When Life Gives you Earrings, Don't Wear Them

From “Beloved” by Toni Morrison(1987):

“‘The lady I worked for in Kentucky gave them to me when I got married. I guess she saw how bad I felt when I found out there wasn’t going to be no ceremony, no preacher. Nothing… “‘I want you to have them and I want you and Halle to be happy.’”(70-71).

When a reader chooses to examine a work of literature through the Marxist lens, he or she is observing the connections between social classes and the interactions between those classes. Furthermore, the Marxist Lens examines the social values that are either condemned or supported by the work.

In the scene containing this passage, Sethe is trying to rest while after cooking something on the stove. As she is drifting off, she is approached by Beloved, a mysterious character who just appeared one day near the house. Beloved asks her about her pierced ears and where her “diamonds” are (69). Sethe then launches into the story about the crystal earings one of her previous owners gave her after her marriage. Morrison’s usage of dialogue, syntax  and this passage note how the two classes, the ruling, slave-owning, white class and the enslaved african-american class interact with each other, and how some interactions were not always the norm.

One of the most notable parts in this passage is how the woman Sethe is working for seems to care about her happiness, something that appears to go against the accepted thinking of the time, which was that african slaves were barely better than animals, with no real emotions. The dialogue in the passage further supports this by showing that Sethe’s owner wants Sethe and her husband to be “happy” (71). Here, it is apparent that she does care about her happiness, when her words are coupled with her actions, it shows that the ruling social class, the white slave owners, actually in some cases weren’t always cruel and punishing to the slaves below them. Building off of this , it would also seem that the work supported the way the classes were set up. Even though Sethe was caught stealing, there is no indication in the dialogue that her owner is greatly upset with her, and even gives her a pair of earrings from her own collection. So even though the institution was fundamentally wrong, the work does not appear to be criticizing the social class structure of the time, nor does it appear to be showing that the slave owners were always cruel to their slaves, and were kind to them in some cases.

Another interesting point raised by the passage is that how blatantly the enslaved african classes try and be subservient to the slaveowners. In the dialouge, Sethe is very careful to speak very little, and always addresses her owner as “ma’am” (71). Furthermore, through Morrison's use of language and syntax, it is indicated that Sether doesn’t really want to wear the earrings. Later in the passage, after the dialogue takes place, Sethe “thanks” Mrs. Garner for the earrings (71). However, Sethe doesn’t wear them until after she “got away” from the farm, despite the fact that the earring were intended for her to wear while she was working for Mrs. Garner (71). Morrison uses a short sentence to describe Sethe’s thank you, and the passage quickly moves onward. THis further supports that Sethe only took the earring because she felt that she had too, as her owner was giving them to her and Sethe felt saying no was out of the question.