Friday, November 10, 2017
Perspectives
One of the most interesting parts of Beloved and something I like the most about the book is how it is told from the slave's perspective, as opposed to a white person's. Most books are from a white person's perspective- Huckleberry Finn for example, and I think that while they are talking about slavery, it is much more powerful for the slave to tell their own story. rather than how the white people see them. In Beloved, when the perspective turns to the white person for a little bit, you can see how they look down on the people you have gotten to know so well. For example, how the slave catcher, schoolteacher, and the nephew, look at Sethe, Baby Suggs, and Stamp Paid as crazy and wild when we, the audience, have gotten to hear their stories and the hardships they've gone through. We have gotten to know them as very strong, powerful people. This change in perspective was very powerful for me, and, for this reason, this is my favorite book I have read about slavery and the time period so far.
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I understand your liking in the book for its slave perspective. However, I think it's really inaccurate to say most book are written from white people perspectives. There are plenty of black authors who have written books about the slave experience or the black perspective shortly after slavery. You may not here of books from black people because black opinions aren't valued anywhere close to the opinions of white authors.
ReplyDeleteI wrote my blog about perspective as well! I think it's very important that we get a different inside on what happened during the time. I also agree with Trey, there are many stories told from slave perspectives, and movies. I would say look into that if you're genuinely interested in slave perspectives.
ReplyDeleteI think it's pretty interesting that she does it from this perspective. The only time we get any perspective from white people is later in the novel. Not only that, but Sethe and the other characters don't even call white people white. The way she writes it makes it so that its the slaves story and not everyones story, like it normally is.
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