My project consisted of a journal entry in the perspective of the main character from the novel I chose, Beloved, and a drawing of a black woman to signify the main character and her life as a slave. At the end there is a rationale, which is a way of explaining the reason behind my decision to include these types of genres.
My not so amazing past
Sometimes I wonder why it’s so hard being a black woman. Well, for starters I was once an enslaved woman but till this day I see no difference in my status. During those hard times, I once stumbled on the floor after running for my freedom. I was pregnant and I couldn’t even move, but I guarantee you if I was an obnoxious white woman, this would have been a different situation and the whole world would have been by my side.
The Pain I was in was like no other. At this point I didn’t know who was going to live. My baby, me, or both of us. But see I’m black, so it’s always bad for me. Luckily, a white person helped me and actually delivered my baby. Her name was Amy Denver, and her last name was my child’s first name. Decided to name her after the one woman that saved my baby and I. Although I had my baby with me, I still was not free and things got just worse and worse for me. I went from running away and stumbling on the floor, losing my first daughter named beloved, to being beaten in the beautiful farm in sweet home by men and taking away the milk for my own child that is with me and alive. Every now and then I remember what those men did to me and I can never forget. It hurts me.
However, what hurt me the most was that the father of my baby Denver watched those men beat me and did nothing but hide. When I found out I was in shock. I had to find this out by a man that wasn’t even the father of my child, but a man that actually cared about us , and that was Paul D. Garner. Why? Just why the man that’s the father of my child, hid knowing I was in pain and the milk they were stealing was for his child. The last thing I wanted was for my second child to die. The reason for saying second is because my other child was murdered as a baby. This is another memory that reminds me of how much I suffered and a memory that lives on and cannot be forgotten.
Every now and then it’s as if beloved is right next to me. I hear these voices in my home and I tend to think my home is haunted, but then I wonder, what if it’s my daughter trying to get my attention. Sometimes I think I’m just traumatized because of what happened. Maybe the past is catching up to me. The problem is I don’t want to remember my past, but it’s something embedded in my brain. I get signs of my daughter that remind me of everything. When will it stop ? I don’t know.
Genre Rationale : Beloved by Toni Morrison
The purpose behind my project was to emphasize the mistreatment of enslaved black women and how this mistreatment can later on turn into traumatic events for a person. I started out with a journal entry and I named it “My not so amazing past”. The reason for writing this journal entry was to express my feelings but in the shoes of Sethe, the main character in the novel Beloved, written by Toni Morrison. I made this journal focus on the past and expressed the feelings in an upsetting tone because the past is something that causes trauma and can eventually catch up to you, even if you don’t want it to. Why a black woman ? Well because back then they were the slaves, while whites had everything and were the upperclassmen. I included the harsh events to show how blacks were treated and how even when one thinks he/she is free, they are not. I want the audience to understand that everyone’s differences shouldn’t be based on color nor gender and when these differences are taken into consideration, it can affect the way a person lives their life. These types of memories are embedded in the mind and cannot be forgotten. The sad tone was to portray the way the character was feeling during that moment and the present when she gets a memory of what when on.
The next piece was a visual art and it was a picture of a black woman on the floor with cuts and bruises on some parts of her body. This picture signifies the mistreatment of slaves and I included the cuts and bruises to further emphasize the disrespect shown towards black women. I purposely included only one woman rather than multiple to show how most of time they are on their own and no help is provided. There would have been a different approach and treatment if it was a white woman on the floor or there probably wouldn’t even be a white woman on the floor. I also chose to make the scene outdoors to connect to an event explained in the journal entry, which was stumbling on the floor as a result of escaping slavery. The woman on the floor was tired and couldn’t move and this an experience that cannot be forgotten. Overall, I believe these two genres were a great way in demonstrating the issue that enslaved black women face. Feelings were expressed personally and with the use of visual art, the audience will be able to understand the significance of showing and not telling.
