The Dehumanization of Humans

“In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.” Toni Morrison is an influential author best known for her novels that spoke about the role of African Americans in the world before they received freedom and rights as individuals. Two of her most famous novels The Bluest Eye and Beloved both show and tell experiences that African Americans had back when they weren’t considered humans. Although these two novels follow two separate and different paths there are several moments in the texts where their paths cross and readers see first hand the dehumanization and overall loss of identity that takes place.

In the two novels mentioned above there are characters that have similar characteristics and pasts that explain their actions. Halle is an African American who is enslaved with his family and he eventually goes crazy after he sees two white boys stealing milk from his wife. Halle is similar to Cholly Breedlove who is a character in The Bluest Eye. Cholly ends up going crazy in the beginning of the novel, but we learn later that it was because of what happened to him when he was younger. After the trauma that both Halle and Cholly go through neither of them can function like humans anymore; Cholly burns his family’s house down and rapes his daughter while Halle leaves his family and slathers himself in butter. These actions performed by these men are a prime example of the insanity that took place in African Americans mind during this time period in American history.

Dehumanization was an important theme in both texts based on how individuals were stripped of their human qualities physically and emotionally. Readers see this occur in Beloved when Sethe overhears the schoolteacher talking to his students and he says, “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 228). After hearing this Sethe goes to her master to find out what “characteristics” means and later realizes what the men were doing that afternoon. By the schoolteacher telling the boys to write down the ‘characteristics’ of Sethe and the other slaves he is taking away the last bit of humanization that the slaves had. They were considered objects instead of people. Dehumanization is seen also in The Bluest Eye in relation to one of Cholly’s experiences with white people. While Cholly is experiencing a sexual moment with a young girl, Darlene, two white men stumble upon them and force Cholly to continue what he is doing in front of them. They urge him on by saying, “Come on, coon. Faster” (Morrison 148). This shows the dehumanization of Cholly because they refer to him as ‘coon’ which is an animal, making Cholly realize that he was worth nothing.

Another common theme that is found within both of Morrison’s novels is identity or the lack thereof. The lack of identity is present in not only Sethe, but also Cholly, Pauline, and Pecola. This occurs because of their pasts and their time throughout life where they were unable to find their identity. For each individual it is hard for them to find their identity for several different reasons. For example, Cholly can’t find his identity because his father abandoned him before he was born and his mother abandoned him a few days after birth so he didn’t have a sense of family and ancestral background. On the other hand Sethe can’t find her identity because she lost it completely after the boys stole her milk which to her was thel only thing that proved her motherhood. Since they stole that one thing, her identity was lost for good. As both novels continue on the readers see how each character’s identity is taken over different periods of time. The overall effect that not having an identity has on them is seen in their actions and in the way they lose their minds in the end.

Pecola is a peculiar character in The Bluest Eye who is found to be without a home after her father burns it down. She is similar to Denver in how she spends her whole life trying to earn her mother’s love. Pecola is so broken because of her experiences throughout her life, yet her soul purpose in the end is to earn her mother’s love. She believes that if she had blue eyes her mother would love her because during that time period society thought you were perfect if you had blue eyes. Denver tries to earn her mother’s love by always making sure that Beloved is happy because if Beloved is happy then her mother is happy as well. Although both spend their life trying to earn their mother’s love they do it differently. One believes that her mother would love her if she looked different while the other believes that if she keeps her dead sister happy her mother will love her. These two characters help to show how these two novels are similar yet different all at once.

The Bluest Eye and Beloved both depict what life was like in the past for African Americans. Experiences that are written about make people realize how revolting society was. These novels also show the common eye how because of such traumatic events it led family members to hurting their own family for example Sethe trying to kill her children and Cholly raping his own daughter, Pecola. Although these texts are written by the same author they both have their own message for the reader while touching upon something similar. The overall message to readers is to not let anyone dehumanize or take away your identity, instead stick up for yourself. Also these books teach people to go against what society believes to be the “perfect” image. No one is perfect and the people that are the least perfect are the most beautiful of them all.