Beloved and The Jungle: The Recycling of History

            I can’t help but confine my response to the contents of pages 236-241. The parallels I am able to draw between this section of Beloved and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle are quite remarkable. With Sethe looking back at her past experience as a slave mother, I was strongly reminded of the women in The Jungle who are Lithuanian immigrants living in the meat packing district of Chicago during the early 1900’s. They’re left with no choice but to live in horrible conditions as a result of their immigrant, illiterate status, white men treat them horribly, and they work in slave-like conditions for the packers. In a desperate attempt to save her family and keep her children fed when times get tough, one of the women, Ona, has no choice but to sell her body to her boss who threatens to ruin her life in Packing Town if she refuses to submit to his commands. Further, the family find themselves slightly pleased when one of the children dies so that they will not have to suffer in such grave conditions any longer. Likewise, in Beloved, Sethe talks about flirting with the possibility of working at a slaughterhouse after she left jail, in order to help support her children. And when times proved difficult, she slept with the engraver “and bought, so to speak, [Beloved’s] name” (240).

            The parallels between these two texts, The Jungle and Beloved, work to make a profound statement about the treatment of non-white people in the U.S. today. Although the greater contexts surrounding each situation differ, it only goes to show that time changes, and, therefore, so do laws, regulations, and the lot. However, the recycling of old, “immoral” beliefs takes place and history repeats itself only, each new time, in a different form. Slavery, clearly seen as wrong and horrible, still took place, maybe not for blacks, but for immigrants to the country mystified by the notion that America holds the key to unlock the doors to true happiness and prosperity. Above all, while one community, or group of people, is thriving and blind to the other side of life, there are people struggling to survive, struggling to save their children from the horrors their facing trying to keep themselves alive, doing anything to hold on to their family unit while praying for a brighter future. Mothers are willing to do anything for their children they can in order to keep them safe from harm. In this chapter, Sethe touches on her desire to save Beloved from the tribulations of slavery. Most of us couldn’t fathom death being preferred over reality for a child. But for Sethe, taking eachother “to the other side” (240) seemed like her only option.

            I think reading texts like this is crucial to our well-being as humans living without such horrific experiences at our doorstep. It’s important to understand the different realities others have faced, or currently face, in order to fully appreciate our blessing and to have the knowledge necessary to take steps towards, hopefully, one day eliminating such injustices all together. This is one instance, I would say, that "recycling" is unfortunate.