Compare and Contrast Time

>>My Theme: Sexual Slavery


Wow, it's been a long time coming for this post. I've done so much research comparing and contrasting Stowe's and Morrison's narratives that 'narrative' is barely a word for me anymore. But I'm glad I did. I covered a lot of topics with my presentation and the first half of this project, and now here's the good stuff: how Stowe and Morrison both use the topic of sexuality and sexual slavery in two very different ways.

First let's look at Stowe. In my first post, I talked about how sexual slavery is barely a topic she uses. The one time we see it touched on is with Emmaline and Cassy. Even then, though, it's just used as a plot device, revealing Eliza's heritage. Stow used it just to have a platform to push the story the last bit that she needed.

     >>When you dive in even further, you see the lack of mention of the sexual aspect of the slave trade, beyond a few passing mentions. A vast majority of female slaves were used in this manner; their bodies were nothing more than units to produce more children for sale or eventual slavery. Many were taken from their mothers at an early age and then had their own children taken away as soon as they had them. Or even worse, they would be subject to the sexual violence of their masters for nothing more than their master’s amusement. Stowe basically glosses over this fact, and when she does use it, it’s only to further the narrative. In fact, beyond Eliza, the only time we ever hear about anything that happened to slaves and their children is pretty much just for the shock value. We hear about Prue’s story on pages 198 and 199, and that’s all we get for it. While not necessarily sexual slavery, it ties in with slaves and their children. Stowe likes to pick and choose when she uses certain aspects in her story to effect the characters, but we don’t see much consequence beyond that. Even little Eva doesn’t react much to the story of Prue’s struggles.<<

I wasn't wrong, was I? Stowe cherry-picks quite a bit, using what she thinks will be impactful as a narrative piece rather than an actual commentary And I think that's the problem  with Uncle Tom's Cabin-- it isn't a slave narrative, it's a story. She might have intended it to be the story of the slaves, the unsung who did what they had to to escape with their lives and their family, but that isn't what it became. It became a white-tinted story; granted she couldn't help that  she was a white woman, and yes she might have had the best of intentions, but it just didn't succeed. Uncle Tom's Cabin feels like a story in every sense- it doesn't carry the weight Beloved does. 

Now let's focus some on Beloved. Morrison made it a point to tell the story as brutally as she could.
     "After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk. That's what they came in there for. Held me down and took my milk. [...] 
     "They beat you and you was pregnant?"
     "And they took my milk!" [p. 19-20]
Stowe never got that down and dirty. And this is only the first 20 pages. Hell, in the first 5 we see Sethe exchanging sex for the engravings on her baby's tombstone. Sex is a very powerful symbol for Morrison in this book. If you think about it, all of these problems arise from sex in the first place- I   mean, how else do you make a baby? A baby that is eventually killed and haunts her mother, at least. In addition to just being a horrible case of sexual assault, Sether's milking is also symptomatic of the dehumanization faced by all the slaves. Dehumanization isn't my topic, but still it stands to be pointed out. 

Look at Vashti, Stamp Paid's wife. She was forced to become her master's mistress, just because it was what he wanted. Look at Ella, who was "shared by father and son"[p.256] against her will. for the women in Beloved, this is almost just a way of life for them. Sexual slavery was suffered by so many women, just for them to pop out more babies to be sold, or simply because their owners wanted to. Rape was so commonplace amongst slaves. Not just that, but things like Sethe's milking, the idea of sexual dominance, is also prevalent. There was no benevolent White Saviour like there was in Uncle Tom's Cabin. There was no kind white man/woman/couple/angelic little child to take pity on them, no one besides Amy Denver at least. It made for tough times for all of the characters, but it felt more true to the narrative. What made Uncle Tom's Cabin so nearly unbelievable for me (and unmoving, to be honest) was the fact that the character's struggles didn't feel genuine. It felt like it was Stowe's way of making the white readers feel good by saying "Oh, but these people were white and look at how good they were to the slaves! If you're good to slaves too, you're a good abolitionist!" I mean, maybe that was true. Being an ally to the persecuted is definitely a good thing to do but it felt so... comforting to the white reader, it didn't actually capture the struggle of the slaves. 

Not like Beloved. Beloved. Beloved is raw and brutal in the way it depicts slavery, in how it tells of the horrors these people experienced. There is no comfort for the white reader. There is no pat on the back. Someone in a review once said the book "made them feel guilty to be a white person ". To a certain extent, yeah. There is an inherent guilt that white people let this happen. There is a lingering bitter taste in the generations that have followed because of what happened. But, we aren't responsible for our ancestor's wrongs by the same token. We're clean slates, ready to do the right thing and try to right the wrongs that were done and make sure they don't happen again. Stowe doesn't leave that door open; Stowe is too clean cut, too nice in the way she closes up the story. Everyone is happy and everything is good, yay! Beloved, not so much. Beloved leaves them all still haunted, still clinging to their pasts. You feel for them, because that past is still clinging to you as well. Maybe not to the same degree, but it looms like a shadow. History always does. 

I've rambled enough, though. In my personal opinion, I think it's time we started phasing Uncle Tom's Cabin out of the spotlight in the curriculum. Don't stop teaching it entirely, because it is still important. It was the springboard of its time, the platform for the Civil War to blast it's many voices from. But now, it's outlived the narrative it once set down. Things have changed. We don't need to be delicate about racism anymore, we need to be frank. Brutally honest, now more than ever. Beloved does that, Beloved puts it in our face and doesn't let us forget what happened. We need that kind of openness when it comes to the dialogue on racism. If we don't learn from the past, we're bound to repeat it. That's where Stowe helps us. But if we can't accept that some problems are still around, like Beloved reminds us when it's mirrored with the BLM movement, then how are we supposed to move forward?