Exploitation Is A ‘Hot Thing’ In Beloved

In Beloved, characters experience egregious violations of their human rights that create circumstances that the English language can not actually capture. The author, Toni Morrison attempts to communicate the meaning of some indescribable emotions and actions with catachresis, a literary device exactly where a writer utilizes the closest possible phrase to describe something that has no precise definition in the English language(Danner, 32-34). Morrison explains this in her foreword, saying “To render enslavement a individual experience, language need to get out of the way.”(Morrison, XIX) 1 situation addressed throughout Beloved is the struggle of slaves to preserve their humanity by way of their human traits, such as their face or their teeth. Given that this struggle has no definition that a person who has by no means been a slave could recognize, Morrison utilizes catachresis to describe the diverse aspects of it. In her utilization of the phrase ”a hot thing”(Morrison, 248), which Morrison draws from Sethe’s understanding of characteristics, she describes the feeling that happens soon after the loss of a human identity. This use of catachresis is utilised to communicate the emotion when a character feels as if either they or their loved ones have lost their humanity by way of the loss of a uniquely human trait. The certain phrasing of “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248) comes from Sethe’s limited definition of characteristics. When Sethe worked on the Sweet Property plantation, her understanding of traits was limited to the instance “a feature of summer season is heat. A characteristic is a function. A factor that is organic to a factor.” (Morrison, 230) Due to Sethe’s lack of education, she has difficulty understanding what a characteristic is and she moves  on prior to she really comprehends it. Morrison draws from Sethe’s knowledge at this moment to uncover a phrase which she feels will best communicate the meaning of an indescribable emotion. Morrison chooses this knowledge to find a phrase for the emotion, since this is the moment exactly where it becomes most clear to Sethe that she is getting treated as if she had been an animal. Consequently, the phrase “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248) provides the the closest definition of an emotion, which occurs when somebody experiences dehumanization in Beloved. This is also one particular of the occasions in the novel that characteristics are linked to emotion. By having Sethe feel she is becoming treated like an animal, Morrison connects emotion with qualities in the novel. Sethe fears that she could shed her humanity with the loss of only one particular characteristic, a fear shared by other characters. Sethe seeks clarification of what a characteristic is, when she overhears her master teaching his nephews to separate her  human and animal traits, saying “I told you to put her human characteristics on the left her animal ones on the appropriate.” (Morrison 228) A characteristic is more than just a visible aspect of a person’s look as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford English Dictionary). A characteristic is a feature, which is integral to the humanity of a person as a result, a characteristic is a piece of someone’s identity. This is the origin of the worry of falling into pieces. The dehumanized feeling that Sethe has in this instance is not the only time when it becomes evident to the characters in Beloved that they are thought of as animals, but it is the explanation for why some characters feel that they could break into pieces at any moment. The characters really feel that if they drop their defining characteristic that keeps them human, they will turn into just a list of animal traits rather than a human becoming. It becomes clear which functions these characters consider to be uniquely human features. One characteristic that is deemed to be integral to a portion of some characters’ humanity is their teeth. Earlier in the novel,  Beloved loses a tooth and experiences the worry of no longer getting human, and becoming just her animal characteristics as an alternative. Morrison writes “Beloved looked at the tooth and believed, This is it. Next would be her arm, her hand, a toe. Pieces of her would drop possibly a single at a time, maybe all at once.”(Morrison, 157) The selection to list only other physique components as the pieces of Beloved that would fall subsequent is additional evidence of a character’s fear that losing her distinctive, human characteristic would result in her becoming just her animal traits. Soon after she loses her tooth Beloved worries that she has no characteristic to hold her human identity collectively, she will lapse into just her visible animalistic characteristics, which she believes she will at some point also shed. So, to Beloved, losing a tooth is losing what she believes keeps her human.  Another time that teeth represent a distinctly human feature is Sethe’s listing of injustices that occurred in the course of her experiences even though enslaved. Sethe remembers, among other items, that the owner of the plantation “ [whitefolk] gave Paul D iron to eat…” (Morrison 222) This quote is considerable because of the phrasing. Rather than referring actually to the bit in Paul D.’s mouth, this quote references the iron bit as iron he was forced to eat. This implies that the iron obscured his teeth, stopping him from expressing his most human characteristic, in Sethe’s eyes. The context of this quote also tends to make it clear that Sethe is speaking about injustices that robbed  people to whom she was close of their humanity.  A second characteristic, which is represented as a defining portion of a human’s identity in Beloved, is a person’s face. When the characters in Beloved keep in mind Halle, they normally bear in mind his face. When Sethe is remembering the very same list of unjust things that occurred in slavery, she also remembers that “they buttered Halle’s face…” (Morrison, 222) Even though the master of the plantation did not actually butter Halle’s face, he did rob Halle of his humanity. After witnessing Sethe’s milking, Sethe’s husband, Halle went insane, sitting in a butter churn and stirring incessantly. Each Paul D. and Sethe don't forget the buttering of his face, not the loss of his humanity. These characters thought of Halle’s special characteristic as getting his face, so when Halle lost his sanity, and for that reason his humanity, the characters of Beloved saw his buttered face as no longer being representative of his humanity.  Another time that faces are used to represent a person’s identity is when Sethe’s mother tells Sethe how to determine her, saying “If something occurs to me and you can’t tell me by my face, you can know me by this mark.”(Morrison, 72) Although it initially appears that Sethe’s mother is telling Sethe that her mark is component of her identity, upon close examination it becomes clear that Sethe’s mother is telling her that if she dies, the ultimate loss of humanity, then she can be identified by a mark of her slavery. Particularly, by utilizing the word “identify”(Morrison, 72) it becomes clear that Sethe’s mother is speaking about how Sethe need to know no matter whether or not her mother is the individual who is dead. Considering that she begins her statement with “if you cannot inform me by my face”(Morrison, 72) it is clear that she considers her face to be an integral component of her human identity. This is an instance of a character taking into consideration their face to be their defining function and primarily stating that if they are dead, their face is no longer identifiable.  Through these examples, it becomes clear that characters are capable to determine, either their personal distinctly human characteristic, or the distinct characteristic of somebody who they loved. Even so, these characters do not describe the distinctly human characteristic of those who they do not enjoy.  When Sethe thinks about the injustices that occurred for the duration of slavery, she is capable to particularly speak about the characteristics which Halle and Paul D lost. When speaking about her mother, who died ahead of Sethe could get to know her effectively, and Sixo, to whom Sethe was not specifically close, she simply lists the issues that occurred to them, considering “[whitefolk] crisped Sixo hanged her personal mother.” (Morrison, 222) Sethe is in a position to determine neither her mother nor Sixo’s distinguishing characteristic. This conclusion is important because it explains the selective usage of  the phrase “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248), used later in the book only in references to people whom the narrator loved and the loss of their human features.  The phrase “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248) is used to represent the emotion the narrator of chapter twenty two feels, when a man, who the narrator loves, dies. The narrator states “I can not locate the man whose teeth I have loved a hot thing”(Morrison, 249). The particular reference to this man’s teeth indicate that the narrator feels they were his distinctly human function. The next time the phrase is utilised, it is utilized after the narrator sees “the tiny hill of dead men and women.”(Morrison, 249) The cause that “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248) is employed following this fragment is that she has seen her man in this hill of dead individuals. Even though it is not explicitly stated in the text, she refers to her man as if she is certain he is dead for the rest of the chapter.  Another time the phrase “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248) represents an undefined emotion is in reference to the loss of a girl, who the narrator believes shares her face. When the narrator says “the woman with my face is in the sea a hot thing” (Morrison, 249).  She is experiencing the indescribable emotion represented by the phrase for two causes. Firstly, since she lost yet another loved one particular and is remembering a feature which reminds her of that loved one’s identity as a human. Secondly,she believes that she and this girl share a face, saying at the beginning of the chapter “her face is my own”(Morrison, 248)  So, not only did the loss of this girl represent the loss of a loved one to the narrator, it also represents the loss of the quality with which the narrator identifies her own humanity. The explicit hyperlink between traits and one facet of this emotion was created when Morrison wrote about Beloved’s worry of falling into pieces after losing her personal distinct characteristic. It is evident that the narrator of chapter twenty two believes that she has lost her own distinct function as well from the sentence “I drop the meals and break into pieces.”(Morrison, 251) In this sentence, the narrator of this chapter has succumbed to becoming just a list of qualities and does not feel human anymore. This is why the narrator does not expertise “a hot thing” (Morrison, 248) once again, till she sees the face, which she believes is her personal, come out of the water.  That the narrator does not feel “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248) again till she sees the face resurface shows that “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248) is an emotion. This is evident because in Beloved, complicated feelings are addressed as some thing that is special to humans. An example of this is when Paul D. says to Sethe that her really like is “too thick” and that she has “two feet…not four.”(Morrison, 194) By saying this, Paul D. is telling Sethe that she is not an animal and for that reason need to be able to really like with no loving so considerably that she harms her loved ones. Paul D’s discussion with Sethe in this instance is indicative of the belief, held by the characters, that having complicated and conflicting feelings is unique to humans. Consequently, when the narrator of chapter twenty two goes with out experiencing the emotion represented by “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248) till she as soon as once more sees the face she lost, it is simply because the narrator had stopped feeling human. Morrison chooses to use this catachresis in chapter twenty two to give the reader a far better understanding of what it felt like to be dehumanized everyday, although trying to hang on to humanity. When the meaning of the phrase “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248) has grow to be clear to the reader, the chapter is particularly unpleasant to study. Morrison’s use of catachresis in this chapter serves to accomplish her purpose of rendering “enslavement as private an knowledge as possible.” (Morrison, XIX)  In conclusion, Morrison uses the phrase “a hot thing”(Morrison, 248) as a catachresis for an indescribable emotion that occurs when a character remembers the loss of either their personal identity or the identity of a loved one as a outcome of losing a special feature that represents their humanity. Morrison’s use of this certain catachresis is an attempt to express to the reader an emotion that can not be sufficiently defined with the English language. Morrison’s use of catachresis all through the book is what allows the reader to acquire insight into the feelings slaves seasoned although undergoing the atrocities of slavery.