In Beloved,
Toni Morrison uses metonymy to enhance the meaning of Baby Suggs’s preaching.
As Sethe plans to revisit the clearing, she reminisces about Baby Suggs’s
fervent sermons that she delivered to the former slave community. In one of her
sermons, she preaches that black people have “feet that need to rest and dance:
backs that need support.” In both cases, “feet” and “backs” signify the toll
and arduous nature of slavery; a slave’s back carries both the physical and
social burden of slavery. In this case, Baby Suggs encourages her fellow
companions to support each other in a state of current, social oppression, just
as slaves supported each other against the evils of slavery. Baby Suggs
continues to preach to her community that “they do not love your neck unoosed
and straight.” Morrison uses the ambiguous pronoun “they” to describe whites
who largely oppress blacks. Not only that, “they” stresses the obvious
segregated nature of races, evoking the sense of “us and them.” “Unoosed and
straight” symbolizes a sense of freedom or liberty. One’s neck is a fragile
part of the body; anything constricting the neck, like a noose, also constricts
and debilitates life. Morrison employs negation such as “they do not like” and
“unoosed” to demonstrate a general frustration among whites over a loss of
control over former black slaves. Baby Suggs then encourages her audience to
“grace it, stroke it, and hold it up.” Morrison uses repetition and imperative
commands in order to emphasize the need to appreciate life. Regardless of
hardship, African Americans should be thankful, and remind themselves of their
current situation by feeling their neck, and thus feeling a sense of
gratification and freedom. Morrison employs various body parts in Baby Suggs’s
sermon to acknowledge hardship among slaves, but simultaneously appreciate life
while striving to better it.
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