Tony Morrison's Beloved: The Theme of Black Madness and Physical Disabilities

Tony Morrison's Beloved: An Analysis of the Theme of Black Madness and Physical Disabilities
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Tony Morrison's Beloved: An Analysis of the Theme of Black Madness and Physical Disabilities
Themes of madness and physical and cognitive disability typically associated with black slaves have frequently been recurrent in novels based on black or African Americans' horrifying experiences of slavery. Such novels comprehensively explore the contextual background of mind-numbing physical and mental torture conducted on black slaves that eventually led to their mental derangement and physical disability. This gradual loss of cognitive and physical disabilities manifests the inhuman behavior conducted against black slaves in American history. For the same reason, one scholar argues that the study of madness in the context of black slaves is crucial as it helps the reader comprehend the extent and nature of oppression committed by white people and their subsequent ableism (McConville, 2019).
In terms of exploration of the themes of black madness and disabilities, Tony Morrison's Beloved stands out as a comprehensive study of the psychological, racial, social, and ethical context of black madness. In this novel, feeling of self-alienation, disorientation, complete loss of grip on reality, and violent physical behavior are some of the aspects of madness that has been elaborated in the lives of black slaves. In addition, one aspect of this story explores the gradual loss of self-respect of black slaves as the preliminary cause of madness; another dimension explores the nature and extent of the physical torture that further accelerates the psychological degradation of black slaves and, finally, by the utter madness manifested by Hall's mental delirium. Even more so, the addition of supernatural elements further accentuates the dire consequence of racial prejudice and oppression of black slaves. Therefore, this essay aims to explore this novel's various aspects to comprehend the context of the madness and physical disabilities of black slaves.
The death of Mr. Garner, the owner of Sweet Home, a farm where black slaves work, leads to the beginning of an unending spell of physical and psychological turmoil for the black slaves. His successor, Mrs. Garner's brother, is a cruel, utterly racist, and sadistic person who enhances the sense of self-alienation in blacks by his incessant assault on their self-respect. For instance, Paul D keeps getting remarks about his racial inferiority by the schoolteacher, and consequently, he loses grip on his sense of being a dignified human. This sense of self-alienation in Paul D comes to the fore when while screaming at Denver; he becomes so disoriented that he cannot find identity whether these are his screams or someone else's (Morrison, 1987). This sense of self-alienation can be considered the onset of his journey toward complete loss of self-respect and value. For the same reason, when Paul D sees Halle's madness, he visualizes the practical manifestation of his psychological state.
Reading and interpretation of the theme of madness in this novel can be substantiated by a transgressive study involving analysis of the social, cultural, and racial aspects that contribute to the madness of an individual. According to one study in psychology, loss of self-respect, intense feelings of shame, and ways of inflicting hurt on self-respect are closely related to the dynamics and expression of psychological and physical manifestation of madness (Thornton, 2020). This transgressive study further assists in determining the actual causes of the madness of black slaves in the novel, which highlights the underlying perceptional disturbance in the normal psychological makeup of an enslaved person and assists the reader in establishing a relationship between madness in black slaves and the oppression conducted to them.
On account of this intense emotional and psychological torture, Paul D adopts a unique strategy to manage the emotional pain caused by the inhuman behavior of his owner. Since he suffers from an intense sense of humiliation, he begins to use a self-defeating strategy to ameliorate the intense mental breakdown and keeps everything in his heart locked away from the sight of others, especially his beloved. In the following lines, Morrison explains how Paul D keeps every humiliation and suffering to his heart: "He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be……. it would sham him." (Morrison, 1987). These lines indicate the intense emotional and psychological pain that Paul D attempts to keep shut in his heart; consequently, this pent-up emotion leads to his psychological breakdown and makes him lose his grip on reality.
On a similar note, Sethe, an enslaved Black woman and the protagonist of the novel, also receives similar cruel and demeaning treatment at the hands of Mrs. Garner's brother. She is, like other slaves, experiencing cruel remarks declaring her as a subhuman species: a hybrid between animals and humans. One of the most apparent manifestations of this behavior appears to the reader when Sethe accidentally walks into the classroom where the schoolteacher teaches his students about animal characteristics. She hears him giving her example as a specimen to study both human and animal characteristics as the following line indicates: "No, no. That's not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right." (Morrison, 1987). Like Paul D, this dehumanized treatment gravely hurts Sethe's sense of self-respect and dignity, and she begins to consider herself as a sub-human species. This scene is one of the gravest manifestations of the psychological assault on black slaves' egos that render them completely self-alienated.
Similarly, Sethe's mother-in-law, Baby Sugg, also suffers from an intense spat of self-hatred triggered by qualms of not proving herself as a good wife and housekeeper. On account of prolonged slavery, Baby Sugg has not been able to keep her family integrated. Consequently, she suffers from immense spiritual turmoil as she considers herself a failed mother, a failed wife, and a failed sister. This sense of spiritual deprivation also makes her feel like a useless creature, incapable of doing anything but forced toil, just like an animal. All these instances of gradual loss of self-respect and commencement of self-loathing in black slaves manifest their growing madness. Because of their loss of the sense of self, they no longer remain normal humans, as they lose their grip on reality and begin to deem themselves as sub-humans. In this regard, it is crucial to understand that human dignity and honor are the attributes humans admire most. If someone denies them self-respect, this act serves as a devastating blow to their personality. Consequently, the person with very low self-respect falls into a state of self-denial, leading to her mental deterioration.
Besides the incessant psychological and spiritual assaults on black slaves, the impact of horrifying physical assaults is more prominent as its effects are visible to the naked eye. The text provides graphic details of several incidents of intense physical torture that add to blacks' misery and further accelerate their madness. These physical suffering are different from the mental and emotional torture discussed above in that they also cause ...