March 21, 2022
- Interpret
Every time I read through Toni Morrison’s Beloved, I come away from the text attempting to comprehend much more of its events and make sense of everything it relays then I had recalled previously. The text grapples with very sensitive material, but I think Toni Morrison does a great a job of using the characters to illuminate much more than just one point of someone’s life, but overall how trauma, both personally and historically, have long and enduring trickle effects. I’m going to go overboard on these posts, but hopefully will try to dive into different points for the two weeks we are splitting the novel. This is a really complex piece, but I believe in terms of significance, the arrival of Paul D really sets the relaying of events on a fast track. Before Paul D’s arrival, when discussing the ghost present at 124 Bluestone with Sethe and Denver, I found this later (after the timeline is pieced together) to be the physical manifestation of their grief for the eldest daughter, and even more presently, Sethe’s guilt. Through Sethe’s perception of the ghost as malevolent and abusive, lending two her two son’s fleeing, whereas Denver, likes the ghost. I think in how each of these characters navigate the ghost’s presence and then the appearance of Beloved individually connects to their own methods of coping as they move through the arrival of Paul D and the rest of the novel. Circling back to the significance of Paul D’s arrival, I think it’s very clear how significant this is as a trigger to Sethe’s experience at Sweet Home Plantation. The narrative structure itself through flashbacks and across several decades grappling with a timeline of events is very indicative in which the text illuminates the complex plot as a whole and each character’s (especially Sethe’s) trauma.
- Critically Evaluate
I found Bell Hook’s portions (introduction and chapter one) of Ain’t I a Woman to be very prevalent to the discussion of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Acknowledging how black women are continuously oppressed and on a multitude of levels, is very significant to the storytelling we see in Beloved and how each individual character navigates their relationships, their interactions, and the overall events of the text. The idea in which the structure of the text is told to its audience I think is indicative of the point to which we consider the characters fragmented themselves, piecing themselves back together after the trauma they have endured. There are many intersections, as Hook mentions both racially and sexually, to come to terms with and address the levels of their struggling.
- Points of Discussion for Class
Significance of 124 as a site of haunting for the residents of the house. What does 124 symbolize? How is its meaning transformed throughout the course of the novel?
In regards to everything going on in the text, this is something I didn’t directly contemplate on but am very curious about What do we think prompted Beloved’s arrival? What does her arrival have to say in regards to each individual’s lives/how does she connect to each of their past/present experience (Sethe, Denver, and Paul D)? Also what lends to her departure from their lives? (Guess I’ll save this one for the second part of Beloved discussion)
