Thoughts on "Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural"

  "Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural" by Pamela E. Barnett was a very interesting essay written about the gender inequality and ghostly appearances that made an appearance throughout the novel, Beloved. She speaks mainly of the symbolism that each character made to the overall story and how it affected others within the novel. Although it seems like an unusual two topics to compare and contrast, the paper was written very well and has many ideas that lead to thoughts and discussions that would provoke other reader's while or after finishing Beloved.

   Barnett brought up many ideas that had never occurred to me before reading her article that included supernatural theories, as well as feminist theories. For example, she states "Beloved is not just the ghost of Sethe's dead child; she is a succubus, a female demon and nightmare figure that sexually assaults male sleepers and drains them of semen." (page 5) Before reading this article, I did think of her as a demon or someone who "drains" someone, but I thought the person who she drains is Sethe. She asks her to speak her mind and tell her painful stories which seem to build Beloved up and add more power to an already demonic child. It seems that when Beloved is strong, Sethe is weak and vice versa. While what I think may be similar, Barnett's idea is far more interesting and related to the ideas of feminism. When one thinks of a rapist, it is not really thought of as a woman or a girl. While Beloved is the biggest offender of rape by not only bringing up memories of the past, but also coaxing emotions and attraction out of Paul D. She not only feeds off of the past, but also gains power by manipulating others to give up the hardest part of themselves to her and creating even more trauma. 

   Also, Barnett wrote about when Paul D was imprisoned in the camp in Georgia and sexually assaulted by the guards daily. She states, "... by forcing the prisoners to express homosexual desire, the guards symbolically 'castrate' them." (page 7) She then gives some context about how African-American men are generally "sexually dominant" over white men, and this was the way that the white man was able to seize control. It's interesting to read this and just think about how much gender inequality and racism that is hidden within this book. Black people were already treated as less than human or property and the whites STILL needed to find a way to feel dominant? Pathetic.

   Although this book may be very disturbing to read, I am so glad to have read it. Without reading Beloved and the articles about it, I would not have fully understood what slaves went through just to have a normal life and all of the trauma that came after the transition. There was so much more I could have reflected on from the article, but these were the two main parts that stuck out to me.