The Paradoxes of Beloved

While reading Beloved, one of the most thought-provoking aspects for me was the idea of paradox within Sethe's world. The story takes place in a setting with slavery as a normal practice, which already makes the reader uncomfortable and makes it difficult for the reader to understand characters' motives. Out of all the crazy paradoxes within the ghosts, reincarnation, and rememory, the most important paradox for me was the idea of mother's love and Sethe's murder of her children. From a completely outside perspective, Sethe's murder of her children seems monstrous and it does not seem like it can be morally justified in any way. However, after providing the reader with around 100 pages of background to Sethe's situation and the horrors of slavery that she faced, the reader is faced with a complex dilemma. Is Sethe's action justifiable? Arguably, this question has no answer and in my opinion, I feel that Morrison purposefully made this an impossible question to answer. How could one side with a mother who murders her own children and shows no shame or regret? Yet how could one fully criticize the actions of someone who has lived through hell and knows the results that would come out of giving her children up freely? 

Arising from this is another paradox surrounding Mr. Garner and his treatment of slaves. From the introduction of his character, the reader is meant to see him in a good light because he calls his slaves "Sweet Home Men" and provides them with opportunities that would not be provided elsewhere, like being able to marry each other and live together. However, this practice of allowing them to love can be seen in the long run as an important factor as to why Sethe made her decision. Because Sethe was taught to love and learned to be a mother, she was put into a situation that no other slave would be put in. Even Paul D mentions how dangerous it is for a slave to love and not be able to give people up. Again the reader is put into a predicament. Could Garner's good treatment of his slaves have led to the horrific decisions they would later have to make? Is Paul D actually the most stable character due to his ability to close off his emotions? Lastly, is Sethe's powerful and nearly irrational love her greatest strength or her weakness?

Comparing Joker and the novel Native Son

In case you want to read a blog post about their eyes were watching god, I made one about that, too, so just check my profile.


--Spoilers--

I recently watched the new movie Joker in theaters and I couldn't help noticing the similarities between the scenes in the movie and events that took place in Native Son. In this blog post, I'll be comparing a few key aspects that I noticed.

Joker is set in 1981 and follows the life of Arthur Fleck, a clown available for hire and aspiring comedian, who lives in Gotham city and has a condition that makes him laugh uncontrollably in random situations. One of the first important settings that is shown is Arthur's workplace, housing circus members and party clowns. For now, this location can be seen as his "home". Similar to Native Son, the author is able to see how Arthur spends a lot of time in a space that is cramped and inhospitable like Bigger in his one room apartment. Arthur and Bigger also both encounter a "rat" that drive them to murder. For Bigger, this is the first time he kills and it is shown in the narrative as not really a big deal because the rat is subhuman and not respected. In Joker, the rat is a figurative rat (A clown who later rats him out to Arthur's boss and police) and this clown hands Arthur a gun. The movie progresses until Arthur is stuck in a train with three people who harass a women and then bully him for his condition. Arthur pulls out his gun to stop them from hurting him and kills all three of them. Both Bigger and Arthur are shown to have had no choice but to murder in these situations and it further introduces their capacity to kill. Bigger has his moment of "revelation" and euphoria after killing the rat and teases his sister with the body. Arthur has a similar moment in the train station's bathroom and does his signature Joker pose. For both characters, they are not reprimanded for killing and are actually praised; Bigger by his younger brother and Arthur by the rest of society. The three men that Arthur kills turn out to be rich, Wayne Enterprises employees and he is regarded as a hero for murdering these subhuman and pretentious people. A movement begins against the rich and the people all wear clown masks as a symbol for their rebellion. Later in the movie, Arthur ends up killing the clown who gave him the gun after figuring out he ratted him out, and there is an interesting scene after where Arthur teases a midget with the dead body, which is very similar to how Bigger teased his sister with the rat's body. Arthur commits all of these murders with his clown mask on, which hides his identity, and once the uprising starts, he is protected and hidden by the rich's view of everyone as the "same person". Bigger also has his own type of mask of society's view of African Americans as a collective group of the "same people".

Perhaps due to the fact that these stories both address the affect of society on people, they have a similar method of portraying elite people. In Native Son, Mary Dalton symbolizes wealth and higher status from the perspective of Bigger, and in Joker, Arthur Fleck's mother fills this role as she is treated almost religiously by Arthur (This relation between Mary Dalton and Arthur's mother soon becomes important). Coming back to the idea of society, both Bigger and Arthur are on the bottom rungs in terms of status and in the minority. Bigger is a poor, black male and Arthur is poor and has a mental illness. Racism ultimately destroys Bigger's innocence and stigma against mental illness destroy's Arthur's. These characters are both introduced to an organization that could supposedly help them. For Bigger, the Communist party and for Arthur, the Clown Company or the Social Workers, but in the end, both characters end up messing up and losing the opportunity. The way Bigger and Arthur mess up lead to the reflection between Mary Dalton and Arthur's mother. Mary Dalton flirts with Bigger and they end up kissing in Mary's bed and is nearly caught by Mary's mother. Arthur's mother is involved in an accident and through this accident, Arthur is able to find out his mother's past. In scenes that are almost identical, Bigger muffles Mary with a pillow in her bed and Arthur muffles his mother in her hospital bed. Since Mary Dalton and Arthur's mother symbolize higher status, this shows Bigger's and Arthur's "destruction of society". All these situations that Bigger and Arthur are put into are narrated to seem like they had no choice but to kill, but in reality, a normal person would not react in the same way. However, this puts the characters into a paradox because they become characters that are created by society to break societal norms and ultimately go against society.

Another interesting reflection in terms of imagery and symbolism is the idea of struggling up stairs but frolicking down. After Bigger becomes comfortable with murder, he completely abandons the idea of fitting into society and believes himself to be invincible. In Joker, Arthur also is also in a sense invincible, more so than Bigger, because he is the embodiment of a movement/rebellion in a sort of V for Vendetta-like way. Bigger and Arthur both embody the struggle between a class of people rising up against society. To conclude both Native Son and Joker, both characters finally end up locked away/killed in the very end.

their eyes were watching god Ending

The novel their eyes were watching god is meant to be inspiring but uninfluenced by politics and race. Throughout the entire story, there is a lack of white characters and their only role in the story is to progress a couple minor ideas. It seems to me that Janie's story is not supposed to be interpreted as a confrontation of African American life, but just as an experience she has had; She is not reborn into a new life because the experience is over and her life doesn't revolve around this singular experience like in most other "hero" novels. As the curtains close in the final pages, it is less like her story is finished but rather waiting to be continued. From her experiences, she has objectively not received massive life changes except her own independence as a person (Of course, losing Tea Cake cannot be completely ignored but to me his main role was to help Janie realize her independence).

One important aspect of the story is the romance that Janie is involved in. Each man she marries can be seen as a trial she must face before fully understanding herself and finally achieving peace. Although she rejects two of the men, the reason is not because of race or politics, but because of her own inability to love them. This fits into the idea that politics and society do not constantly influence the thoughts of African Americans. Instead of revolving the story around the hardships of Janie's life due to slavery and racism, Hurston puts the emphasis of the story onto "common life" and love. I think this ultimately shows that Hurston's point in writing this novel was not to make a point against the unfair roles in society, but to show that change can come from one's self.