Race and the American Novel: Synthesis

I have learned a great deal during this course; reading UTC and Beloved especially had a profound impact. But even little things, like the reviews of the books we read left me thinking and exploring the issue of racism. I think what really impacted me the most was the chapter Raynaud devoted to Morrison's book, when she explained the unexplainable. She described many of the metaphors used in Beloved. The character, Beloved, was a representation of the memory of slavery itself.

I agree, and believe, that the nation is trying to suppress the reality of our true history. What I did not realize was this was also occurring in the slave narratives themselves. How could that be possible? It seems unreal to me that even when slaves wrote about their own experiences, they left out the horrifying details. But then, I guess I can understand why. Who would want to relive and remember such atrocious trauma? Even I have things that have happened to me that I do not want to remember. Of course, neither do the white people, want to remember what they did and became; they became exactly what they set out to destroy, what they thought was beneath them.

The slave owners treated men, women and children as objects and animals and, thus, became animals themselves. The barbaric enslavement and torturing, the raping and killing, that is what was animalistic. It is no wonder people refuse to remember such a disgusting time in history, but that is not the answer. It is important that we learn from this, to teach our children the accurate history, so that it may not ever be repeated. Just like the teacher Dan wrote about in his blog; we need more teachers like him. But look what happened when he stood up for what was right, when he did what he was hired to do-he was ostracized and fired! How does that make sense at all? Parents were outraged; if parents are outraged when their children are taught the truth we, as a nation, have a big problem with denial. It just goes to show that we still have a racial divide, as Bannon protested. But hopefully, as he also stated, this will slowly make its way out as the older, racist generation kicks the bucket.

Ultimately, I am left feeling that there is not one person or one type of person able to give a complete an accurate description of what happened during the time of slavery. Stowe was white, yes, so was half the nation. It is important to get accounts of what happened from white people, just as much as black people. As Baldwin put it ". . . the oppressed and the oppressor are bound together within the same society; they accept the same criteria; they share the same beliefs. . . " Both races lived among each other, they needed each other in order for this to have taken place, they are both equally a part of it, even if one was more evil than the other. Saying that only former slaves or black people should be telling stories is ignorant; even former slave narratives left out important information. It takes all angles, all accounts, everyone involved to create the whole picture of what went on. Every time we read a story, poem, narrative, bibliography, we get another piece of the puzzle.