英语论文网

perceptions of such markings between the people who are powerful and inflict such markings and the people who are powerless (the victims of the markings). Most of the white characters in the book use scarring as a significant means of communications in showing their belief in their superiority over blacks. They mark the minority characters as a piece of their own property, attempting to effectively dehumanize them. As a result, for the minority characters, the scar means a symbol of beating, branding, or other physical abuse, and also a permanent marking of slavery. Beating is one way with which the majority attempts to communicate its superiority over black people. This fact makes itself evident in further exploring the beating of Sethe by two white boys, nephews of the schoolteacher. Years later Sethe tells Paul D,“ after I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk …Held me down and took it”(Morrison, 1987:16-17). The taking of Sethe’s milk is another form of dehumanization, continuing the motif of the majority people treating the minority as property or, more specifically, livestock. Sethe later tells her owner, Mrs. Garner what the boys have done to her, eventually they find out what she has told on them. The two boys then beat the pregnant Sethe, at the request of the schoolteacher, making a permanent scar and causing her to lose feeling in her back, “schoolteacher made one open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree. Now, it grows there still” (Morrison, 1987:17) Sethe refers to the mark on her back as a tree because of the influence of one poor white girl, Amy, who aided Sethe after she’d escaped. She tells Paul D,“I got a tree on my back, a chokecherry tree, truck, branches, and even leaves, tiny little chokecherry leaves”(Morrison, 1987: 16). From the perspectives of the two boys and the schoolteacher, beating Sethe is a way to prove they are right. They beat her not only to cause her physical pain she could not soon forget but also to leave permanent marks across her back that would follow her wherever she might go. Marks remind her that they have dismissed and rejected the freedom she has practiced in her communication. These are marks to remind her they have taken that right away from her. However, in the end, the scars that are left become a positive means of communication for Sethe. As a result, scars can not only make people recognize others by their respective marks but also can tell a story of what a person has gone through. Sethe’s back and the scars caused by her being beaten are important in the story in terms of telling a story of what she has been through, providing a way in which she and some of the other characters may correct. 1.2 Sethe and her mother’s scars. Sethe’s mother also had a distinct scar that played a large role in terms of communication in Beloved. Page 61 explains how her owner branded Sethe’s mother, as if she were livestock, rather than a human being. “...She opened up her dress front and lifted her breast and pointed under it. Right on her rib was a circle and a cross burnt right in the skin.” The intention of the “majority” in branding her was to mark Sethe’s mother as a piece of property comparable to livestock. They were attempting to dehumanize and subvert her. However, she later uses her marking as a positive force in her relationship with Sethe. For example, Sethe’s mother's scar was then made a significant method of communication in that it was the only way S