Slave Narrative-Erin

This article, Revisions, Rememories and Exorcisms: Toni Morrison and the Slave Narrative by Cynthia S. Hamilton, describes the multiple books that have been written about the institution of slavery and the dehumanizing practices. It discusses the structure of a typical slave narrative, bringing multiple examples. They describe the story telling process and the limitations of some of the authors. The typical structure of a slave narrative, according to the article, is that the plot is chronologically linear. the protagonist learns the full horror of slavery, tries to escape multiple times, achieve freedom at a cost and then tells us what it is like to be free. Hamilton does acknowledge that many slave narratives were limited by the white audience as the authors had to make the book agreeable to them. The early slave narratives were about victimization of the slaves while the later books celebrate the accomplishments made since their emancipation. These books all pander to the abolitionists, focusing on the cruelty, not on "the power dynamics and the unequal relationships" (Hamilton, 433). The typical slave narrative "[scarifies} the rich complexity of the slave's experience to the needs of propaganda" and augments white power  (Hamilton, 435).

Beloved is different. Morrison breaks the classic slave narrative by using the gothic as her main frame for the novel. She also directly confronts sexual violence, a topic that previous authors did not touch much on before, and shows how the psychological effects of this event inhibit Sethe's ability to nurture her child. The timeline is also not linear. The reader has to piece together the events through the memories. The way that Morrison handles the narrative allows more feeling and psychology to be seen and given more emphasis. Victimization is never a theme in Beloved. Instead we focus on how others help one another to deal with past pain, anger, and shame brought upon them from their slavery. Morrison also shows the effect of the warping dower of white domination on the black community and how they help each other heal from it. Baby Suggs brings the community together in her clearing and tells them that they have to love themselves and each other because of what the white folk did to them.

Morrison critiques the past slave narratives through her book by breaking the mold and presenting the book in a way that does not make the protagonists victims. The gothic elements of the book are seen multiple times. The ghost baby and the gothic villain in Schoolteacher, and the flawed personalities of the characters. This book combines the slave narrative and the gothic masterfully making a book that critiques the inhumanity of slavery in a more powerful way then previous slave narratives.