"'Here," she said, "in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it. They don't love your eyes; they'd just as soon pick em out. No more do they love the skin on your back. Yonder they flat it. And O my people they do not love your hands. Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off and leave empty. Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face 'cause they don't love that either. You got to love it, you! And no, they ain't in love with your mouth. Yonder, out there, they will see it broken and break it again. What you say out of it they will not heed. What you scream from it they do not hear. What you put into it to nourish your body they will snatch away and give you leavins instead. No, they don't love your mouth. You got to love it. This flesh I'm talking about here. Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to rest and to dance; backs that need support; shoulders that need arms, strong arms I'm telling you. And O my people, out yonder, hear me, they do not love your neck unnoosed and straight. So love your neck; put a hand on it, grace it, stroke it and hold it up. And all your inside parts that they'd just as soon slop for hogs, you got to love them. The dark, dark liver--love it, love it, and the beat and beating heart, love that too. More than eyes or feet. More than lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than your life-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hear me now, love your heart. For this is the prize" (pages 103-104).
I choose the above passage to analyze for rhetoric because, not only does it stick out due to the passion it carries, but it contains a number of effective literary devices. The quote is said to a large crowd of colored people by Baby Suggs, during her Saturday gatherings at the Clearing.
Morrison incorporates several rhetorical devices into the selected piece:
- Apostrophe
- Climax
- Repetition
- Emotional appeal
There are probably more that I have not listed, but the above items are to be the topic of my blog today.
The author, here speaking as an orator, uses apostrophe to connect to the audience. She repeatedly says "O my people" and then describes another part of themselves that the colored people listening to her should love. This is effective to the audience, because Baby Suggs talks to them more directly, saying that white people don't love each of the individuals in her presence. She focuses on an inner-love in this piece, requiring that her audience love their own bodies, so despised by white people. As a reader, Morrison's use of apostrophe is equally as effective. It successfully held my attention to the speech because the author may have very well been saying those things to me. The device also carried intense emotion, which is enough to incite self-love for those deeply-deprived of love and also for those deeply-deprived of a reason for love.
Morrison also uses climax in Baby Sugg's speech. For example, she says "Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off and leave empty." The rising severity of the verbs in that sentence convoke an additional emotion response. It is both sad and painful. To comfort the listeners, Baby Suggs tells them to love themselves. She also uses climax in the sentence "Put a hand on it, grace it, stroke, it and hold it up." The climax there is in the different steps Baby Suggs advises her listeneners to take to begin loving their unappreciated bodies. This technique makes her argument stronger and makes the response from the audience reasonable.
Morrison repeats several short phrases in Baby Sugg's speech at the Clearing. Among the repeated phrases is "what you...they...". This is used to show the listeners a chain of cause-and-effect. What the colored person does, the white person ignores. Repeatedly, the chain goes on. Here, Baby Suggs shows her audience that the white reaction to their actions is consistently awful. She inspires a black action: self-love; so that the mistreatment will not hurt them. Morrison uses this pattern a lot in the above passage. She lists what feed need, what backs need, and what shoulders need. By doing this, Baby Suggs encourages her audience to spite the majority of whites with a subtle reaction. They must give themselves back what the whites have taken away.
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