Slavery, Ghosts, and Beloved: Crash Course Literature 214
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- čas přidán 10. 06. 2024
- In which John Green teaches you about Beloved by Toni Morrison. I'll warn you upfront, this book is something of a downer. That's because it deals with subjects like slavery, the death of a child, a potential haunting, and a bunch of other sad stuff. John will talk about Beloved in relation to slavery, and how that terrible institution affected individuals, families, and all of American culture in the years surrounding the Civil War. We will also not be getting into whether or not Beloved was a ghost because it really has no bearing on what the book has to say. Also, as usual, spoilers abound, so we recommend you read the book before you watch this video!
Want to learn more about Toni Morrison? Check out this episode of Crash Course Black American History: • Toni Morrison: Crash C...
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I'm from India and when we were taught this masterful book in college we were taught through parrallels between a colonial history spanning 200 years, and a system as heinous as the caste system still existing in India and the system of slavery. Opened my eyes a little bit to the shared pain of human suffering that spans communities and cultures of the oppressed throughout history
"the shock [baby] received upon learning that nobody stopped playing checkers just because the pieces included her children." Damn, one of the most profound, heartbreaking and deeply honesty lines I've ever read in literature.
"She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order."
I don't think a more perfect thing has ever been written.
Justin Conquerbeard yep that was where i finally started crying omg
I believe that was actually a Sixo quote
@@bb-fk9wd yes, it was Sixo who said that for his Thirty - mile woman.
Justin Conquerbeard I think I agree. Just reading that line makes me cry
The greatest commentary on true love, real love
RIP Toni Morrison, your words and the narratives you wove touched millions. May you find peace on the other side.
I really wish that you would have included that Morrison was inspired by an actual event: Margaret Garner was a runaway slave who did kill her daughter rather than have her taken back into slavery.
This is easily my favorite CrashCourse video so far. I read this book early in my Sophomore year in high school. I was in an African American Studies class, and I was the only black person the the class. This book with resonated with me, and I didn't know how the other students in my class could so fundamentally miss the point. They told me I understood because I am black, but that made me feel like they deliberately did not understand because they are white. Some people understand some things, I suppose, but it is important to realize that this book is about humans coping with human emotions, dealing with the kinds of struggles that many peoples over many centuries have had to deal with. This story was framed against a black struggle, but that doesn't not mean the struggle is exclusively black.
First, y'all. I'm always first. -stan
Nobody cares.
I care
Good for you, Stan, good for you.
is a clock work orange a good book cuz that was my favorite book that people say is good
Damnit stan
A lot of white people in these comments say they hated the book but now they might reread after watching this video. Why ? To me this sounds like when women explain sexism or misogyny to men and they don’t get it until other men explain. Here, it’s like white people don’t understand the plight of black people unless it’s a white person rationalizing and explaining. That’s odd to me. A guy in these comments said that this story didn’t seem realistic. 😐 this is based on a true story. I hear this a lot as well, white people questioning is slavery was that bad. Can anyone explain this to me from another perspective ? I don’t just want to jump the gun.
When I read this book in college, we discussed the symbol of a tree on Sethe's back. It's a "tree" made up of the scars on her back, from when she was whipped. She talks about its sap (her blood) and this tree flowering, which is an interesting symbol.
yes, and then how Paul D. refuses to recognize it as a tree because he would not corrupt the image of goodness they represented for him, which was so interesting as well.
Cassandra S. That’s a really interesting thought!!
Her attempts to find the beauty in her trauma
That made me cry. Beloved is one of those horrors that after all the terror, you break down and just cry. Because -you're- the one (in a way) that caused it. It kind of takes slavery and forces you to look at the heart of it and at the heart of yourself. That's what makes you cry buckets and want to be a better person in the end. Which is something not a lot of gothic novels or horror novels do in general. They usually inspire fear through the Unknown. But Beloved takes something that is known and magnifies it to a degree that you can understand no matter what color you are. And I feel like that's where the terror comes from. There is no brushing it under a rug, or sugar coating it. There's simply facing it and understanding it for what it is.
“Beloved” gave me a similar reaction to “The Handmaid’s Tale”. I felt like I was going to throw up. I felt like I was going to cry. I felt unclean. Did I play even the tiniest part of something like this? I wanted to apologize to someone-anyone. “Words will never hurt me”, indeed.
@@corwin32 No, you don't need to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong.
How did you cause it?
What the hell are you talking about?!
I...I....I...I think I need to go hug my mom.
Me too man.
3 years late, but yeah, me too.
Mom status: hugged
I thought John Green was just a youtuber. I had no idea that he wrote A Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska! No wonder he describes books so well...
Wow, it really is the same guy. I thought you were just kidding.
Same here
I had the opposite experience, ha ha. I thought John Green was just an author, until I found this CZcams channel!
@@vinceknox4425 same here man
this is off the subject, but, ... more history!!
Oh my it's bill wurtz
eyyyy bill wurtz
bill wurtz you could make a religion out of crash course
bill wurtz agreed
Iain Hansen agreed
Beloved was based on the true story of Margaret Gardner
Sounds pretty horrifying
Garner*
I’m not usually a commenter and I’m YEARS late, but I just read Beloved and, since I read it on my own without the guidance of an English professor, struggled a bit at the end to fully grasp everything that had happened. This crash course helped me a lot in appreciating one of the greatest books I’ve ever read! Thanks John!
The idea of "walking on two feet, not four" doesn't necessarily make me think of human vs. animal, but power vs. desperation. Of course, I haven't read Beloved yet, so I don't know if that is an undertone to the book.
These videos really help me look into books I need to know, but don't have the time to read before my Praxis.
As I learned in my last year of college with one of my professors: literature is more revolutionare, pervasive and tought provoking than history will ever be.
What? How can you compare human creation vs what happened in the past? History isn't art, it's a recounting of events.
***** I think you are still in high school or not a major in any of two, History or Literature. Let me first give you a background why I believe this. I do have a major in History (and Law). Once inside any college studying history you will have to read some authors and schools of tought. What you say about history is one of the biggest falacies. History is not a recounting of past events. That is impossible. You can't go back in time. Just read anything past Annales school. Since I believe you are anglo saxon (or more inclined to english based authors) I'd recommend you Hayden White. He is not a historian, but a literary professor who talks about history and literature.
Literature contrary to history can be inflamatory and do blatantly defenses of a political stance. If you do the same thing in a history paper you might be (and problably will) acused of being an ideologist. A person whose writings exist solely to defend a world view. Case in point Neil Fergunson or Samuel P. Huntington (the later being a economist).
You say literature does not contain history in you line of though. Well you are wrong again. Just read Moby Dick or the new sensation Game of Thrones. Literature just does not have the same method and take on the source that history does. George RR Martin can right about medieval history, english medieval because whenever any american think about this time it is just about the english exp. However contrary to Jacques Le Goff, Martin is not as bound to facts and method as Le Goff. In fact more and more historians are turning to different sources other than the document to write history. Literature from that time is one way to understand history.
Also everything which uses human labor is humam creation including history. There is no definitive book of History, No definitive chapter in human history. Just as pratice in historiography (the history of writing history) if you are still in high school, go to your high school library and ask for any old history book. Now compare to what you are reading today. Some topics will have a very different take. Topics like Imperialism, Great Depression, Cold War and they will not include time periods like World post Cold War and War on Terror. This is to show history is not recounting of past events, but something else.
Anderson Andrighi I see no reason why you seek to categorize my person for sake of comprehending my level of understanding. You misinterpret me and put words in my mouth. When did I say literature does not contain history?
I agree with all of the things you have responded with but the fact is they are all irrelevant.
Obviously history is more than a recounting of past events. But on the base level, I felt like explaining you were comparing apples and oranges, perhaps due to the simplicity and frankness of your original statement. You did not present me with the ideas contained in your reply in your original posting, so I see not why you chastise me for not responding to what you had not written.
You said,
"literature is more revolutionare, pervasive and tought provoking than history will ever be."
You did not say,
"literature is a more revolutionare, pervasive and tought provoking look into the past than history will ever be"
Again, in your original statement, apples and oranges. For some reason you thought I could not understand the correlation between literature and history and how each can contain the other and threw recommendations at me. Please do not be so assumptuous in future.
I said history is not art. As in, history at its most basic conception (recorded events) is not art. Obviously, a literary historic epic, is both art and history (to be taken with a grain of salt).
literature is always derivative compared to history
you put everything so eloquently. i feel your words melting in the palm of my hand. You almost give me the inspiration to keep loving life.
thank you John Greene
anything you wanna talk about man? how you feelin.
Lovely
I understand how u feel, love, compassion and brilliance cures our existential depression.
Slavery, Ghosts, and Beloved: Crash Course Literature 214
The ending as described actually sounds quite hopeful. Crash Course is putting too many books on my to-read list.
TheFireflyGrave
holy crap nuggets dude you following me
Really enjoyed this! Thank you!!
Yknow when there are books, shows, movies about the black experience often other races think it's not for them. I appreciate John n for covering this book because all the millions who love him will understand you can learn so much and grow when you understand other people's stories.
I watched this movie when I was younger and it terrified me,the concept of this movie is scarier than any jumpscare or found footage movie.
I read Beloved for junior year of high school, years ago and I absolutely fell in love with it. It was dark and frightening, and a lot of my classmates disliked it because it was so depressing. But I loved it because It was one of those books I felt so disturbed reading, but I could see the value and power of the book despite it being so "unpleasant." Definitely a must-read.
Great synopsis…but I was waiting for you to lay out the additional tragedy of this story: the fact that it was inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner. (The fact that this video displays the painting The Modern Madea makes this omission further puzzling.) Not only is the horror of this ‘ghost story’ emblematic of America’s historical injustices in a figurative sense, but in another sense it’s disturbingly real.
:-/
Whoa. I definitely meant to type “Medea,” not “Madea”. (Dang you Tyler Perry! lol!)
Mechum22 thank you so much for taking the time to make this comment. Two years later I will now be pursuing further education based on your words
I took a Toni Morrison class about a year ago, and I loved it. Beloved was one of my favorites, but I still think I liked Love the most. I loved how natural the supernatural elements felt and Morrison's ability to make unimaginable agony and evil understood is amazing. She really understands what motivates people.
I never got the feeling that Beloved is anything other than Sethe's daughter. You said that she could also be a sex-slave who escaped but I never got that impression. She knew about Sethe's earrings and songs.
Actually there was a part in the book where Stamp Paid thought beloved was a runaway sex slave who killed the master.
You are so loved, rest in peace Toni.
I think I watched a movie based on it... I was very small but I do remember it followed the same story line... Dramatic, tragic, painful and beautiful
I'm so thankful for CrashCourse! Don't ever stop doing them. :)
I'll never stop being impressed and envious of people who are able to get through and appreciate this novel. I've never been able to reconcile the changing perspective enough to get it (so to speak).
It's literary fiction, perhaps closer to psychological perspective and style to Faulkner. If you ever pick up Absalom Absalom you'll know what I mean. Both Morrison and Faulkner were poets in their own right, and their writing style reflects the content of the novel. It's not easy to read because it's not an easy story. I hope you give it another try.
Sixo said the "she gather me" quote not Paul D!
A good video as always, but I was singularly impressed with how you captured the tone and maintained it throughout.
So you're saying Beloved's realness is like Hobbes's realness?
okay this should be the top comment.
I know its an old comment but... kinda? I mean I don't think anyone has ever argued that Beloved was just, like, a product of Sethe's psychosis or something, which would be a weird argument to make given the events of the novel.
Yes, but it's almost the opposite of that. Most people in-universe see Hobbes as Calvin's imaginary friend- so unreal- but the reader is left to wonder if he might actually be a real tiger. However, most people in-universe see Beloved as a real girl, but the reader is left to wonder if she might actually be an unreal ghost.
Im half way through Beloved now and Ive cried about 12 times already.
Thandie Newton did Beloved!! It was a good movie interpretation of the book.
This is absolutely fantastic. This is such a great way of analyzing the novel and provides amazing insight into the complex and dark themes. Great job, John Green!
We're reading this in school right now and it's amazing! so excited you made this video
Thanks John! I'm reading Beloved for my summer reading assignment and this really helped.
this book and movie was so intense and sad. even listening to this description I teared up a little. This story will make you feel the pain.
Crash Course has been so helpful to me, from world/American history episodes down to chemistry, these great shows are helping me to stay at an A average and hold onto a 4.0 gpa. Thank you guy's so much.
I really loved reading Beloved and The Handmaid's Tale in high school. They were truly the best books I read in school lol
Have you read The Testaments? It’s painful because it’s all happening now. I'm supposed to talk about Beloved by Toni Morrison during our next book club zoom meeting and I don’t want to do it. Not because I haven't started it and we're discussing in a week but because EVERYONE is white in my book club. 1 member has police brothers so she always, without fail sides with the police officers. And they will never understand what it means to be racially profiled. To be asked to see id when you're walking down the street, to be treated as less than human because of pigment of skin. They will not value the depth of discussing slavery because it means they would have to acknowledge their white entitlement and the shameful past of this country. It seems pointless to discuss a book that will go in 1 ear and out the other. Being the only poc in a group can be really limiting.
First, Beloved is genius. Secondly, this episode of Crash Course really captures the most important themes/ideas etc. so well! Really helpful and well conveyed, thanks!
He's wearing a sourcefed shirt, awesome.
This book is amazing but also ruined beloved as a term of endearment for me because people will say "they are my beloved" and I'll think "yes, your significant other is an evil ghost baby. Yup."
You moved me, you made such a great job on such a great book. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I've never read it but the quotes bring tears to my eyes
im loving these, keep them up guys
When I was little I only saw bits of the movie and my cousins used to say beloved to scare me. This black Friday I was actually able to get the book
I remember the realest struggles of my young life when we had to read this darn book in grade twelve.
Actually, the "she is a friend of my mind" quote was not from Paul D himself, but Paul D rememebering something that Sixo had said to describe his feelings for the Thirty Mile Woman.
Wow! Great job. You really did a great job summarizing this book
"By the time he got to 124, nothing IN THIS WORLD could pry it open" (133). Perhaps Beloved is not of this world...
I would love to read this book but considering how much I'm crying watching a video about it, I'm not sure I can make it very far in
then stay away from Roots. you might not make it through the acknowledgments.
Haha I just read finished it and although it was depressing, it is important to read. It really does kidnap you and throw you into their world and it makes you want to be a better human at the end .
You should read it. It's completely worth it. But yes, some parts are hard to read and at many parts t in the book, I was wondering what horrible thing was going to happen.
This video was so helpful ! I'm doing a seminar on this book as my independent study unit and i really loved reading it! This will help me explain the premise/deeper meaning to a class of 17 y/o kids tho ^^
I wish Beloved were another two-parter as I think we missed the chance to talk about the sexually charged nature of a lot of the book and what the book was trying to say about education. I think it's partially wrapped up in the way Denver's character progressed (perhaps a bit too) rapidly at the end of the novel but I haven't quite worked it out yet.
I FINALLY had a professor who explained this book well. She explained the backstory and we did peer edited research on it to clear things up. It make me like the book so much more than in high school... But this crash course is a nice wrap up that doesn't take several weeks of a class. =]
I would love a episode about "1984", It's such a great book.
The book is about the spirits of African slaves who perished during the Atlantic Slave Trade. The results of manual labor, starvation and hunger from the white population, murdered more than a 1,000,000 from before 1600 to later than 1950. A tragic event for the Africans who experienced more than a century of misery, bloodshed and insanity from a colonial system that awoken a reality of slavery.
And Africans still are in a state of misery till this day because of the events of yesterday!
Leo Blight, are you referring to the Ebola outbreak?
Ebola, AIDS, The Industrial prison complex, segregation, racism, oppression, discrimination etc! The Ebola outbreak is just one among others!
Leo Blight, are you saying the Ebola outbreak, occurring in west Africa that killed more than 500 people and increases the infection of more than 500 is somewhat I think a political strategy or a plan by the first world or Capitalist empires to take their resources already working with China who makes a strong deal with Africa?
Hebrews not Africans...
1:38 My jaw dropped. How did I not see that the _entire_ time? Warn me next time you're gonna absolutely shotgun blast my mind, yeah?
This review was SO incredibly helpful, taking my AP lit exam and hopefully will be able to write my essay on Beloved. I've read it twice.
Wow... This is one BEAUTIFUL analysis... Thank you!
At 10:55 and a few seconds onwards I actually think he got tears in his eyes. That's passion for books, nice. :)
An adaptation of this would be great in the current climate of horror movies. Horror is at it's best when it hints at issues we have societal anxiety about, and moving that subtext to text is popular in contemporary horror movies; It Follows took sexual imagery that was usually conveyed symbolically (see Alien or The Thing) and made the monster be explicitly about sex, and The Babadook made itself explicitly about mental illness. There's this theory that cultures set it's horrors in the place where they lost their humanity. England lost it's humanity in the city, with it's debtors prisons and the way it treated the poor, so it's horrors are often set in metropolitan areas. Enter Attack the Block; a horror movie that's explicitly about how the poor are treated. America lost it's humanity in rural area and the wilderness because slavery and genocide, so we often set our horrors on farms or camping trips, we are ripe for a horror movie that's explicitly about slavery.
There is a movie about it, it wasn't very good IMO because the novel is so complex it cannot be translated into film
Bethany Yeah, agreed. This is really one of the great American novels, so it's too bad it was made into a film that's just...okay. For one thing I think Oprah (who produced it) would have been smart to cast someone other than herself as Sethe. She wasn't awful but that role needs a really powerful actor. (Thandie Newton killed it as Beloved though.)
They took so many things out the movie such as the cow raping and when some men pshed her down and sucked the milk out of her breasts for her new born it would be too graphic
@@Ble33334 the movie did show the scene where she pushed down and had milk sucked from her breasts
Despite my need to read this book, I think this video was one of the best crash course lit has done. Thank you!
I know this video's three years old at the point I'm watching it but I think it's a serendipity that CC Literature *214* is about a book that highlights House *124* so enthusiastically.
Thank you for choosing this novel. I love each and every of Morrison's works. Many of my personal favorite quotes that guide me through life are from her novels, especially from her trilogy.
Thank you so much. You almost made me cry..................
This was powerful commentary on an amazing book! Thanks John!
Thank you to everyone on the CrashCourse team for this video and for CrashCourse Literature in general -- it is so valuable and important and I am so glad to have the opportunity to learn more about these stories, especially in the context of how they help us form a deeper understanding of ourselves and others and the world around us. I love the feminist perspective offered as well, and the general integrity of CrashCourse as far as offering a balanced viewpoint goes. It all reminds me of what I love about literature and storytelling; it brings back to me what I find most important about writing and telling stories, and how powerful it can be. I'm so glad that this is available to the public and can't wait to watch more.
Powerful work. I only read it once. I gotta do it again. Thx John!
Toni Morrison is an immeasurably brilliant writer. 'Beloved' is a hard going and exceedingly atmospheric read. I put it down a number of times and refused to pick it up again and again. But I persevered with it. I'm glad I did. Having said that, I haven't read any more of her books because I find them far them too emotionally intense for me personally. After I read Beloved, this exceptional piece of work stayed with me for a very, very long time in the same way that 'The Book Thief' did. I'll never forget Morrison's 'Beloved', or the history as described in it.
Powerful stuff guys. Keep making CZcams worth watching!
I like that little watchdogs reference during a quote, good on you Stan or John, good on you.
I read this for my class it was so hard to finish but so rewarding. I loved it with my whole heart
My English teacher (great teacher) assigned Sula, a book also by Toni Morrison, and that's what got me interested in Beloved. He reminds me of Green, lol
Despite how deep and heavy to read the book was, it’s surely a masterpiece
That book made me pull my hair out in college. Avoided it like the plague. How did one YT video pull my understanding together after 25 YEARS? I don't have an excuse. -_-
Thanks, you're making me want to read this book.
I am so glad you discussed this novel!
Loved this episode - the flow and delivery was excellent, and moving. A side note - for me, the "open letter" segment used in other episodes has been disruptive, and breaks the low of the narrative - I was happy that you didn't use the device in this one.
This vid inspired me to read Beloved. I hated it at first, but something must have intrigued me, as later I grew to love and understand it.
Amazing book.
I just took a really nasty fall, an I can see bone kind of fall, and I was sad and it hurt a lot. I watched this crashcourse, it still hurts (pain demands to be felt) but I feel better. I feel a lot better!!!!!! I can't really explain it except to say it's better. Thank you CRASH COURSE!!!!
I had to read this for AP Lit last December and I was so 'haunted' by it and we analyzed the heck out of it, so now I'm here to see what he thinks.
This was the first video like this I watched without reading the book, and I have to say, I still really enjoyed it.
Damn it... now I have a new addition to my Audible Wish List.
Thanks!
So happy I found this channel! I'm coming back to youtube!
Thanks for making us feel bad Stan! Btw john from the past asks the kinds of questions I do
Hey John, will you please also cover "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde? I think it is extremely underrated and I really love it in so many ways, and it deserves more attention and your expertise on it :D
I read this book because of your vlog- it was one of the most powerful books I have ever read. thanks.
Dang, this is a rough book to read. I know I need to read books like these, but at the same time I struggle to do so. I feel weighed down by the evil people choose to do to each other. I also need to understand the history of my country and what still needs to be changed. I'm glad that there is Crash Course to help me understand books that I might not fully understand otherwise. I think a good way to be able to survive reading books like these is to also read about all the good that people choose to do for each other, so I'm not carrying around only the bad.
I didn't really like this book when I read it in college. I'm really glad that John talked about it; I may have to give it another chance. Thanks again for the great content Crash Course.
WHY? WHY? WHY? I have an essay due on this TODAY! I needed this ages ago!
CrashCourse Would you please do "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin. I always appreciate John Green's perspective and delicate descriptions. I also find James Baldwin to be one of my favorite Civil Rights writers. Thanks CrashCourse!
Seriously love this!
great video!!!! i am studying for an exam! this was awesome!
Langston Hughes coming up! Good choice!
One of my favourite books of all-time, so unbelievably moving
I'm going to have to read this awesome sounding downer.
Love this so much
I wrote an essay on Beloved a few weeks ago, this would have been so helpful :) Watching this does reassure me that I didn't completely screw it up! Brilliant as always.