Overview: Toni Morrison employs stream of consciousness in her novel to show how our memories trigger emotions that impact our present and, consequentially, our future.
- “Denver’s secrets were sweet” (pg. 34)
- Boxwood bushes and emerald light (pg. 34)
- The white dress (pg. 35)
- Antelope (pg. 36)
- Sethe’s “Ma’am.” (pg. 37)
- Antelope (pg. 37)
- “I believe this baby’s ma’am is going to die…” (pg. 37)
- “I was hungry.” (pg. 38)
- Amy Denver, velvet and the root cellar (pgs. 38-42)
- “Anything dead coming back to life hurts.” (pg. 42)
- The white dress. Pain. Plans. (pgs. 42-43)
- Time. Rememory. (pgs. 43-44)
- “If it’s still there, waiting, that must mean that nothing ever dies.” (pg. 44)
- “You never told me what happened.” (pg. 44)
- Questions. She stopped. Plans. (pgs. 44-45)
- Paul D messed them up for good. Ghost company. (pg. 45)
- Sethe. Paul D. The white dress. Plans. (pg. 45)
- Plans. (pg. 46)
- Baby Suggs. Color. (pg. 46)
- Sethe. Color. (pgs. 46-47)
- 124 was so full of strong feeling…” (pg. 47)
- “...then Paul D arrived.” The white dress. Orange squares. 124. (pg. 47-48)
- Paul D. Emotions. Singing. (pgs. 48-49)
- It was tempting to change the words… Delaware. Alfred,Georgia. Sixo laughing. Box in the ground. (pg. 49)
- Looking for work. Denver. Schoolteacher. (pgs. 50-51)
- Paul D and Sethe. The better life. Ain’t the other one. Sethe’s future is Denver and keeping her from... (pg. 51)
The contrast between Sethe and Denver’s lives before versus after Paul D arrives at 124 is astounding. As is made very clear throughout the novel so far, Sethe has done and will do everything in her power to protect Denver from her past. As Denver exemplifies when she says, “‘You never told me all what happened,’” (44) in reference to Sethe’s escape from Sweet Home, she has done a fairly good job at keeping her past a secret. However, this withholding of the truth from Denver has had little benefit on her. While it has caused her to have, “sweet secrets,” (34), it has also resulted in a debilitating loneliness and isolation that Denver has no way to combat; her only family is her mother, and all she has ever known is 124. With no understanding of her mother’s past or the world around her, she has no way of becoming a developed individual. That is not to say that Denver has no inkling that her mother is keeping things from her, as she certainly does. At one point, after her mother clearly reveals too much of her past, “Denver knew that her mother was through it..Sethe had reached a point beyond which she would not go,” (45). But it is not until the appearance of Paul D that Sethe’s elaborate coverings of her past begin to truly fall apart.
ReplyDeleteWhen Paul D arrives, there is an immediate change in the overall tone of the novel as well as the demeanors of both Sethe and Denver. No matter how well Sethe seems to be handling his arrival, it is undeniable that, “whatever they were or might have been, Paul D messed them up for good,” (45). No longer is Sethe Denver’s only taste of the outside world. No longer is Sethe only focused on the future (Denver), as her past (Paul D) quite literally comes bustling through the door. Their ‘sanctuary’ and source of safety from memories of the past is no more. Denver’s curiosity of what her mother’s life entails is more peaked than ever, and, “the job Sethe had of keeping her from the past that was still waiting for her was all that mattered,” (51).
I think your comparison to Denver being Sethe's future and Paul D being Sethe's past is really strong. I agree with you in that Paul D coming around is a complete shift in overall tone of the novel, which as of right now seems to be a turn for the worst as you describe through the quote from the book.
DeleteI like how you connected Sethe's attempt to keep her past a secret to the isolation she feels now.
DeleteDeath and dying, birth and rebirth are connected among the symbols and transitions of the text. Sethe ends her story on Amy Denver bringing her feet back to life and bringing her into the present. Sethe focuses in on “the magic” “until she cried salt tears.” Nothing can become more important in that moment that the way it felt; the relief of pain, not even relenting to the final birth. As, “Anything dead coming back to life hurts,” perhaps the ghost is in the process of coming back to life, reaching out but not quite there yet. Of all the build up over time, not swelling to overflow or to die, but to be reborn. Focused only on the task within sight, plans in the back of her mind, ready for the messy thing to be over with. “Maybe the white dress holding its arms around her mother’s waist was in pain.”The dress “looked just like you,” gripping to Sethe, seeing this process of pain that her mother had felt, that she was going through herself. Still not independent of Sethe, holding on to her in pain, finding empathy in her, needing to complete the moment of pain only for the story to continue, for her plans to begin.
ReplyDeleteThe dress, the ghost, understands her mother, or is trying to understand. Denver imprints on this spirit, so when Sethe says, “You won’t understand, baby,” Denver sees herself as the understanding ghost, and wants to try herself. To empathize in her mother’s memory. She wants to share in the connection she saw with the dress, so close to her mother, in possession of a piece of her where Denver has nothing, no memories she can call her own, even that of her own father. To someone like Denver, the idea of rememory would be perfect, “It’s never going away-if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again.” To have ownership over memories, yet, “Denver, you can’t never go there.” Sethe wants to protect her daughter, and Denver thinks she can see everything where there is so much more. She can see the ghost, can hear the stories, yet she cannot feel the pain, the rebirth her mother and her sister have had to experience. If she goes to the past where she can never go, she will have to feel it too.
Your point about Denver wishing she could relate to her mother the way the white dress does is a powerful thought. Denver, a living girl, can't connect with her mother because Sethe is too afraid of her past, but perhaps Beloved will be the symbol that allows Sethe to open up and let Denver in. Once she acknowledges the motives of the ghost, she can move on with her life.
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ReplyDeleteIn almost any context, it is hard to ignore a ghost. This is especially true in a context where the setting is otherwise realistic and a ghost casually shows up. As such, when it was mentioned that the ghost had plans, it tends to catch one’s attentions. More than that, there is an interesting dynamic developing between Beloved Denver and Paul D, that almost certainly will come back to haunt them later in the text. While Denver might currently feel that “Paul D messed [the plans] up for good.” (45), I think her thoughts on memories from the page before are more applicable. “... It’s still there, waiting, the must mean nothing ever dies.” (44). Much earlier, after Paul D’s initial struggle with the ghost, it was described as tired, not defeated or dead. Sethe even contemplates relying on the return of Beloved, which for her is a luxury she never grants herself. It may be more difficult for the ghost to return now, however, it has an ally in the living world. Completely deprived of outside influences, Denver has adopted Beloved’s ghost as one of the only sources of interest in her life. She sees it as magical and charming, not intimidating. Given the chance, I think that Denver may help resurrect Beloved, even if it brings him at odds with Paul D.
ReplyDeleteOn a more thematic level, it leans into the trend of putting greater emphasis on the past. By taking the magic out of the present, it temporarily shifts importance to the past, but sets up a hard shift to the presence, when Beloved returns, and Denver begins her own story. In a book so focused on the concept of time, it would only be poetic if the manifestation of the past, a ghost, would shift the driving force of the novel from the past to the present.
I like your thoughts on the emphasis of past and present contrast. Looking at things like the ghost and how Denver views it as being destroyed, even though when she was younger she said "nothing ever dies," is an interesting way at looking at foreshadowing and also how the characters may have changed between the past and the present that we haven't seen yet.
DeleteSethe’s ideas about rememory reflect an increased awareness and wisdom as well as a maternal instinct to protect her daughter Denver. This is a shift from her time before being Denver’s mother, where she lacked the experience to know what to avoid. At first she held onto the belief that her own memory was affected by the fading effects of time. She says “It’s so hard for me to believe in it. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do.” (43) Although there was this sense of forgetting, she argued that “.. places are still there. If a house burns down , it’s gone, but the place-the picture of it-stays, and not just in rememory, but out there, in the world...even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.” (43) Sethe defines rememory as things she remembers or could remember with reminders such as a physical place or picture of a place. Even if she does not exactly remember it, she believes that in her rememory it can be easily recalled again. But once she had Denver, she felt a need to protect her from the evils of slavery Sethe faced. This shift results from the trauma of her escape which caused an emphasis on the maternal instinct of protection. By being forced to deal with the hard life she did at Sweet Home, she was that much more motivated to do anything she could to make sure that her daughter did not face the same things. She does this by banning Denver to ever visit Sweet Home. Sethe says “So, Denver, you can’t never go there...Because even though it’s all over-over and done with-it’s going to always be there waiting for you. That’s how come I had to get all my children out.” (44) Sethe’s ideas about rememory shaped the ways in which she protected her children. She thought that even if you have not had firsthand experience with something, you could still “...bump into a rememory that belongs to someone else.” (43) With this in mind, she reasons that by keeping Denver away from the source of her own bad memories, Sethe is protecting Denver from both feeling her experiences negatively or repeating those same memories herself. Denver takes this to mean that if the memories are “...still there, waiting, that must mean that nothing ever dies.” (pg. 44)
ReplyDeleteThis shift shows the magnitude that Sethe’s memories, especially the bad ones, play on her life. These mental scars affect her actions to avoid repeating the past, and thus make her a bit paranoid and scared when it comes to her daughter Denver. Her knowledge and wisdom through personal experience equip her to make a different future for her daughter. Morrison uses shifts like these in order to show the role that memories play in someone’s life, usually Sethe’s and how their past is carried into and affects their future.
Kathleen, I love your points. I completely agree that Sethe's memories have had a profound impact on her entire life; with every action she makes, especially when Denver is involved, she is incredibly careful and cautious to not follow the path of her past.
DeleteMorrison’s periodic “shifts” throughout her stream of consciousness have the purpose of portraying moments of the past that shape characters’ single story of their world. The symbol of the “little antelope” inside of Sethe takes on new meaning when Morrison presents it in the context of Sethe’s understanding of “Ma’am” and motherhood. Denver is the “little antelope” that seeks to escape the constrictions of Sethe’s womb as Sethe attempts to escape the boundaries of her world for both herself and the baby, before it is born into slavery. Sethe feels it is her duty as a mother to “hold on to the baby” until they are free. For at this line, Sethe thinks of her only example of motherhood, her own mother, whom she called “Ma’am.” She did not know “Ma’am,” and her sole memory of her is that “sometimes they danced the antelope.” The dance of the “antelope” comes to mean a movement towards freedom, which she thinks “Ma’am” would have wanted for her.
ReplyDeleteHer biggest fear is that “this baby’s ma’am is gonna die in wild onions on the bloody side of the Ohio River” (37). She fears that Denver will call her “ma’am” as well, for she will not know her deceased mother. She longs not to die on the “bloody side of the Ohio River”—the slave side of the gateway to freedom. For Sethe, the world is black and white, slave and free, south and north. She anticipates fighting for her life against whatever white male is coming her direction, and instead encounters the unexpected for her, a whitegirl who helps her, and on the “bloody side” of the Ohio River. Sethe’s segmented experiences together reveal a woman who cannot see the nuances or feel the emotions Denver does, for “To Sethe, the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay. The ‘better life’ she believed she and Denver were living were simply not that other one” (51). All Sethe wants is the freedom she gained when she physically and psychologically ran across the Ohio River like an antelope. This is a reason why Morrison shifts consciousness at these points, to emphasize particular thoughts of characters that define them and motivate their actions.
Emma, I like your analysis of how Sethe's impersonal experience with her own mother shaped the way in which she wanted to raise her own daughter. This idea is similar to what I wrote about how memories can drastically impact one person's future. Morrison definitely is trying to make a point about the effect of single moments and past experiences.
DeleteThe relationship between Denver and Sethe may appear to be not a typical mother and daughter relationship to us as readers, but it is the only free life that Sethe knows, and the only life in general that Denver has experienced. Both of Denver’s brothers ran away from home before she even knew them, and her baby sister continues to haunt her. Because of this, Denver needs her mother’s stories to fill the gaps in her life. Even the stories about her own birth continue to interest Denver after 18 years. Sethe refers to Denver as an antelope when she was in her stomach, because she always made her presence known when Sethe would stop working. If she did happen to take a rest, “ the little antelope rammed her with horns and pawed at the ground of her womb with impatient hooves” (36) This memory of the antelope brings us back into the childhood of Sethe, where we learn about her experience as a young girl who was a slave. Sethe did not even know “her own mother, pointed out her her by the eight year old child who watched the young ones” (37) At that plantation that her and her mother worked, they would dance the antelope, which she was reminded of ever time she felt Denver. Sethe did not want Denver to have the constant uncertainty that she had growing up, so she vowed to protect her antelope. When Sethe is saved by Amy in the woods, and Amy is massaging Sethe’s feet she says to her, “It’s gonna hurt now.. Anything coming back to life hurts” (42) At that moment in the house in the woods, it was like Amy was bringing Sethe back to life, but this memory triggers the return to the present tense. Denver sees the ghost hugging Sethe through her window, and is very confused by this image that she is seeing. In the present day, the ghost of Beloved acts like she is almost living, and Denver sees her with person like qualities. If this is so, and she is trying to “come back to life”, then it can be inferred that she is in a lot of pain for some reason that we are not aware of yet.
ReplyDeleteGrace, your interpretation of the antelope was well done.
DeleteI like how you described the antelope and Denver. It puts a nice visual to Sethe's protective actions and Sethe's fear of uncertainty.
DeleteThroughout the section where Sethe talks to Denver about memories and their significance, it builds upon the reason for the ghost being present in the house as well as Denver slowly unveiling connections from Sethe’s past to the reasons of the present. When Denver sees the white dress holding her mother, it triggers a memory of what Sethe has told Denver about being saved by a white lady named Amy. Amy led her to a house and massaged her feet to health stating, “‘Anything dead coming back to life hurts’” (42). That statement allowed Denver to confront her mother about the ghost. The relationship between Denver and Sethe seems fractured due to Denver’s lack of understanding of what Sethe has gone through. The relationship feels hopeless because of Sethe’s constant sheltering of Denver when she tries to ask saying, “‘You won’t understand, baby’” (43). However, through Denver’s perseverance and the confrontation of her mother about the ghost, she was capable of getting her mother to open up about her thought process on, “‘Time. Rememory” (44).
ReplyDeleteMorrison included the constant shifts so we are capable of seeing Denver’s thought process as well as her realizing how her mother feels about bringing up a memory could mean a potential sympathetic bond will be created. Anything dead coming back to life could be the ghost is experiencing “Pain. Plans.”(43). Each symbol builds on to the relationship of the ghost to the house as well as the relationship with Denver and Sethe.
I agree with your point about Sethe concealing the truth from Denver, "fracturing" their relationship. It's interesting how she feels she is protecting Denver, but she is driving her mad from it. I also like how you mentioned Beloved's ghost being the primary connection/symbol throughout the novel.
DeleteI was intrigued by your blog post because I discussed a similar theme of the relationship between Denver and Sethe and how the ghost impacts this!
DeleteColor has a deeper meaning in Beloved. It is more than the surface of an object, as it represents feelings. The colour red carries different meanings when it represents different objects. Amy’s red velvet, for example, stands for hope and future. She described the velvet to Sethe as something “like the world was just born” and “clean and new and so smooth”(Page 41). The velvet represents a new life and a hopeful future as Amy is was a slave. She is trying to look for a new life and a brighter future in another place. The red also means something similar to Sethe since Sethe believes that her future will also be better than her past as she also used to work on a plantation years before. However, in other contexts the red symbolizes something different. The red symbolizes the death of Beloved. Because Beloved haunts the house, in a way, the house is Beloved’s so when Paul D steps into Sethe’s house and “followed her through the door straight into a pool of red and undulating light that locked him where he stood” (Page 10), that is Beloved’s presence. It is a reminder of her bloody death. So, in one context, the red presents the feelings of hope in a better future, but in another context it is the death of Beloved. The juxtaposition and repetition of the color red is used to compare and contrast the different characters in the book. The white dress is also a recurring element throughout the first few chapters thus far. “The white dress” (Page 35) starts off as a mystery at first representing the unknown and curiosity of what is happening across the Ohio river. Once, she realizes what is happening, the white dress is no longer what it was before and now it represents her path to freedom as Amy helps her make it to safety. Morrison uses colors to represent different feelings of characters throughout the book.
ReplyDeleteI think the importance of color is really prevalent in the novel but I had never thought to analyze it the way you did. Colors mean something different to every character and what I found most interesting was the importance of color to Baby Suggs and how that moves into Sethe. While Baby Suggs lived in 124, she was unhappy with the absence of color in their lives and now after her death Sethe begins to realize how truly that really is.
DeleteAs many other people have mentioned, I noticed the use of visualization and metaphoric meaning act as largely influential aspects of the text. Initially, the use of rhetorical remarks as "Every dawn she saw the dawn"(47) seemed illogical, but in conjunction, they act as a good manifestation of this stream of consciousness idea Morrison details. After understanding that aspect, I now greatly appreciate that usage and it works well to convey the psychological ideas felt by characters. The most evident symbols used by Morrison so far are the white dress and the red light in the house. The red light continues to be indicative of a negative haunted connotation to the home which rings to be synonymous later. The dress almost seems to encapsulate the attributes of a character in the effect is serves. The fact the dress puts its arm over Baby Suggs yet was only seen by Denver seemed to portray a certain condoling attribute to the outcast ghost. In that regard, Denver too acts in a defiant symbol as her birth's conditions deemed it nearly impossible for her to live. While I see a lot of symbolism in this text so far, I also feel it's a bit confusing to keep track of. The use of stream of consciousness is a creative approach to narrating which adds the aspect of mental processes the characters undergo, but also it degrades the traditional linear plot structure's simplicity in comprehension. Judging by how the text has unveiled details surrounding unknown things such as the ghost and house, I presume the text will continue to do so with other aspects creating a complete image.
ReplyDeleteOne of the ideas that Morrison has emphasized so far throughout Beloved is the critical role memories play in shaping the present, and that events from the past will remain with us forever. Sethe’s traumatic experiences from earlier in her life continue to impact her years into the future, so much so that she still has difficulty speaking about some of the things that happened to her. Sethe’s memories of Sweet Home, the slave plantation that Sethe lived on for several years until she escaped, have haunted her and changed the way she lives her life. Sethe tells her daughter Denver that Sweet home will “never go away. Even if the whole farm-every tree and grass blade of it dies” because of the lasting impact of her experience there (43). Sethe went through some of the most important events of her life, such as meeting her husband and having some of her children while at Sweet Home and some horrifying events as well, all of which make it impossible for her to forget the place because it holds so much meaning. When Sethe was a slave at Sweet Home, she was a victim of rape from two boys who “took [her] milk” meant for her baby, and suffered a brutal whipping from the schoolteacher after she told her master’s wife Mrs. Garner, all while she was pregnant with Denver (20). Although Sethe is able to recount some of these painful events to her daughter, some of the things she went through she finds too painful to talk about with Denver, even though they happened long ago. Denver remarks to her mother that she “never told [her] all what happened. Just that they whipped [her] and [she] run off pregnant” (44). Sethe’s difficulty speaking to someone as close to her as her own daughter about her rape demonstrates just how traumatic the experience was for her and how her memories have continued to impact her present.
ReplyDeleteI find it particularly interesting to note the memories in which Sethe chooses to share and which ones she keeps to herself. In pages 34-51 we get a look into Sethe’s thoughts and learn why she is afraid to share some of her memories with Denver, despite her recognition that memories never go away. On page 43 she says, “even if I don’t think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.” As a mother, Sethe very carefully decides what her daughter should and shouldn’t know. Denver is very sheltered because of this. The quote on page 43 stood out to me while I was reading because it made me take a moment to think about Sethe’s main goal as a parent. I wondered, what is she really trying to hide from her daughter and what does she fear will happen if Denver knows? Since memories never die, I suspect Sethe wants to be the last living person to have the experience/memory of Sweet Home. Throughout history, stories have been used as a way of passing on lessons to future generations. However, passing this story onto Denver would only be burden in Denver’s life. She will carry it with her until the day she perishes. “if you go there—you who was never there—if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there . . . it’s going to always be there waiting for you” (44). Throughout the story, I continue to wonder what would be harder for Denver, constantly wondering what happened, or knowing the truth. As a reader, I suspect Sethe will reveal the story to us and we can determine whether or not Denver deserved to know the truth. It is also important to note that it wouldn’t only be painful for Denver to hear, but also for Sethe to tell. After all, “Anything coming back to life hurts” (42).
ReplyDeleteToni Morrison’s Beloved is a dreamlike, otherworldly stepladder as she builds upon her characters “rememory” (43) of the events that haunt them. No character is more plagued by the horrors of their past than Sethe, an ex-slave who cannot escape her time as a slave at Sweet Home or the extreme measures she took to save her baby from that same fate. Sethe is tormented by the evils perpetrated against her by her former owners, the Garners, as well as those committed against Beloved by Sethe herself.
ReplyDeleteComplicating Sethe’s torment is the self-imposed need to keep “Denver’s secrets … sweet” (34). In keeping with her past actions, Sethe believes that by hiding events from Denver, she is protecting her daughter by “keeping her from the past” (51). Coincidentally, this is the same instinct that motivated Sethe to take Beloved’s life in order to spare her an agonizing future as a slave. It is said that a mother’s love has no bounds, and in Morrison's Beloved, a mother’s love has no boundaries either. Interestingly, however, Morrison does not pass judgment on Sethe for killing Beloved, who is a prominent, albeit ethereal character. For the reader, this oddly normalizes this horrific event and at the same time amplifies the persistence of Sethe’s suffering. In addition, Beloved’s death at the hands of her own mother brings the reality of slavery into sharper focus. Imagine that killing one’s own child is a better option than allowing them to live the life of a slave?
Chapter three of Beloved gave readers a compelling look into the past and explored the story of Denver’s birth. As I read, I kept thinking about the theme of memory and how they work to shape the present. Toni Morrison continued to explore the ideas of memories in this chapter. A line that stood out to me was a comment made by Amy as she massaged Sethe’s feet, “Anything coming back to life hurts”. I interpreted this as possibly referring to memories. Sethe likes to suppress her memories of the past because when she thinks of them, they bring her an immense amount of pain and grief. Denver is pestering her mother into telling her more about the past and of sweet home but, Sethe wishes to protect Denver from the horrors of her past. Sethe tells Denver that “even though it’s all over,-- over and done with-- it’s always going to be there waiting for you.” Sethe explains that she will not tell Denver stories of Sweet Home because she does not want her to carry the burdens of her mother’s past. Telling Denver stories will bring back the past and will cause Denver pain, knowing that someone she loves went through such scarring experiences. However, Denver continues to feel sheltered, telling her mom that “You never told me all what happened. Just that they whipped you and you run off, pregnant. With me.”. Sethe again is simply trying to spare Denver from experiencing guilt and sadness knowing the struggles of her family’s past. I also believe that Sethe does not want to relieve her tumultuous past.
ReplyDeleteAnna, I loved your analysis on the relationship between Sethe and Denver. Before reading your blog post, I had never thought of their relationship like that and now I think my experience reading will be different.
DeleteIn the previous chapters, the idea that past memories quite often shape your present was quite evident. This theme continued on to pages 34-51, as the author further highlights Sethe’s views on the effect of her memories. It is evident that Sethe traps her memories in her mind, and she justifies this by stating “even if I don’t think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happens.” Sethe’s memories of sweet home have continued to negatively affect her, and she carefully chooses what to share with Denver to protect her. However, by doing this, she is also, in a way, protecting herself through this. Her memories of the plantation are too tough for her to bare, so by holding on to them until death, she is essentially removing them when she dies. In Sethe’s words, “anything dead coming back to life hurts”, implying that by letting her past memories continue to live, Sethe will forever be hurt.
ReplyDeleteIn the chapter, there are constant shifts between the present day and past memories, and though it was confusing to follow, it was effective in describing the relationship between the past and present. Given that the entire novel holds an underlying theme of past memories shape your present, this transition between present and past allows this theme to be seen. For instance, the transition that occurs on page 42 allows the reader to understand how Denver’s birth, which occured in the past, is still of great interest to her in the present .
It was interesting how you said Sethe is almost trapped in her past. I compared this to Denver, who seems to be trapped in the present. While Denver cannot escape 124, Sethe cannot escape the events that led her to where she is.
DeleteOne of the symbols in the third chapter that struck me was Paul D singing. He sits alone in the bedroom he shares with Sethe and he begins to seen. He refers to the song as one of the songs he knew from Georgia, another piece of the past for him. The lyrics, “Lay my head on the railroad line, train come along, pacify my mind” (48) were what stuck out to me the most. When thinking about the meaning of the lyrics, he’s expressing a desire to be run over by a train in order to be able to relax his mind. These lyrics reflect the pain that the person who wrote the song is going through, likely to be someone who experienced some of the same things as Paul D has gone through, seeing as this song came from his painful past. His past is as elusive as Sethe’s, and the same as Denver with Sethe we’re left wondering what happened. Still we don’t know how much we can trust him and what has really happened in the past, being haunted by the ominous image of the butter churn.
ReplyDeleteThe singing also connects to other symbols that resemble memories, but in Sethe rather than Paul D. As many others have talked about, memory is something that greatly affects the story. As Sethe remembers painful stories of trying to run while pregnant with Denver, not being able to forget memories like the chokecherry tree and being chased down by school teacher. She cannot forget the desire to kill the person she thinks to be a white boy in the woods, unable to forget that “her husband disappeared; that after her milk had been stolen, her back pulped, her children orphaned, she was not to have an easeful death” (38). Overall the shift from the first and second chapters leads to a lack of knowledge. We shift from knowing most about what’s presently happening with a few ominous symbols slid in to knowing almost nothing. Now we’ve shifted into a world of memory, one where we can’t move from the past. We’re itching to know what has happened, in Sweet Home, in Georgia, on the journey from Sweet Home to Ohio and what’s going to happen next.
The contrast between Sethe and Denver is very apparent. Denver wants a history. She longs for something to define herself and wants to know her own story and the story of her mother. Without her own history, she feels as though she doesn’t truly know who she is. She continues to question her mother, as she wants to understand the past and Sethe “never told her what happened (44).” Sethe, on the other hand refuses to tell Denver her story and gives her limited info about Sweet Home. She wants to shield Denver from the trauma that she has to live with everyday because “if you go there—you who was never there—if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there . . . it’s going to always be there waiting for you” According to Sethe, trauma from the past continues to relive itself, and it is a presence that will never die. If Sethe passes the memories of her time at Sweet Home onto Denver, the memories will live on and become inescapable.
ReplyDeleteAs a physical reminder that the past never dies, Denver sees the ghost of Beloved, in the form of a white dress, with its arms wrapped around Sethe. I thought of this as metaphor for Sethe’s belief that the past will “always be waiting for you” and never goes away. Sethe’s past literally had its arms wrapped around her and consumes her everyday life. Beloved serves as a representation of how the past always returns and haunts the present.
Toni Morrison writes this chapter through the mind of Denver. She is telling the story of Sethe’s journey the way that it has been described to her, trying her best to fill in the missing parts. For example, Denver is trying to understand the significance of the antelope that is a fluid symbol throughout the story. Why is it so significant and why won’t Sethe explain why it had such an impact on her? The reason that Sethe only tells Denver what she wants is because she is trying to repress the memory of Sweet Home. Sethe has an awakening towards the end of this chapter that is broken down into several parts. It begins with her realization that Sweet Home isn’t just a rememory, “I use to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it’s not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down down, it’s gone, but the place - the picture of it - stays, and not just in rememory, but out there, in the world” (43). She demands that Denver never go to Sweet Home because of this concept. She has spent the past eighteen years trying to protect her children and Denver is her last hope of living a better life. Another realization that Sethe has was triggered by the experience she had with Paul D. Before Paul D, Sethe never thought much about the ghost of Beloved, ignoring Denver’s feelings towards it. Denver feels a connection with her dead sister, but the pain that comes with it has forced Sethe to shut down when it is brought up. Sethe thinks to herself the morning after Paul D, “Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something?”(46). Paul D has made Sethe realize how much time she has been wasting trying to forget the tragedies that she has forgotten to live. Suddenly, Morrison takes Sethe back to the memory of the two orange squares on Baby Suggs’ quilt. Color signifies the lack of joy she has had in her life, unable to see the beauty in the sun rising because to her, it is just the mark of another day. She wonders why this is so, “There was something wrong with that. It was as though one day she saw red baby blood, another day the pink gravestone chips, and that was the last of it” (47). She reveals that she believed living a repressed life was better for her and Denver, but that is no longer true. Denver has been trying to tell her mother that for years, but it wasn’t until a part of Sweet Home walked into 124 that she agreed with it.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you talked about the connection between the colors in the quit, and the realization that this life that Sethe and Denver are living is hurting them more than it is helping them. Sethe questions her beliefs, and the reasons that she feels the way she does
DeleteThroughout these chapters, I found Denver’s character to be more developed and multidimensional. Like Grace mentioned, these pages revealed Denver’s true motive. While Grace argued that Denver wants a history, I’d also say that she wants an identity beyond 124. Clearly, Denver is unhappy with her situation, feeling isolated and caught within 124. To the people outside, there is nothing to define her by but her house. It is assumed that not many people know about Denver, seeing how she mentions in the previous chapter, “‘Nobody speaks to us. Nobody comes by. Boys don’t like me. Girls don’t either.’” (P. 17) What she craves is life, but instead, she is stuck in a place shrouded by death. This desire for a new life is shown with the comparison between her and the antelope. In some ways, Denver is quite the opposite of an antelope; while they are free to roam, she is caught inside. Still, Denver is hungry for independence, and it may give her comfort to be compared to that. In addition, Denver’s connection to nature reveals her need for an identity. Her section of the forest seems to be the only area outside of 124 she can go to. While the colors in 124 are described as being monotone (the white dress, for example) or red (also symbolizing pain and death), Denver’s hideaway is “veiled and protected by the live green walls” (35). These contrasting descriptions show a lack of spirit and identity at 124 compared to the freedom of the outdoors. There, she is able to stray from her identity of being the “‘young girl living in a haunted house’” (p. 17) that everyone knows her as. The word choice in this section is especially interesting to me, comparing the deadness of 124 to something “live.” In addition, they continue to mention the color green, such as with “the emerald light” and “green walls.” (P. 35) After reading, I looked up what the color green illustrates. It stated that green is associated with life, freshness, and safety, which I believe highlights Denver’s desires even further. There, she can develop a “fresh”, new life, undefined by 124.
ReplyDeleteI like your interpretation of the colors of 124 and the colors of Denver's hideaway. I had thought about the sinister colors in 124 (the red flashing lights, etc) but I hadn't thought to compare it to the green that Denver escapes to and how she only really feels safe and happy outside of her home.
DeleteThis chapter began simply, with the line “Denver’s secrets were sweet” (34). The line itself has a sense of simplicity and sweetness in the way it is stated so plainly. Denver is lucky enough to have these sweet secrets because of Sethe’s diligent efforts to preserve Denver’s mind from her own terrible history. As expected, Denver is frustrated by this lack of knowledge about her mother’s life, but is unaware of the true horrors it holds. As Sethe remembers the past, telling Denver the story of her own birth, we learn more details into the intense journey she experienced while running away from Sweet Home. This reiterates Sethe’s extreme strength and perseverance as she fought for a better life for herself and her baby, Denver. Looking back years later while talking with Paul D, Sethe realizes how she has built that better life she dreamed of, and wants to shield Denver from her past experiences. When Paul D inquires about Denver, Seethe reassures him not to worry because “She’s a charmed child from the beginning” (50). I think this repeated theme of Denver’s pure mind is an important theme in the novel because it reveals has goodness can come out of something horrible. Recalling her time in jail, one of Sethe’s many challenging experiences, she highlights how “Rats bit everything in there but (Denver)” (51). It is almost as if Denver has an angel watching over her, and I would predict this heavenly spirit is connected to Beloved. The meaning of beginning and ending the chapter with Denver’s sweetness is definitely a key theme to remember, as we continue to learn more about Denver’s life and Sethe’s battle to preserve her daughter’s innocence.
ReplyDeleteYou choose a really interesting topic, looking at the tarnished innocence of Denver. Sethe keeps secrets for the better interest of Denver and even though her mother grew up in a hellish world Denver doesn't have to. I think this shows the stregnth of the protagonist as she tries so hard to give her daughter the life she did not have.
DeleteAs many others have already noted, I really enjoyed getting to understand Denver’s character and motivation better throughout the reading. It is clear throughout the novel that Sethe’s main goal is “keeping her [Denver] from the past that was still waiting for her was all that mattered (51).” An interesting duality is that of Beloved and Denver. Denver is often described as ‘pure’ due to her unknowing of 124 and Sethe’s past. However, Beloved directly stems from Sethe’s past and therefore reflects the undiluted anger stemming from it. This is an interesting duality because though Beloved and Denver are both Sethe’s children, one represents the past, and the other a hope for a better future. I like the point that Kristy made about Paul D’s introduction marking a shift in tone, as he symbolizes that the past is never completely in the past. Perhaps this is foreshadowing that regardless of Sethe’s best efforts to protect Denver, they are futile.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting point that I observed was the use of color to represent certain characters and emotions/qualities tied to them. Immediately in the reading Beloved’s ghost is described as being a ‘burning red’ color likely due to the conditions in which she was born and died. Later on in the novel, the youthful and pure Denver becomes associated with the color white. This is observed through Denver seeing a white dress gripping onto Sethe, and suggesting that “maybe the white dress holding its arms around her mother’s waist was in pain.” Denver herself has never truly known pain or hatred due to Sethe’s sheltering, so she’s more likely to be sympathetic with the ghost than respond in an angered or fearful way. I really like the point that Michelle made about the color red being correlated to deep emotions, like hope for the future that Sethe felt when Amy D described Boston red velvet to her. It’s interesting to observe a change in meaning for the color red, but not yet for the color white. I think this could be possible foreshadowing that the symbolism of white and the white dress will change over time, just as Denver is likely to become more grown up through hearing about Sethe’s past and 124.
- Alex Keenan
DeleteAlly, I agree with your interpretation on color. I also liked your connection to Denver with the color white because of the purity she possess, she doesn't know or understand the pain Sethe felt.
DeleteWhat I have found most striking throughout Beloved so far is extreme changes between Sethe’s past and present, yet she is still unable to let go of the darkness of Sweet Home. Morrison portrays this to readers with the constant flashbacks and repressed memories. This allows us to grasp how truly all consuming her haunting thoughts are. One second she goes from thinking of Paul D. to reciting songs from Sweet Home, “He was up now and singing as he mended things he had broken the day before. Some old pieces of song he’d learned on the prison farm or in the War afterward. Nothing like what they sang at Sweet Home, where yearning fashioned every note. The songs he knew from Georgia were flat-headed nails for pounding and pounding and pounding. Lay my head on the railroad line, Train come along, pacify my mind. If I had my weight in lime, I’d whip my captain till he went stone blind. Five-cent nickel. Ten-cent dime, Busting rocks is busting time.” She is now in so much of a better place than the Sethe Paul used to know. He somewhat helped to drive the ghost away, she has a loving relationship, and a daughter she cherishes. Yet she is so scarred from her past life she is unable to allow herself to embrace this new one, “I was talking about time. It’s so hard for me to believe in it. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it’s not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place—the picture of it—stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don’t think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.” Although she is still dealing with the memories she has repressed for so long, things are looking good for Sethe at the place she is at in her life, “Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something?”. She is constantly evolving. The disappearance of her baby’s spirit is allowing her as a character to develop. The white dress symbolizes change in her life; her view of it is altered after Paul comes, and attempts to drive the ghost away. I think this is all building to something much greater in the plot but Morrison is planting the seed with her symbolism and strategic writing style.
ReplyDeleteDenver seems to revert to isolated areas for a sense of comfort. The chapter begins with the opening line “Denver’s secrets were sweet” (34), implying the complexity of this character. She views the outdoors as a place to think and to be in private. Although Denver’s isolated demeanor is shown, she seems to also be very observant of her surroundings. I interpreted Denver seeing the white dress knelt beside Sethe as a symbol of her intelligence. Although what she saw was unearthly, she saw it as a sign that this ghostly figure had “plans”.
ReplyDeleteWhen Sethe decides to share her memories and stories of the past with Denver, it was a powerful moment for the both of them. Denver learned how hard her mother fought for her and the difficult circumstances she faced when pregnant with her. She also hears how her name came to be Denver. Sharing the stories of the past bring up the questions as to how the ghost will impact the future and how its presence will impact the relationship of Sethe and Denver.