The Other

In Toni Morrison's book Beloved Morrison writes in such a way that flips the white vs black binary. Morrison writes as to turn the white race into the other by not giving them a point of view until pages 174-176. For the first time in this novel, when Sethe had her outburst we got to see it from the point of view of the other. In our eyes, the eyes of the reader we can see and potentially understand why Sethe did what she did, the horrors of slavery were knocking on her door and she did what she thought was right to escape them. Being in the bonds of slavery once and experiencing what it does to you caused a fear to go back and to put her children through it. From the point of the other her behavior was a result of weak mindedness or being crazy which completely dismissed the effects of being beaten and going through slavery. In actuality it was a result of being dehumanized and losing the ability to properly process the situation without acting with savage like instincts.