuman and feel alienated from herself such that she views the wellbeing of her children as her own. She does not wish to see her children being treated as slaves, and therefore, she attempts to kill her children.

Slavery has also resulted in the limitation of Baby Sugg's self-conception through the shuttering of her family and subsequently denying her the chance to be a real daughter, wife, and sister. Emotional pain is another concern of the two books. For instance, like Thoreau, Paul D devices mechanisms and strategies to ensure that he protects himself from any emotional pain during slavery. Unfortunately, during slavery, mothers expressed their love and affection for their children by deliberately killing them to prevent them from going through the same experiences in their future.

The main difference between the two books is that unlike the Beloved that much focusses on the experiences of the women during slavery, the Walden majorly concentrates on the man how the writer is affected by the experiences of slavery even though he was not a slave himself. His skills could surely show the level of torture meted on the slaves during the 1800s, particularly in America.

Both books show the insidious impacts of slavery as an institution that not only affects the black slaves but the whites who perpetuate it as well. In that sense, both books appreciate that where there is slavery, there exists a loss of compassion and identity such that the healing of a person depended to a great extent on the understanding of the slaves' past experiences.

Furthermore, both books superimpose the need for understanding the American past to come into terms with the future. In the Beloved, for instance, the reader understands the history and the legacy that was left behind by slavery in America (Anand, 2019). Unlike, Walden which perpetuates the need for personal alienation from the community for self-recollection, Beloved demonstrates the extent to which various individuals should support their respective communities to survive the negative impacts of societal challenges such as slavery. Like in the case of Thoreau, Sethe in Beloved begins developing her sense of self in the twenty-eight days period of freedom.

Therefore, like in Walden, Beloved offers an in-depth look at slavery and portrays the lasting influence it had on the subjects (Anand, 2019). Both books question the physical, spiritual, and emotional devastations that were brought about by slavery during the period of American Industrialization. The period of industrialization in America implied that cheap labour was required. The work conditions were also horrible, thus like Beloved, Thoreau was more much disappointed by such practices of slavery (Anand, 2019).

In Walden, Thoreau is determined to cut the interaction with the rest of the humans to get the true essence of the meaning of life. Most interestingly, Thoreau carries an experiment to experience the feeling of detachment from other people within society. However, the characters in the Walden do not experiment to experience the excitement of detachment. They are naturally experiencing emotional and psychological distress and indifference in their daily encounters as slaves.

Conclusion

Thoreau extensively uses simple language, satire, and witticisms in his book such that both serious and less serious readers can easily comprehend it. In conclusion, Beloved by Toni Morrison and Henry's Walden have signific...