Critical Lens Expert 2 Weber

Welcome back everyone. Once again I am doing the second Critical Lens Experts blog. The Critical Lens Essay that I read this time is “The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” by Barbara Schapiro. In this essay, Barbara talks about how Beloved penetrates more deeply into the nature of self and the relations of love than any other books that have been written before.

“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another”(page 95, Beloved)

Barbara continues to talk about how the ability to be able to recognize yourself as a true human and the need to be recognized by others as a true human are closely intertwined. Throughout the majority of the essay Barbara focuses more on the relations between mother and child. She says that if the mother cannot recognize herself, the child cannot recognize its mother as a “human subject”, and the mother cannot recognize her child as a “subject” then it leads to the child believing that they do not have a self to claim as theirs. This can then lead to “the emotional hunger...obsessive and terrifying narcissistic fantasies.” (Barbara Schapiro)

I highly agree with this argument that Barbara has said. Humans can’t live entirely alone, we are a herd/pack race that depends on each other combined with our own strengths to survive. If a human child was raised among animals by animals then the child would never know what it is to be human. Most of the meanings that come with being human are created by human society. So you could say we have created the common definition of self because we recognize the self of each other. If there was no one to recognize and accept our self then it would be just like having been raised by the animals.

But in Barbara’s paper she focuses more on the relations between mother and child. She says that being denied the right to see their self and to have a self by the slave master society created a hunger so deep and powerful that they are terrified that they will destroy the other person that they seek that recognition and love from. Barbara states that a child is denied the closeness, intimacy, and love that is needed to form a notion of who you are in the world. I believe that love you get from your mother is your first notion of self that you get when you enter the world, that you are your mother’s child. Then from that first notion you build up more and more as you learn about yourself and how others view you to determine who you truly are. This is why Sethe asked to have the brand mark that was on her mother so that she could be closer to her mother and be her daughter, beforehand Sethe had to have a girl point out her mother to her so that she knew who she was. But growing up in slavery took her mother from her and took away her first inclination of herself. Sethe was denied the right to be her mother’s daughter.

So I would have to say that this paper is pretty accurate on what the interrelations of mother and child in Beloved. I can vouch for this personally, having been neglected by my birth mother until I was adopted at 5 years old.