The other day, I overheard a conversation about Beloved. A substitute teacher said that she read the book several times, but stopped because she couldn't find the "joy" in it. I mostly just confused, because Beloved is the last book I would ever read if I was looking for a happy read. But I also thought, why am I reading it (besides being required to, of course)? Why read a book that's so relentlessly depressing?
The truth is, most of the books hailed as the most important and influential are incredibly depressing. This isn't always the case; some of my favorite books have happy endings–but even so, they're never happy without a cost. Beloved, though, is on a whole new level of sad. Partially, though, that's what makes the book so amazing.
If Beloved were a happy book, it would lose most of its power. This is mostly because of its subject: slavery. It's always tempting, when learning about a horrific subject, to try to look for some glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, this can lead to the spreading of misconceptions about that subject. If we are taught happy stories about slavery, then why would we think slavery was that bad? This is true even if the story paints those suffering as overcoming. We often hear stories about the slaves escaping to the North, but not about the suffering they were still forced to endure even after finding freedom.
I don't believe that a story can't have any happiness to be worthwhile, but I do believe that an entirely happy story with no conflict isn't much of a story. I also believe that when it comes to real-life events, tragedies should be shown as unbearable as they truly were.
Really good post! I found myself having similar thoughts after one of my other teachers saw me reading Beloved and said she just couldn't finish it because it upset her too much. That's definitely a valid reaction, especially as different parts of the book might hit closer to home for some than for others. I also think that a book about slavery should absolutely be upsetting and difficult to read, otherwise we would be romanticizing the worst system our world has enacted.
ReplyDelete