Close Reading: Post-Colonial

“‘After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk. That’s what they came in there for. Held me down and took it. I told Mrs. Garner on em. She had that lump and couldn’t speak but her eyes rolled out tears. Them boys found out I told on em. Schoolteacher made one open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree. It grows there still.’

‘They used cowhide on you?’

‘And they took my milk.’

‘They beat you and you was pregnant?’

‘And they took my milk!’

The fat white circles of dough lined the pan in rows. Once more Sethe touched a wet forefinger to the stove. She opened the oven door and slid the pan of biscuits in. As she raised up from the heat she felt Paul D behind her and his hands under her breasts. She straightened up and knew, but could not feel, that his cheek was pressing into the branches of her chokecherry tree.” (Morrison 19/20)

This section caught my eye for a variety of reasons while looking through the Post-Colonial Lens.

The first part that caught my attention was when she was describing when the boys took her milk. After Paul D left Sethe, “those boys came in there...held me down and took [my milk].” The boys that she was referring to must be white men that own her or told her what to do. The boys had the power to do what their will desired to do to Sethe and they had decided to steal her milk. Just like in the colonial times the boys had oppressed Sethe and took her resources that she needed for herself and used it for their own desires. Since they were the dominant she wasn’t able to protest.

When she searched for help from Mrs. Garner, they only made things worse by putting her to punishment. The boys needed to make sure that they would have fear into those that were beneath them and they had to put them in their place. When Sethe told Paul D about that time, he was shocked that, “[t]hey beat you” while “you was pregnant.” The boys didn’t want anybody telling on them and had to make sure that wouldn’t happen again. Also you could say that “the boys” wanted to become men and they thought that the way would be to the dominant over others was to put fear in others and make them to do their bidding.

The tree that the boys left on her back is a mark of where she stood against them. It’s a reminder of who has control and who still has control even though there isn’t anymore slavery. The chokecherry tree itself is a poisonous tree if it comes in contact with other living organisms. The use of the chokecherry tree could represent multiple things including the disdain that she holds onto the slave owners or the hate of the slave owners losing out on slaves, but I believe that it shows an aura that surrounds her that causes to either have unfortunate events happen to her or that she isn’t able to get too close to anybody in particular because they end up leaving one way or another.