International Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Translation Studies

(IJLLTS) Volume-I, Issue-II (Dec, 2021)

ISSN: (E) 2790-9808 (P) 2790-9794 Date of Submission: 12th July, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37605/ijllts.v1i2.2 Date of Acceptance: 15th September, 2021
Date of Publication: 31st December, 2021

COLONIZATION AND OPPRESSION OF WOMEN: A POSTCOLONIAL

FEMINIST STUDY OF TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED

*AISHA NASIM & **SAADIA SADDIQUE

ABSTRACT
The aim of this research study was to investigate how African women were
mistreated by the foreigners who colonized them and how colonization affected the
inter- community female relationships through the analysis of the novel Beloved by
Toni Morrison. The research study followed qualitative approach exploiting the text of
the novel as a source of data collection. The research questions were answered through
analysis of the text of the novel. So, the study follows critical textual analysis technique.
The textual analysis of the novel revealed that the African women suffered a lot at the
hands of colonizers. However, it is found that unlike White men, White women helped
Black women in many ways during colonization.
Key Words: Colonization, Suffering, Feminism

* MPhil Scholar, Department of English,

AWKUMEmail: [email protected]
** Lecturer, Department of English, AWKUM
 Colonization and Oppression of Women: A Postcolonial Feminist Study of Toni
Morrison’s Beloved

15

INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY

This study is designed to highlight the facts that African women suffered a lot
as a result of colonization. The males and children were also subjected to these
sufferings and cruelties but the basic purpose of this research work is to focus on the
sufferings of women. The study focuses on African-American Literature and explores
the sufferings of women through the analysis of Beloved novel written by African-
American Novelist Toni Morrison. The study also focuses on the fact that the process
of colonization effected the inter- communities’ females’ relationships. That is to
show that in spite of all cruelties by white males, there were some white women who
helped the black women in many ways for example in finding jobs, providing them
food and shelter etc. The study focuses on a postcolonial feminist analysis of Beloved.
Postcolonial feminism is one of the forms of feminism which was developed as a
response to the reality, that feminism only focused on the experiences of women in
western countries. The word ‘feminism’ was for the first time used by Charles Fourier
a utopian, Socialist and a French thinker in 1837. The goal of Feminism is to provide
the fair gender the favourable juncture to become the best version of Arasu1her
(Facettt).
Postcolonial feminism emerged as a third wave of feminism as highlighted that there by
the postcolonial feminism relates with third wave and states that the females of countries
other than the wester are not pictured truly (Arasu1). Chris (2002), opines that postcolonial
feminism looks for the ways through which racism, politics, fiscal, and sociological
effects of colonialism have impact on the non- white and women other than those of the
west in the post-colonial setup (p.1). Postcolonial feminism is different from other
feminism movements because it focuses on the sufferings of Black women at the hands of
colonizers, while other movements like feminism or western feminism is only concerned
with White women sufferings. Postcolonial feminism also deals with gender-based
problems to other areas of impact in a society. Postcolonial feminists look after the socio-
cultural and religion- economical work for the emancipation of women. Postcolonial
feminists’ debate that the experiences of females in culture affected by colonialism are
often greatlydistinct from that of ladies in the west and should be treated likewise.
Aisha Nasim & Saadia Saddique

16

Beloved is written by Toni Morrison. It contains many strong female character.

The novel highlights the sufferings of black women as result of colonization. Some of
white women are also shown to be good to black women. Toni Morrison though claims
that she is not a feminist, she is a black writer who writes for sufferings of black women
but we can take her novel in postcolonial feminist perspective. So the purpose of
research is to analyze the novel in this perspective.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. How are African women mistreated at the hands of colonizers in Toni Morrison’s
Beloved?
2. How the processes of colonization effected inter community’s female relationships
in Toni Morrison’s Beloved?

LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides a review of available literature on Postcolonial Feminism and
about Beloved novel. Post colonialism is reasonably a broad term concerned with the
lingering effects of colonization, can expand to encompass topics as diverse yet
interconnected as religion, anthropology, politics, feminism, literature and so on.
Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that evolved in reaction to the reality that
the feminists seemed to focus solely on the first-hand experiences and conditions of
women of thee white cultures.Postcolonial feminism is an extension of feminism that
developed in 1980’s. This theory actually aims to highlights the problems of women of
third world. Postcolonial feminism theory is discussed and used by many writers in
their works. This research work is based on Postcolonial feminism theory presented by
a Postcolonial feminist Chandra Talpade Mohanty. Mohanty (1988) in his work “Under
Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” highlights the
significance of Postcolonial Feminism, criticizing what she points to as “Eurocentric”
Feminism. In this essay she comments on Western Feminism on the basis that it is
ethnocentric and does not discuss the peculiar experiences of ladies living in
Postcolonial world.
 Colonization and Oppression of Women: A Postcolonial Feminist Study of Toni
Morrison’s Beloved
17

Postcolonial feminism moves out of the gendered history of colonialism. If we talk

about the history of colonialism it is largely the history of exploitation of non-white or
rather nonwestern women. Mohanty is speaking of “double colonization” of a woman
who lives in colonized and patriarchal societies. These women not only have to go
against the power and control of colonizers but also as a female. Themoderators of
Postcolonial feminism battle miss perception by discussing their own tales, approving
their presence, and being their own self without regarding what other feminists or must
not do.
Postcolonial Feminism rejected “universality” of women; an idea presented by western
feminism and introduces the movement of individual experiences and struggles. It
focuses on how woman as an individual being suffered.
Postcolonial Feminism theory discusses the problems and issues of women belonging to
colonized countries as highlighted that Postcolonial Feminist theory basically deals with
the reflection of females in once colonized world and in western countries (Taygi 45).
Toni Morrison through her novel highlights the fact that women suffered a lot at hand
of colonizers. Her successful 1987 Pulitzer prize winning novel Beloved was chosen by
a New York Times Survey of prominent writers as the greatest novel of American
fiction of the last twenty five years (Rahman, p. 61).

According to Harbard, the novel Beloved is based on the fact that there were
women belonging to Black ethnicity who during their slavery aborted their babies rather
than allowing them to the destruction of slavery (p. 60).

The novel is about a woman Sethe who suffered during colonization. The purpose
of the novel is to show how African women suffered during and after colonization. “The
women body becomes a thing to be owned by colonizers. Seethe and her family bear
the horrifically direct experience of being owned by White (male) slave holders”
(Smith, “Postcolonial Feminism”)
Aisha Nasim & Saadia Saddique

18

Smith has expressed this concern that especially it becomes clear that the human
(women) physic becomes an article of commerce an item to be possessed, overpowered,
or sexually abused by those who are in power. Related to this idea is the concept of
double colonization, a term which not only recognizes the racial differences of the
colonizers/colonized but focus on the women before, during and after colonization
(“Postcolonial Feminism”).
Researchers focus that during colonization Sethe or other women even playing the role
of mothers because they need to protect their children from the cruelties of Whites. “It
has shown that in their suffering, women share a special status connected with their
definition of their slaves, their universal responsibilities (e.g. as a mother) and
especially, the specific difficulties the female gender evokes” (Adrine Zullke,
“Thesis”).
Furthermore about the sufferings of Black woman as a mother Ali (2013) highlighted
that in the lives of black women brutality makes motherhood two folded burden. Firstly,
they have to view their children sold off and experiencing the traumas of slavery.
Secondly, most of their children are conceived by rape rather than matrimonial relations
For example, Beloved is not the product of hatred and she wants to restrain her from
slavery (p. 1421).
Like Sethe her mother was also slave and killed and hanged by whites. Sethe mother
who is not named in this work but only for the nick name Ma’am, she can also be
identified bya halo with cross engraved beneath her bosom to mark her bodily
and psychologically. The aim of this mark was not to highlight slaves, but to mark them
as commodity of someone else (Joodki, Vajdi, 2014, p. 87). Alice Walker states in her
essay that a Black woman is like the mule of the whole world, because we the blacks
have been handed the baggage that all others turned down to carry.
 Colonization and Oppression of Women: A Postcolonial Feminist Study of Toni
Morrison’s Beloved
19

To highlight the physicalsufferings of the black woman Sethe, it is stated that, Sethe
carries o her back the family tree as a mark of the pangs the mothers and daughters bore
through the entire history of their bondage or we can say that, Sethe's mark on her back is
a generational bond between Sethe, Beloved, her mother and all of African women
(Joodaki ,Vajdi. 2014)As we know that due to colonization Africans were suffered a
lot. Men and children also suffered but my research work is different from other works
because it focuses onblack women sufferings. So this study highlights the fact that how
women suffered during colonization and how they were helped by some whites. So the
basic aim is to apply the theory of Postcolonial Feminism on Beloved novel to prove
these realities.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study follows qualitative research method. The approach of qualitative method is
inductive and subjective in nature which means to develop a theory that would search for
meaning on the basis of the collected data. This research work follows qualitative textual
methodology to assess the research questions. Articles, essays, book reviews and text
book are the part of this research study. As the research is concerned with the text of
Beloved novel by Toni Morrison so the research questions will be proved and clarified
by taking example from the text. This research work follows postcolonial feminism as
a theoretical frame work. The study focuses on how African women suffered during
colonization and how the process of colonization affected interscommunity’s women
relationships. So this will be proved from text.

ANALYSIS
SUFFERINGS OF AFRICAN WOMEN AT THE HANDS OF COLONIZERS
Aisha Nasim & Saadia Saddique

20

This chapter provides answer to the first research question that is how African women
suffered at the hands of colonizers which need to be analyzed with reference to text. So
this is textual analysis of the research study.
Beloved is a work of American writer Toni Morrison. Its setting is Post American civil
war (1861-1865). This novel has as its inspiration the story of an Afro- American salve
Margret Garner, who got free of slavery in Kentucky by running to Ohio that was a free
state. This fiction focuses on the sufferings of women at the hands of colonizers. Toni
Morrison, being a black woman can fully understand the sufferings of women of her
community. She clearly portrays those sufferings in the novel.
There are many women characters in the novel whose sufferings are shown by the
writer. The novel actually revolves around the sufferings of the main character Sethe.
Sethe parents were slaves at Sweet Home in Kentucky run by Garner and his spouse
Lillian. Sethe chooses Halle Suggs as her her mate, and when she is 18 years of age,
gives birth to three children. After the death of Garner, his mate hands over the
authority of plantation to her brother-in-law, who is a school teacher and proves to be a
brutal caretaker.
Sethe had fears that her sons will be bargained, therefore, she sends her children
Howard, Bulgur and Beloved in a van and off hem with her mother in Cincinnati.In
those days Sethe was pregnant. When Schoolteacher discovers he catches her and asks
his nephews to hold her down and sucks her milk. It is highlighted in the text that“these
boys came in there and took my milk” (Morrison, 1987, p.10). When school teacher
came to know that Sethe reported to Mrs. Garner about the happening, so he along with
his nephews flogged her, ripping the skin of her back even though knowing of her being in
the second trimester. While telling her story to Paul D, her slave fellow at Sweet Home,
she identifies this reality by saying that “That’s what they came in there for hold me
downand 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
uponmy back, and when it closed, it made a tree. It grows still there” (Morrison, 1987.
p. 10). The whipping makes a tree on her back. Stealing milk from a mother breast that
was pregnant was the inhumanity done by the whites which is beyond the limitations.
 Colonization and Oppression of Women: A Postcolonial Feminist Study of Toni
Morrison’s Beloved
21

The significance of this incident of stealing milk is that the African women were treated
like animals, by considering them like cows. The cruelties did not stop here. After
joining her mother-in-law with her three children and an infant she was living a bit relax
life when one day the school teacher, one of his nephews, came to fetch Sethe and her
offspring back to bondage. By seeing them, Sethe tried to kill her children, instead of
allowing them to have the kind of enslaved life as hers. At that spot she put an end to the
life of her two years old daughter by cutting her neck as well as would have murdered
her small babe Denver had not Stamp paid not saved from her mother. The male children
had been brutally hit on heads with an instrument. Sethe though killed her daughter,
also tried to kill her other children. Though this act is cruel on a part of motherbut she did
it out of her love. She never wanted her children to be suffered at the handsof whites.
Talking about Beloved she said “Why I did it. How if I didn’t killed her shewould have
died and that is something, I could not bear to happen her”(Morrison, 1987,
p. 200) she wanted to say that instead of being suffered at the hands of those cruel
Whites it’s good that she killed her daughter.
From the analysis of novel it is found that Black women were sexually abused. Their
bodies were used for sexual gratification. After killing her daughter Sethe wanted her
“Dearly Beloved” forms the last rituals, but had only strength enough to give for one
word. Payment was in the form of having ten minutes sex with the grave digger. As
mentioned inthe novel “Not only did she have to live out her eyes in a house palsied by
the baby’s furry at having its throat cut, but those ten minutes she spent pressed up
against dawn-colored stone studded with star chips, her knees wide open as the grave ,
were longer than life , more alive , more pulsating than the baby blood that soaked her
fingers like oil”(Morrison ,1987,p.5). She was jailed for this murder also.
Sethe’s sufferings continue. Her house was hunted by her daughter’s ghost and because
of this reason her two sons leave the house and runway. Now after 18 years living with
her daughter and Paul D,one day the ghost of Beloved came in eighteen years old girl
shape. The situation was now getting worse as Beloved started taking revenge from her
mother for killing her. She wanted her mother love of which she is deprived. It is
Aisha Nasim & Saadia Saddique
22

highlighted in the novel that “she had been so close, then closer. And it was so much
better than the anger that ruled when Sethe did or thought anything that exclude herself.
She could bear the hours- nine or ten of them each day but one -when Sethe was gone.
Bear even the nights when she was close but out of sight, behind walls and doors lying
next to him”(Morrison, 1987,p. 100). So it means even after colonization the memories
of those cruelties were still haunting the minds of sufferers.
Toni Morrison presents the sufferings of other women as well. Baby Suggs, the mother
in law of Sethe was also a slave. Baby Suggs had eight children from six fathers and
she used to call it the dirtiest thing. Halle was the only child who she was able to keep
for long time say twenty. Further highlighting Baby Suggs suffering it is mentioned in
the text that “ A life time , given to her , no doubt to make up for hearing that her two
girls , neither of whom had their adult teeth , were sold and gone and she had not been
able to wave goodbye”(Morrison,1987,p.14). The sufferings of Baby Suggs continued
“To make up for coupling with the straw boss for four months in exchange for keeping
her third child , a boy with her- only to have him traded for lumber in the spring of the
next year and to find herself pregnant by the man who promised not to and did it. That
child she could not love and the rest she would not. “God take what He would”, she
said. And He did, and He did and gave her Halle who gave him freedom when it did
not mean a thing” (Morrison, 1987, p. 14).
Baby Suggs gave a lesson to Sethe and Denver that she earned from her sixty years of
being a slave and ten years of being free and that was that there was no hard luck in the
world but only the White supremacists. Shesaid “They did not know when to stop”
(Morrison, 1987, p. 104). Denver explains thatgrandma Baby once says that folks scorn
her because she bore eight children with different mates. Enslaved people are not meant
to have happy emotions and that their bodies not meant to be like this, instead they have
to have as many children as they can bear so to make happy whoever produced them.
Baby Suggs is freed by her son Halle. He is exempted to hire his labor out so to buy his
mother out of slavery. So, at the age of sixty she is a free woman. This fact is mentioned
in the novel that “usually he worked Saturdays and Sundays to pay off Baby Suggs
freedom” (Morrison, 1987, p. 109).
 Colonization and Oppression of Women: A Postcolonial Feminist Study of Toni
Morrison’s Beloved
23

Sethe’s mother is also among the sufferers at the hand of colonizers. Sethe tries to keep
her past at the bay. But the arrival of Beloved demonstrates the difficulty. So she started
narrating her story. Her mother was also among slaves and “hung by the time they cut
her down nobody could tell whether she had a circle and a cross or not, least of all me
and I did look” (Morrison 61). Sethe’s mother according to her used to work in fields
from dawn to nightfall and then slept through Sundays. The demands of her toil gave
her only a few weeks in which to bond with her daughter, who was then passed on to a
wet-nurse so that M’am (Sethe’s mother) could return to her field. Telling her mother
story Sethe says “If the moon was bright they worked by its light. Sunday she slept like
a stick. She must nurse me two or three weeks- that’s the way the others did. Then she
went back in rice and I sucked from another woman whose job it was”(Morrison, 1987,
p. 60).
Once Sethe’s mother carried her behind the smoke house and lifted her breast to reveal
a circle and cross behind into her flesh so that the child could always identify her
mother. After her mother was hanged, Sethe examines her corpus but is unable to locate
the symbols on decaying flesh. Sethe is pulled away from dead bodies by a Nun. There
are other female’s bodies as well. Nan tells her that she along with her mother were on
a ship journey from Africa and that Sethe’s mother had been sexually molested quite a
times by White men and always discarded resulted fetus. She finally let develop Sethe
and gaveher the name of her black father. Highlighting this reality Nun says “she threw
them all away but you. The one from the crew she threw away on the island. The others
from more whites she also threw away. Without names, she threw them. You she gave
the name of the black man. She put her arms around him. The others she did not put her
arms around” (Morrison, 1987, p. 62).
From the analysis of novel it is found that another character Ella also suffers at the
hands of Whites. She kills her own baby because she was raped by a White man and
does not want to deal with thought of having his baby. She was once held by two white
Aisha Nasim & Saadia Saddique

24

men and was raped and was locked in a room for more than one year as mentioned in
the novel “Something like that happened to Ella except it was two men-a father and
son- and Ella remembered every bit of it. For more than a year, they kept her locked in
a room for themselves” (Morrison, 1987, p. 119).
Hence through the experiences of African women like Sethe, her mother, Baby Suggs
and other women, Toni Morrison showed how the African women suffered through
during colonization and even after colonization the memories of past hunted their minds
continuously.

THE EFFECT OF COLONIZATION ON INTER COMMUNITIES’ FEMALE

RELATIONSHIPS
This chapter provides an answer to the second research question that is how the process
of colonization affected inter community’s female’s relationships. The process of
colonization in Africa was the worst and crueler than any other place in the world. It
affected the African people to great extent specially women and children. Beside the
hatred that the White and Africans were having for each other. Still there were some
Whites who were helping Blacks. They were not in favor of those cruelties and slavery.
In his novel Beloved, Toni Morrison has presented this reality. During the analysis of
this novel this reality has been explored at different places in the novel that some Whites
were having a humane heart.
From the analysis of this novel it is found that African women are helped by Whites.
Sethe the major character flees from Sweet Home while she has conceived a baby with
Denver. She is in severe pain as her feet and legs are swollen but she is resolute to
reunite with her children (who were sent to Baby Suggs). She lays tiredon the earth. She
hears someone passing by. She fears it would be a man of white skin colour “thathe too
had mossy teeth, an appetite”, but it turns out to be an amiable white woman named
Amy. Sethe says “It wasn’t no white boy at all. Was a girl. Her name was Amy”
(Morrison 31). Amy was a bound servant who tried to reach the city of Boston, where
 Colonization and Oppression of Women: A Postcolonial Feminist Study of Toni
Morrison’s Beloved
25

she would buy velvet. When she finds Sethe in bad condition she tries to help her.She
helps Sethe in delivery of her baby, cures her wounds and makes her able to move
forward. It is mention in the novel that “Than she did the magic, lifted Sethe’s feet and
legs and massage them until she cried salt tears” (Morrison 39). After delivery she
wraps the baby. In end before leaving Amy asks Sethe that she should tell this baby that
she brought her in this world. She says “she’s never gonna know who I am. You gonna
tell her? Who brought her into this world?”. “You better tell her. You hear? Say Miss
Amy Denver. Of Boston” (Morrison, 1987, p. 85). In this way Sethe is helped by a
White woman.
Mr. and Mrs. Garner, the owner of Sweet Home where Sethe was a slave are also
among the Whites who used to treat their slaves in kind manner. Mrs. Garner treated
Baby Suggs and Sethe, both kindly and gave Sethe ears rings on her wedding and wished
her good luck on that occasion. Furthermore from the novel it is found that Mrs. Garner
became upset when she heard the incident of milk stealing from Sethe breast. It means
even white women were feeling bad on cruelties of males of their communities that they
were doing with black women.
From the analysis of the text it is found that another character Lady Jones, who
happened to be a woman ofmixed race and a neighbor of Baby Suggs, she used to offer
tuition to the neighborhood kids. It is mentioned in the text “Lady Jones did what white
people thought unnecessary if not illegal: crowded her little parlor with the colored
children who had time for an interest in book learning” (Morrison, 1987, p.102). She also
was helpful towards Denver, the daughter of Sethe, in making her drive out of poverty.
Once Denver explains that her mother is sick and asks Lady Jones that if there is any
suitable work for her to be done that she will happily do in return for some food.Lady Jones does
not know about any work, but she informs everyone at church about the troubles of
Sethe.Denver starts looking for plates and containers of food on the tree stamp near
124. Many of them include a piece of paper with the name of the donator, and as Denver
goes out to return the baskets and plates to their original owners, the community becomes
known to her. LadyJones also offers her week-based reading lessons.
Aisha Nasim & Saadia Saddique

26

The textual analysis of the novel Beloved highlights some other characters as well who
are shown helping slaves and Black women. Among them are Mr and Miss Bodwin.
Siblings. Mr and Miss Bodwin are White by race and are also abolitionists who try to
play pivotal in winning Sethe’s emancipation. They own 124, which they allowed Baby
Suggs and her kinsmen to use. As mentioned in the text “...and rented a house with two
floors and a well from Bodwins- the white brother and sister who gave Stamp Paid, Ella
and John clothes, goods and gear for runaways because they hated slavery worse than
they hatedslaves”(Morrison. 1987, p. 137). They were not in favor of slavery as further
mentionedin the novel “We don’t hold with slavery even of Garner’s kind” (Morrison,
1987, p. 145). Sethe highlights that “ But the Bodwins got me the cooking at sawyer’s
and let me able job to smile on my own like now when I think about you”(Morrison,
1987, p. 204).
There are some other lines in the novel which shows different perceptions about this
fact that some Whites helped Blacks. At one place in the text, we come to know that
Sethe and Baby Suggs have opposite views about this fact. Highlighted in the text that
“Grandma Baby said there was no defense-they could prowl at will, change from one
mind to another, and even when they thought they were behaving, it was a far cry from
what real humans did.” “They got me out of jail,” Sethe once told Baby Suggs. “They
also put you n it,” she answered. “They drove you ‘cross the river.” “On by son’s back.”
“They gave you this house “said Sethe. “ Nobody gave me anything.” “I got a job from
them”. “He got a cook from them, girl.” “Oh, some of them do all right by us.” “And
every time it’s a surprise, ain’it?” Said Baby Suggs”(Morrison, 1987, p. 244). So these
lines highlights that everyone thinks about the Whites according to their own
experiences.
So from the analysis of the text of Beloved it is found that the Whites besides all their
inhuman behaviors with slaves, still there were some Whites who were against slavery.
The analysis highlights that on one hand Black women who were suffering at the hands
of colonizers on the other hand they were being helped by White women who had soft
coroners for them and tried to help them at their best. So from the analysis of text it is
 Colonization and Oppression of Women: A Postcolonial Feminist Study of Toni
Morrison’s Beloved
27

found that the process of colonization affects the Inter community’s female
relationships.

CONCLUSION
This research study is designed to focus the plight of African women. So, this research
work is done on the reality that how African women suffered at the hand of colonizers.
Furthermore this research highlights that some of White women helped Black women
during colonization. The purpose of this work was to show that colonizedwomen always
pass through great sufferings. The process of colonization seems to involve capturing
lands, resources and ideas but it has indirect affect on people of thatregion as well.
Colonizers always consider colonized people as animals and treat themlike animals.
Though African men were also the part of those sufferings and cruelties but the basic
aim of this work is to show females sufferings by following the theory ofpost colonial
feminism.
There are two research questions on which whole study is based. First question is that
how African women suffered at the hands of colonizers. The focus is on Black women
of Africa only. Their sufferings are the main focus of the study. They are treated like
animals by beating and raping them and physically and psychologically weaken them
and it is proved from the study of the novel Beloved as many characters experiences are
depicted in the novel. The second important question is that the processes of
colonization greatly affect the relationship of women belonging to different
communities. Hence an opposite idea or theme that beside all cruelties imposes by
White men there are some Women who were helping the Black women in different
ways. They also used to become upset by listening and watching the inhumane
behaviors or White men with Black women.
Though a lot of writings and literature is available on colonization and effect of
colonization on women but this research work concerns with the novel Beloved by Toni
Morrison. The entire study is based on this novel and has proved the required findings.
Aisha Nasim & Saadia Saddique

28

Hence to sum up, this whole research study concluded that women always suffer in
every aspect of life. As from the study of the novel Beloved, I found this reality that
women also suffer during colonization process. Black Women were the victims of white
colonizer characters for instance Sethe, Baby Suggs etc were been the victim of whites
and were raped and tortured many times by whites like animals. But it is also found that
women always have soft corner for other women who are suffering even if they are not
belonging to same communities, color or religion. Hence an analysis of Beloved novel
highlights that the White women always tried to help African women.
Further a comparative study of Postcolonial novels written in different parts of the
world, where colonization took place can also yield interesting results.

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4. Joodaki, A, H., & Vajdi, A. (2014) Beloved in Search of an Identity: A

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