The Men Without Skin
In Beloved, the central scene of the novel, Sethe’s killing of Beloved herself and her attempt to kill the rest of her children, is first narrated from the perspective of “the men without skin”, Schoolteacher, his nephew, the slave-catcher, and the sheriff. But why? Why change our perspective to that of a character completely isolated from everyone else, who believes our characters to be profoundly inferior and worth only what he can extract from them?
And then, why does this happen again at the end of the novel? Why does Morrison switch again to the perspective of a (very different) white character for the scene of Beloved’s disappearance?
In both cases, the radical switch in perspective massively alienates the readers from the characters we have spent the rest of the book with. We are forced to see Schoolteacher’s thoughts from his perspective, forced immediately to understand why he makes the decision to abandon all of the children along with Sethe. This is important to understanding Sethe’s decision, because our ability to see how Schoolteacher’s mind works makes him more horrifying than he already was. It also leads us to think through Sethe’s decision and arrive at an understanding of it, before we get her explanation for it. This makes us more sympathetic to Sethe’s position, as we’ve now had to go through her thought process on our own, instead of simply having Morrison give us her reasoning.
The alienation from our normal characters in these scenes also reinforces the shock that accompanies them. In the scene at the woodshed, we only see the results at first, as even though we know that something happened to Beloved, we do not know what, or why, or how until that point. The first thing we see of Sethe is not her noticing the arrival of the men and panicking, but instead her attempting to swing Denver into the side of the woodshed, as Schoolteacher declares to himself that the trip has been a waste. This shock also helps to force us to think through Sethe’s thought process before we get her explanation.
In the scene at the end of the novel, there is a similar change in perspective. While not nearly as vile as Schoolteacher’s, our perspective there still takes us out of the scene, making it both more supernatural and more understandable than the prior chapters. More supernatural in that, in our new perspective, we have no idea why there is a group of women outside of 124, or what is going on with Sethe or Beloved, but also more understandable, in that many of the previous chapters are from the semi-conflated and very damaged perspectives of Sethe and Beloved, which are nearly impossible to process.
Anyways, these have been my thoughts on the topic. What do you folks think? Why does Morrison change perspective so radically in these two points in the book?
I think that Morrison does do the narration switch to get us to understand Sethe and side with her. By seeing how schoolteacher shows no emotion the entire time, except for disappointment of not catching any slaves, and how he sees Stamp Paid and Baby Suggs as "crazy", we feel repulsed and can see why Sethe would want to keep her children away from schoolteacher. I think it also is to have us piece together Sethe's reasoning before Sethe explains herself. By thinking through the scene, we can get to a conclusion that makes sense. If it was in Sethe's POV, I know I would have probably freaked out by her actions and thought process (since I wouldn't have seen into schoolteacher's head to understand why she reacted to schoolteacher in that way) without trying to process it. Morrison sets up this scene strategically, making the readers side more with Sethe than they would have through Sethe's POV.
ReplyDeleteI think the two perspective changes are for very different reasons. The Schoolteacher one happens at one of the most difficult parts of the novel to detach the reader from Sethe and therefore provide more shock at what happens but also to highlight one of the reasons why she did it: she never wants her or her children to go back there to Schoolteacher. By seeing his perspective we understand how disgusting and horrifying being under his control would be. All that the other shift in perspective does for me is highlight how weird this situation happening in 124 actually is to everyone else. We see it from an objective point of view and not one that justifies anything that's happening like if it were Sethe, Denver, or Beloved. Also, I think that seeing it from this relatively better white person's perspective makes it more surprising when Sethe straight up attacks him even though he seems to be a respectable guy. It really highlights Sethe's desperation and unresolved trauma.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is key for the reader to see inside schoolteacher's head during the scene in the shed in order to fully understand why Sethe is acting that way. Without the complete context of how schoolteacher sees Sethe and more details on what will happen to her if she is taken back to Sweet Home, Sethe comes across as a total monster. Morrison wants to ensure that the reader still sees humanity in Sethe after showing us how she tries to kill her children. I think this is also why so much of the story is developed before we learn about Beloved's death, because with that information in the beginning, the reader would never be able to look past Sethe's past actions into her personality and life.
ReplyDeleteI think the way Morrison writes the scene from Schoolteacher's perspective is crucial for the reader to develop a certain view of what happened. Having us slowly come to the realization of who everyone is, and what exactly is happening while still not completely getting the full picture fits in perfectly with Morrison's style. Schoolteacher's perspective also demonstrates to the reader how slaves like Sethe were treated like goods or livestock. He treats the entire situation analytically, and decides to leave based purely on Sethe not being worth it, just as a farmer might not want to invest the time and resources to heal a cow with a broken leg.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read this chapter, I was also quite confused. But after finishing the novel I realized how essential the shift in perspective was to my knowledge of the characters, especially the men without skin. It depicts how white supremacists viewed what Sethe had done from the perspective of Schoolteacher. This was especially strange to me, as I had never read a passage like this before.
ReplyDeleteI think the point of the perspective change was to lay out a clear picture of what was happening, without ruining the unique narrative styles given to each character. Both Sethe and Beloved’s minds are extremely twisted, especially towards the end of the book, so it can be difficult to quite grasp what is going on at times. Yes, you can get a general idea, but for scenes as important as these two, one needed a clear untainted perspective that comes in fresh to the situation. Using the perspective change was Morrison’s way of making sure there wasn’t any confusion about what was happening in those scenes.
ReplyDeleteI think the changes in narration is crucial to the development of the novel because it really helps us readers learn why Sethe did what she did. If the story had just continued the way it did, I don't think we would be able to sympathize with Sethe and understand why she felt that she truly had no other choice. This is also extremely important in Sethe's explanation to Paul D of why she had to kill Beloved.
ReplyDeleteThis switch of perspective is Morrison's way of introducing a horrific event in an objective way. Maybe not objective, but certainly not sympathetic towards Sethe. In this way it takes a longer time to understand what Sethe's thoughts and motivations were. However, I think this narration style works as it truly helped me understand the horrors of the events.
ReplyDeleteI think the perspective shift was something that was important to build the scene and ultimately give the reader a feeling of what was actually going on in the book. Like many others, I didn’t really understand what was going on with my first read. I think without the persepective change, we wouldn’t be able to truly understand what each character was thinking and feeling and why the things that happened actually happened. Getting the full picture allows us as readers to understand how evil school teacher is and how afraid someone would be if they were actually in Sethe’s shoes. Great blog post.
ReplyDelete