Paul D smiled then, remembering the bedding dress. Sethe was thirteen when she came to Sweet Home and already iron-eyed. She was a timely present for Mrs. Garner who had lost Baby Suggs to her husband's high principles. The five Sweet Home men looked at the new girl and decided to let her be. They were young and so sick with the absence of women they had taken to calves. Yet they let the iron-eyed girl be, so she could choose in spite of the fact that each one would have beaten the others to mush to have her. It took her a year to choose--a long, tough year of thrashing on pallets eaten up with dreams of her. A year of yearning, when rape seemed the solitary gift of life. The restraint they had exercised possible only because they were Sweet Home men--the ones Mr. Garner bragged about while other farmers shook their heads in warning at the phrase.
"Y'all got boys," he told them. "Young boys, old boys, picky boys, strappin boys. Now at Sweet Home, my niggers is men every one of em. Bought em thataway, raised em thataway. Men every one."
“The five Sweet Home men looked at the new girl and decided to let her be,” as you can see Sethe from a young age was seen as a prize rather than a human being (12). This passage is a flashback from 18 years ago when Sethe went to Sweet Home at the age of thirteen.
The flashback talks about how she arrives so beautifully and all the men had their eyes on her in awe. Each of the five men knew she was eventually going to choose one of them, but she took her time, which meant the men went more and more crazy. The men couldn't act out, or show any frustration towards her, or she would not choose them.
The frustration and longing for Sethe led the men to extremes. Men were sexually frustrated so they took their frustrations out on cows. They even considered, “a year of yearning, when rape seemed the solitary gift of life” (12). The fact that the five men considered raping Sethe because she was pretty and the only girl around is very disturbing. The fact that men think rape is a gift or that they compare rape to a gift is really awful. Woman are not objects to give pleasure to men. And men thinking that they have a right to rape a girl is completely unacceptable and immoral.
The men in this passage feel as if they have power over Sethe by saying they will “let her be.” This sounds as if the men have a choice over Sethe’s welfare. That they have all the control and power; control her destiny. Sethe is seen as a sexual prize, rather than a wife, or a future mother or a person. She is seen as a prize and all five men compete for her. This is completely wrong, woman can have the power in relationships too.
Also it says, “The restraint they had exercised possible only because they were Sweet Home Men...”(12). At that point in time men were raised and taught to be respectful to their masters. And their masters would not have permitted this sort of behavior.
Sethe seems weak and naive. She isn't aware of what is happening around her. That the men are thinking about in a sexual manner. Woman should not be seen as sexual objects, they should be respected as the strong, brave, intelligent and caring individuals that they are.
I like how you talk about how women should be treated, versus how they are treated in this book. It's interesting to compare how they were treated during times of slavery rather than now. It seemed that in most cases, though, women were not able to decide which man she wanted to marry. In this case she is, do you think that gives her more power in the situation? Or do you think it's still demeaning that she has to choose from one of them at the farm?
ReplyDeleteThis is a great point Kathryn :)
DeleteI like your blog post on feminism and how Sethe was effected by it. The questions I have are do you think that the slave masters purposely brought one girl into a slave Headquartes where there were 5 hungry men? And also did Sethe have a choice to be weak or not in this situation? or did history and womens roles in society make her so she was weak in almost all situations?
ReplyDeleteLove,
Christian W.
I really enjoyed your blog post, because it does raise a lot of questions for me. I specifically caught the part where you wrote "Sethe is seen as a sexual prize, rather than a wife, or a future mother or a person". And one question I have about that is: Do you think later on in the book Paul D still see's her as a "prize" or do you think he starts to realize the love he has for Sethe? Also do you think Sethe has grown from the naive slave girl and into something more?
ReplyDeleteThe fact that nobody mentions the beastiality in their comments has overwhelming to me the sickness of these people's mind is so degenerate that I I could or had to stop reading for a while just to digest it
ReplyDeleteIt seems that these young men were worse than animals because even animals don't desert their first estate and a lie with other animals that are not their breed the fact they think that rape is a gift and then revert to having sex with cows sickens me to the point of I couldn't even finish reading the book for a while
ReplyDelete