Dehumanization by Schoolteacher

Follows the evolution of schoolteacher's system of measuring and classifying slaves, and how it breaks the Sweet Home men and sets Sethe on the road to infanticide.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Notebook Arrives

The Notebook Arrives A New Kind of Master Schoolteacher, Mrs. Garner's brother-in-law, comes to manage Sweet Home with two nephews and a great deal of paper. Unlike Garner, he does not ask questions to learn; he asks to record, classify, and correct. The Book About Us The slaves at first think his notebook is harmless. He writes down what they say, measures their limbs, and numbers their teeth. They laugh about it, except Sixo, who stops laughing early. The Ink That Binds They do not know that the ink is made by Sethe, and that the notebook will become the instrument of their condemnation. The mundane act of writing is itself a form of violence.

Human on the Left, Animal on the Right

Human on the Left, Animal on the Right The Rule of the Two Columns Sethe overhears schoolteacher instructing a nephew to put her human characteristics on the left and her animal ones on the right. She is standing behind a tree, listening to herself be divided into columns. The End of Personhood The measuring string around her head, nose, and behind reduces her to a set of data. She knows now there is no future at Sweet Home; her children will be measured, too, as animals. The Seed of Escape This moment is the point of no return for Sethe. She will not let her children be listed, measured, or classified—even if it means killing them.

The Cowhide Correction

The Cowhide Correction Punishment for Telling When Sethe tells Mrs. Garner about the nephews taking her milk, schoolteacher decides she needs correction. He has one of the nephews open her back with a cowhide, while the other nephew holds her down. The Lesson of Ownership Schoolteacher explains that one cannot overbeat creatures beyond the point of education. The beating is not a punishment for Sethe's body but a training of the nephews in how to handle property. The Tattoo of Slavery The wounds become the chokecherry tree that Sethe carries on her back. The tree is the visible text of schoolteacher's system, and it will be read by Amy, by Paul D, and by the reader.

The Price of a Man

The Price of a Man Worth in Dollars After the escape attempt, schoolteacher tells the other men that Paul D would bring $900, and that the breeding woman and her foals are even more valuable. Paul D hears his own price and feels his heart jump at the number. The Inventory of Souls Schoolteacher knows the worth of everything: Halle's debt, Paul F's sale, Sethe's breeding years. The humans are not men and women but assets to be managed and recovered. The Deeper Wound Learning his value is worse than the iron bit. Paul D later cannot shake the recognition that a man's life can be summed up in a dollar amount.

The Hunt and the Shed

The Hunt and the Shed The Return to Claim Property Schoolteacher leads the party that comes to take Sethe and her children back to Sweet Home. He is not a monster in the dramatic sense; he is a man doing an accounting, coming to retrieve his stock. The Calculation Backfires In the woodshed, he sees Sethe with a blood-soaked child and realizes there is nothing to claim. Two are dead, one is dying, and the surviving baby is not worth taking. He wonders, in his own language, what bad handling has produced. The Justification He leaves not feeling guilty but confirmed in his belief that freedom makes Negroes wild. The system that dehumanizes them then uses their humanity against them, completing the circle of violence.

after Mrs. Garner's summons, soon after Mr. Garner's death

a summer afternoon at Sweet Home, overheard by Sethe

immediately after the stolen-milk incident

while Paul D is sold south and hears schoolteacher value him

the day the four horsemen ride to 124