Cow

The cow is a recurring animal in Toni Morrison's Beloved, appearing in the context of the Sweet Home farm, where the enslaved men's lives are intertwined with livestock, and in the community's memories and rituals. It symbolizes both the dehumanizing conditions of slavery and the possibility of a natural, unalienated existence, as seen in Baby Suggs' preaching and the community's collective memory.

The Cow at Sweet Home

At Sweet Home, the cow is part of the daily life of the enslaved men. The five Sweet Home men—Paul D Garner, Paul F Garner, Paul A Garner, Halle Suggs, and Sixo—are described as "fucking cows" in their yearning for women, a stark illustration of their sexual deprivation and the way slavery reduces human desire to animalistic release. The cow is also a source of labor and sustenance; the men milk cows as part of their chores, and the milk shed is a place of both work and, later, trauma. When Sethe is pregnant with Denver, she is forced to continue working, and the cow's milk becomes a symbol of the maternal nourishment that is stolen from her when schoolteacher's nephews hold her down and take her milk, an act that echoes the way the enslaved are treated as livestock.

The cow also appears in the context of Mr. Garner's "manhood" policy. Garner brags that his "niggers is men," and part of this claim is that he treats them better than animals, yet the men are still property, and the cow is a reminder of their status. When schoolteacher takes over, he treats the men and the animals with the same cold calculation, measuring and classifying them. The cow, like the men, is subject to the whims of the master, and its fate is tied to the plantation's economy.

The Cow in Community Memory and Ritual

Beyond Sweet Home, the cow appears in the memories and rituals of the free Black community in Cincinnati. Baby Suggs, in her role as an unchurched preacher, uses the image of the cow in her sermons in the Clearing. She tells the people to love their flesh, including their "life-giving private parts," and to love their hearts, which she calls "the prize." The cow, as a source of milk and life, is implicitly part of this celebration of the body. In the community's collective memory, the cow is also present in the stories of the old days, when 124 was a way station and the yard was full of life. The women who come to exorcise Beloved remember "themselves, younger, stronger, even as little girls lying in the grass asleep," and they recall the "catfish popping grease in the pan" and the "cobbler oozing purple syrup," but the cow is also part of that pastoral scene, a symbol of a time when life was simpler and more connected to the land.

The cow is also linked to the theme of motherhood and nurturing. Sethe's desperate attempt to get her milk to her baby girl is a central motif, and the cow's milk is a constant reminder of what is natural and what is stolen. When Sethe is in the woods, about to give birth to Denver, she is helped by Amy Denver, who rubs her feet and later helps her deliver the baby. The cow is not present in that scene, but the imagery of milk and nurturing is pervasive. In the end, the cow is part of the novel's larger meditation on the relationship between humans and animals, and the ways in which slavery blurs the line between the two. The cow is both a victim and a symbol, and its presence in the novel underscores the dehumanization of the enslaved and the resilience of the human spirit.