Mothering and female victimization in Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987)
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Abstract
This study sought to demonstrate the effects of traumatic and systematic racism that exacerbate the ambiguities of mothering as highlighted in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The study is structured into two sections. It is built on a retrospective slavery saga of the Black woman in the United States who struggles to empower herself as she grapples with the quagmirish and nightmarish situation of slavery and motherhood. The study argues that, slavery, characterized by rape, torture and systemic racism stifle the black woman’s individuality as a mother, and deprives her of her full potentials of mothering. The study therefore analyses, interprets and examines the challenges of mothering in Beloved. Guided by the concept of motherism and the tenets of gender discourse, the study reveals that the Black woman is committed to performing her reproductive role, but run-through infanticide as protective measures to her offspring.
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