Directions: Same format as the last blog. Read pages 125-180. Now you should be thinking about how these abstract images, symbols, and metaphors are coming together to present a full picture of what happened on 124 the day Beloved died. Compose a blog response analyzing these ideas and expressing your opinion on the text.
- Breakfast (127)
- Hiiiiiiii (127)
- It rained (129)
- Cherokee (131)
- Tobaco tin (133)
- She moved him (134)
- Turtles (137)
- Touch me ... and call me beloved. (137)
- Denver and Sethe - Where does Sethe think Beloved has been? (140)
- Denver and Beloved (141)
- She points to the sunlight (146)
- Paul D vs. Beloved for Sethe's attention (147-156)
- “It was Stamp Paid who started it. Twenty days after Sethe arrived…” (159)
- “She had decided to do something with the fruit worthy of the man’s labor and his love. That’s how it began.” (160)
- Laughter, goodwill, love…made them angry (161)
- “The sent of their disapproval lay heavy in the air…offended them with excess...high-topped shoes” (162-163)
- She smelled another thing… (163)
- Bodwins (162) The Garners (164-166)
- “These are my hands...” (166)
- Mr. Gardner. Bodwins. Differences? Similarities? (167-173)
- “until she got proud...high-topped shoes she did not like the look of at all.” (173)
- Four horsemen (174)
- The shed. What happened? Make connections to the prior chapter. (174-180)
When Sethe learned of Halle’s insanity, she lamented about how nothing seemed too horrible for her to believe in, but I wonder if that thought was more personal to Morrison, because in this section her depiction of the murder of an infant was somehow much worse than I thought it would be. That being said, the way the Morrison executes the scene is very well done. Ironically, I found the strongest metaphorical ties of the chapter to be biblical. In the New Testament, it was the Lamb of God, or Jesus, who triggered the release of the four horsemen of the apocalypse; conquest, war, famine, and death. In the book, the sacrifice of Beloved, who died to protect her family from slavery and eventually rose again to take her place at her mother’s side, signified the arrival of a slave catcher, the nephew, the sheriff and Schoolteacher. Even earlier in the section the rainstorm that started on page 129 in Alfred George was similar to the biblical flood in genesis that reset the world which was filled with sinners, in that it offered Paul D a new life away from the sin of slavery and forced labour, which he had rusted away in his tobacco tin. Baby Sugg’s potion of the section was also metaphorical, but in a different way. When she was set free, the transition she made from slave to debted servant echoed the limited improvement made by the abolition of slavery in general. Ironically when Baby Suggs is finally given this opportunity for a better life she is told to give up her work as a skilled cobbiler and focus on doing laundry. Everything about this chapter is ironic, how it was happiness that turned the instigated agner toward Baby Suggs, how Sethe loved her kids so she tried to kill them, and how the one who seemed to suffer the most was Sethe.
ReplyDeleteYour analysis of the biblical references is really insightful! This chapter definitely offered us a lot of interesting metaphors and imagery along with an insight into things that have happened. Your connections are really strong and I never thought about the rainstorm being like the biblical flood.
DeleteSo far Sethe has yet to come to terms with the fact that Beloved is the same Beloved who is her daughter, even if it is unclear where she comes from and why she has returned when it appeared that she had been murdered many years ago. Denver, however, seems to have made this connection but refuses to share this information with her mother, partially because Beloved has asked her not to for some mysterious reason. Since Beloved will not respond to any questions asked about her mother, Sethe assumes that something traumatic has happened to her that caused her to erase portions of her memory. Sethe confides in Denver that “she believed Beloved had been locked up by some white man for his own purposes,” escaped, and “rinsed the rest out of her mind” which had happened to a woman, Ella, who Sethe knew (140). Sethe seems to be trying to come up with explanations for Beloved’s mysteriousness, but Denver is not convinced by her mother’s theory. She is “certain that Beloved was the white dress that had knelt with her mother in the keeping room” all those years ago (140). I wonder if Sethe will begin to suspect that Beloved is not entirely innocent as the book continues, or will she continue to assume that her intentions are pure.
ReplyDeleteI also wrote about Sethe and Beloved's relationship. I like how you talked about Beloved's perceived innocence and how that Sethe's views on her may change later in the book.
DeleteGaining a better insight into Baby Sugg’s life has not only cleared up the path of the story, but also helped us understand her motives and actions a little better. For example, we have been told several times from Sethe’s perspective that things began to change at 124 about a month after her arrival; they went from perfect and ideal to strange and scary. While we do not completely know the context of this, Baby Suggs’ perspective certainly helps open our eyes to the possibilities. For one, Baby Suggs is said to have pampered her friends and family around 20 days after Sethe and Denver arrive, with, “a feast for ninety people,” (161). It is only once her community members form a resentment for Baby’s luxuries and find it to be, “too much,” and it, “made them mad,” (161) that she begins to change her overall tune. She thinks that, “perhaps they were right,” (163). This altering of Baby Sugg’s outlook on life may partially explain her loss of light and color toward the end of her life, as this event seems to dull any lasting spark that Baby Suggs once had. Another event of clarity, partially gifted to us by Baby Suggs, is the death of Beloved. Her demise has been made intentionally foggy and unclear up until this point, and it is only once we get a more in depth perspective of Baby Suggs that we begin to form any semblance of what happened on that day. It is almost as if Baby Suggs is a seeing eye of the going ons at 124, and it is only with her insight that we truly understand what is going on in the story. This is an incredibly strategic move of Morrison, as every single character discussed up until this point has had a somewhat unreliable perspective; neither Sethe, Paul D, nor Denver have given us a clear look at 124’s true nature. It is only until Baby Sugg’s quite literally, “[trades] the living for the dead,” (179) that we get an honest breath of life into the story’s course.
ReplyDeleteYour explanation of Morrison's characterization of Baby Suggs is really interesting! I didn't look at it this way at first, and I like how you put it, that Baby Suggs is a "seeing eye" in the confusion of 124.
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ReplyDeleteSethe has a motherly connection with Beloved that she just cannot seem to justify. Because she does not make the connection that Beloved actually is her daughter, she instead tries to relate to her and allow her into the family. She tells Denver “that she believed Beloved had been locked up by some whiteman for his own purposes, and never let out the door.” (141) Sethe is empathetic to Beloved’s past and is trying to justify her current actions and memory blockage. Often times, Beloved acts “....private and dreamy, or quiet and sullen…” (143) To Sethe, this seems to be how she deals with her past and cannot see beyond her innocence. Sethe is unaware of some of Beloved’s darker actions that Denver notices with her and Paul D. Sethe sees herself in Beloved and tries to relate to her. She thinks that Beloved “...must have escaped to a bridge or someplace…” (141) The vulnerability and confusion of Beloved reminds Sethe of her own escape and adaption to her new life. Although they having different coping mechanisms, their scarred pasts connect them.
I also marked down several places in the book where Sethe finds herself calling Beloved her daughter, but not knowing why she does that. I think you are right in the fact that she has this instict that Beloved is meant to be with her and Denver, but does not know how to deal with that.
DeleteMorrison creates a dark mood leading up to the account of Beloved’s death through Baby Suggs’ foreboding sense of dread. She is distracted by the “disapproving odor” of the offense of her neighbors to her display of abundance. Then, “Suddenly...way way back behind it, she smelled another thing. Dark and coming. Something she couldn’t get at because the other odor hid it” (163). Morrison uses odor symbolically because often we as humans associate strong smells with particular memories. This falls in line with her theme of “rememory” throughout the novel. Thus, it is timely that this odor causes Baby Suggs to transition into a memory of her relationship with Halle, thinking of the inevitability of his death as of the deaths of her children whom she knew only briefly. Baby Suggs evidently associates this “odor” with the death of a loved one, one who is a child in her eyes, and a victim of the brutality of slavery. This clearly foreshadows Beloved’s death at the hand of her mother, who has only ever known slavery and brought her into that life. In the murder of Beloved, Sethe acts only an extension of the system of slavery. Baby Suggs senses that Sethe will be involved in the “dark and coming” event when she smelled the “scent...of disapproval…some yards to the left” of where “Sethe squatted in the pole beans” with the baby near to her (162). The lingering “scent of disapproval” demonstrates that although Sethe is now free, she identifies with being a slave more so than a free black woman. She unconsciously sees herself and her children as still enslaved, and she does not want the repercussions of her choices to harm Beloved.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the dread Baby Suggs' feels contribute to a dark tone in this section. I really like how you spoke about scent and how that contributes to the overall ideas of the chapters; I hadn't even thought about that aspect.
DeleteThe beginning of this section starts off by talking about Paul D and the experiences that he had after Sethe left Sweet Home. One day he showed up on the porch of 124, but we didn’t know where he had come from or why he was there. After Sethe left Sweet Home, Paul D was sold by schoolteacher to a place that was much worse than where they were before with the Garners. The slaves were all kept together in chains, and Paul D recalls how “the wrists he held out for the bracelets that evening we steady as were the legs he stood on when chains were attached to the iron leg.” (126) They were kept in cages, and were signaled to wake up not by the yelling of men, but by gunshots. “ All forty-six men woke to a rifle shot. All forty-six.” (126) All forty six men decided that the way they were kept in cages with mud up to their thighs was no way of living, and if they were going to get out, they had to do it together. Paul D felt several tugs on the chains that he was locked into, and without any verbal communication, knew what they had decided to do. “One by one, from Hi Man back on down the line, they dove. Down through the mud under the bars, blind, groping.” (130) Paul D escaped the quarters that he was held in, but it was another battle to break the chains and facing the outside world.
ReplyDeleteThroughout these chapters, the idea of pain is evident. Sethe’s reaction to Halle’s breakdown reveals how she copes with pain and love. Paul D suppresses the feelings but Sethe is ab;e to face the pain and allow herself to heal and move on. Sethe thinks about constructing a new life and family with Paul D. This seems to be showing that Sethe is taking another step into the future to move on from the past.
ReplyDeleteBeloved’s relationship with many of the characters is talked about. Denver often feels rejected by Beloved, yet Paul D acts against what he knows to be right. The tobacco tin (133) is interesting and could represent his past becoming the present once the lid falls off. Beloved’s perception that the other characters have may change throughout the book. Sethe has a motherly connection while Paul D sees beloved as one that holds power. Beloved could also represent the past which means different things for different characters as well. Innocence seems to be believed of Beloved for now but that might change as the book continues.
Toni Morrison brings back the concept of Paul D's "tobacco tin" heart many times throughout these chapters. Morrison says, “It was some time before he could put Alfred, Georgia, Sixo, schoolteacher, Halle… the taste of iron, the sight of butter… one by one, into the tobacco tin lodged in his chest. By the time he got to 124 nothing in this world could pry it open. By the time he got to 124 nothing in this world could pry it open” (133). Paul D is referring to the traumatic events at Sweet Home and how he wants to lock them away and never think of them again. That may be one of the main reasons he has such hostility towards Beloved. She forces his tobacco tin open little by little, revealing more of his past the longer she stays at 124. I wonder if this is just part of Beloved’s personality as a character or if she is intending to frustrate Paul D in order to get him to leave so she can have Sethe all to herself. We see the ways that Beloved tries to pry open Paul D’s tobacco tin on page 137. Beloved says, ‘“You have to touch me. On the inside part. And you have to call me my name.”’ Paul D can feel himself becoming vulnerable and succumbing to Beloved’s mysterious power. “He said it, but she did not let go. She moved closer with the footfall he didn’t hear and he didn’t hear the whisper that the flakes of rust made either as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin.” What I find most fascinating about Beloved’s presence is her ability to control the minds of the people around her. It is as if Paul D is conscious of what is happening but has no physical ability to control it. I presume Beloved will use this strength more as the book progresses.
ReplyDeleteI was confused about what the tobacco tin was but your blog clears it up. It's an interesting thought that if even Paul D isn't aware of it, Beloved is opening up the tobacco tin and causing him to feel hostile towards her. I wonder how Beloved knows the ways to bother him.
DeleteThe way Toni Morrison intertwines so many past details and threads in this section of the text is mesmerizing. I thought that this cluster of chapters was easy to stay interested in because of the frequent shifts between character focus and periods of time. Specifically discussing character focus, I liked how a lot of this section was about Paul D's past and his current perspective living in 124. In pages 76-124, we learned many details about Beloved's past, her thoughts, and relationship with Sethe. In the most current section, the rivalry for Sethe's attention continues to grow but currently Paul D has the ball in his court. This tension is most evident on Sethe and Paul D's walk home in the snow. As Beloved approached them she "didn't look at Paul D. Her scrutiny was for Sethe" (153). This obsession Beloved has is pushing Paul D to a boiling point as "he fought the anger that shot through his stomach all the way home" (153). Their competition for Sethe's attention may seem relatively normal to many families, but Paul D and Beloved's relationship cannot be discussed without acknowledging their sexual relationship. After their intercourse, Paul D repeatedly says "red heart, red heart, red heart" which allows the reader to know that this isn't meaningless sex, and there are emotions he is hiding from Sethe and himself. Personally, I think this is just another one of Beloved's tactics to drive Paul D apart from Sethe, and she has no romantic intentions with Paul D. It will be interesting to see how this warped "love triangle" continues to form (or fall apart) as we continue reading.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you referred to this situation as a "warped love triangle". I think that as this develops we'll see how large of an effect it actually has on the story and how it could possibly split up Paul D and Sethe, like you say you think Beloved is trying to do.
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DeleteBeloved’s pain in the present would be so similar to what Baby Suggs had sensed the days before her death. “It was Stamp paid who started it” (159) as he crawled through the bramble and thorns, a painful attempt to grasp at the berries, to share the love he could, “scratched, raked and bitten, he maneuvered through and took hold of each berry with fingertips so gentle not a single one was bruised” (160). This continuous contrast between violence and love so harsh and sudden, all starting here. The love Baby Suggs shares as a result of the love Stamp Paid offered becomes overwhelming, unfair to those who feel they have suffered more. So much resentment builds up over a woman, over a family whose life as they can see it is one to be jealous of. In other’s eyes she hasn’t suffered. Of only what they know of her, only what they have seen, she has not known suffering and the love she gives is naive. It is like the love that started with Stamp Paid, that built up through every other act, it all builds up to resentment. Beloved knows nothing of her mother’s life before, knows no reason why she had to die at her hands. She is living once in a situation overgrowing with love and then resentment and then violence, like the berries Stamp Paid picked as he was stabbed and lacerated. Then she is reborn to a situation of this tremendous love, sparking resentments of her own, perhaps even returning to insight violence. Beloved must have this anger ever present in her from the day she was killed on the outskirts of love to when she returned to a home content without her. A home so happy where it had been so violent to her. Where she had suffered so much and to her eyes, none of the others had. Still, Baby Suggs, “let the whoop lie - not wishing to hurt his chances by thanking God too soon” (159). Still reaping the punishments of a life so continuously cruel to her, a life that jealousy and anger could not see, just as Beloved sees only the happiness in front of her, none of the pain nor meaning behind it.
ReplyDeleteYour line, "Still reaping the punishments of a life so continuously cruel to her, a life that jealousy and anger could not see, just as Beloved sees only the happiness in front of her, none of the pain nor meaning behind it" is a powerful thought and really make you think. She only sees what she wants to.
DeleteIn the battle for Sethe’s attention it seems as though Paul D is winning in these chapters. We begin to see more and more jealousy build inside Beloved as Paul D and Sethe’s connection grows. This jealousy even escalates to Beloved pulling out one of her teeth after Denver tells Beloved that “[Sethe] likes [Paul D] here” and that “[Sethe might be mad at [her] if he leaves” (157). This slight outburst by Beloved leads me to believe that’ll we’ll see more of this erratic behavior due to jealousy, later on in the book. Beloved even hints at this herself saying “next it would be her arm, her hand, a toe. Pieces of her would drop maybe one at a time, maybe all at once” (157). While Beloved is going through these outbursts, Paul D grows closer and closer to Sethe. He describes how “her hands among vegetables, her mouth when she licked a thread end before guiding it through a needle or bit it in two when the seam was done, the blood in her eye when she defended her girls” (136) leads him to fall more in love with her every day. Even though he does betray Sethe, they still remain strong. We get to see a connection back to the shadows holding hands as they began to see how they might be able to become a family together. The life that Paul D wants from them is still something Sethe is unsure about but when Paul D asks her “I want you pregnant, Sethe. Would you do that for me?” (151), she’s not completely against the idea. The small part of Sethe that’s still soft, hidden under layers of pain and trauma from her life as a slave, is susceptible to the advances of Paul D. He’s even able to make her feel young again, when he comes to pick her up from work and happily walks her home.
ReplyDeleteSomething I wanted to analyze that was separate from this was the slave labor used at the beginning of this section of reading. We’re able to see how even though Paul D was meant to be free, as a prisoner he’s used to things that the leaders of the prison don’t want to do. This is something highlighted within the 13th and something we can even see right in front of us now. Prisoners are used to do so many different things for us including harvesting food and putting out fires yet they don’t get paid and we don’t acknowledge their work because it isn’t talked about. Their work is a form of legalized slavery, the same as the work that Paul D was forced to do.
I agree with your point about Paul D "winning" in the power struggle over Sethe. It's interesting how everyone at 124 is trying to hold onto someone else for dear life, afraid to be alone. Paul D and Sethe don't want to lose each other, but both are afraid that the other will leave them.
DeleteThe psyche of the character of Sethe is something I have found fascinating throughout this whole novel. There are consistent fallacies in her logic that have seemingly no explanation besides a mere mental block. She has repressed all of these memories of her horrific experiences in her past, including most of her memory of Beloved and her death. As Kathleen touched upon this is why we see Sethe’s reflection upon her past so often, it’s ‘rememory’. She is uncovering the memories she has repressed for so long like the story of Denver’s Birth and Baby Suggs Death.
ReplyDeleteSethe is blind to the divide Beloved has cause in the family, yet the changes are evident to readers. It’s clear to readers Beloved has brought a lot of negative energy with her. She has completely altered the vibe of 124 the toxicity is heightened once again and Paul D begins to be unwillingly driven out, “She moved him… and Paul D didn’t know how to stop it because it looked like he was moving himself. Imperceptibly, down right reasonably, he was moving out of 124.” But how does she have such manipulation over the family? Beloved forces Denver to keep her mouth shut and Paul D to ‘touch her and call her by her name’. Yet Sethe cannot bring herself to see any of this.
I like how you talk about what the characters know vs what the readers know. It helps readers understand what is happening in the book better.
DeleteSomething that stood out to me was the major shift in the community surrounding 124 and how it all vanished within a day, that eventually led to no warning for the family of 124 house when the “four horsemen came” and the results of it. From what I predicted in the last prompt I wrote, I believed it was due to Sethe coming into the community that drove it away but it was actually Baby Suggs that made “124 shut down and put up with the venom of its ghost” (105). After a feast for 90, you would think it would have a positive response and bring the community together but they felt as if it was too much “reckless generosity on display at 124” (162). Reading this was a little bit confusing because I thought to myself, “Why would anyone get mad at someone being a generous person?” Later realizing, generosity was a sign of pride, and pride was something I infer at the time wasn’t achieved by many who were freed slaves or segregated during racial times. Paul D is an example of someone who internally questions his manhood, which is a deficit on someone’s pride as a freed person “Is that where the manhood lay? In the naming done by a white man who was supposed to know?” (147). Paul D experienced a lot as a slave to reach such a state where he had to question his manhood, something that a freed man at birth had the privilege to never doubt. Fairly certain people throughout the community had felt such ways due to them knowing all their slave life that it was wrong.
ReplyDeleteIn these chapters, Toni Morrison is able to captivate through true pain that arises from slavery. The beginning of the section discusses Paul D side to the story. He was sent to prison after trying to kill his vicious slave owner, which indicates the oppression he faced while on the plantation. Once being sent to jail, “the one thousand feet of earth-five feet deep, five feet wide, into which wooden boxes had been fitted. A door of bars that you could lift on hinges like a cage”(125). While being in jail, Paul D clearly experienced immense pain and it is irreconcilable that it was the same case when enslaved. Furthermore, Sethe’s story is also an striking one. To read that she brutally killed her own children was something truly difficult to digest, but after understanding the pain that she went through, I understood her reasoning. Her “two boys bled in the sawdust.. . holding a blood-soaked child”(175). This description was shocking, but it demonstrates how difficult slavery was for Sethe and how she would go as far as to kill her own children to prevent the memories from living onwards.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that Morrison depicts the pain of slavery through different perspectives. It demonstrates how slavery has affected everyone, leaving them traumatized and hurt.
DeleteThis section of Morrison’s iconic piece is spiritual in nature. Morrison’s characters cannot seem to embrace the concept of closure, and yet are in constant flux trying to reconcile their past, present and future. There are many transitions in Morrison’s Beloved, her icon work, but none seems to fully resolve - at least not up to this point (but one can hope!). The issues that attach to any event continue to linger and drive the story forward. For example, at the Clearing, Sethe tries to come to terms with the changes that have transformed 124 after Baby Suggs passing. This passages conjures church-like images. “Baby Suggs, holy” provides a lens through which to witness the events without the tainted point of view of each of Morrison’s characters. Baby Suggs drew Sethe in Sethe recognizes the bond that “Baby Suggs, holy” had and the value she bought to 124, to the community-at-large and to her own life.
ReplyDeletePaul D was sold to Brandywine and sent to prison for attempting murder and gets sent to a horrid prison. Prisoners were forced to perform sexual act by guards, and “occasionally a kneeling man chose gunshot in his head as the price, maybe, of taking a bit of foreskin with him to Jesus” (127). The prisoners were treated like animals and were even left out in the rain to die. It is evident how broken of a man Paul D had become while in prison. “Paul D thought he was screaming; his mouth was open and there was this loud throat-splitting sound - but it may have been somebody else” (129). The prisoners were in a state of insanity where everyone just became one. To add more to the one person thought of the group, only the “Hi Man” can speak to the guards. They listen to him because “he alone knew what was enough, what was too much, when things were over, when the time had come” (128). Hi Man is the one at the beginning of the chain, and the one who has to hold up the rest of the members. When the jail beings to get flooded they decide to go because if one of them goes down, they'll all die since they are still connected to the chain.
ReplyDeleteBefore these chapters, I dismissed Denver as a child-like, very attached young woman. However, as I continued on in the story, I discovered that Denver is far more complex than I credited her for. One example of this is Denver's growing attachment to Beloved--specifically, the reason why she displays this affection towards her. On page 139, Denver considers Beloved looking at her to be "lovely", describing how "she floats near but outside her own body, feeling vague and intense" (139). Denver's need for Beloved to look at her may suggest how neglected and insignificant she feels. Even the slightest bit of human connection satisfies her, seeing how she hardly receives any from Sethe anymore or from the outside world. As I'm considering some other aspects of Denver, such as her desire to hear stories about herself, her ignored requests to leave 124, and Sethe's focus on Beloved, it's evident that Sethe may be disregarding her. Another instance of this is when Beloved momentarily vanishes. This sends Denver into a state of panic, "crying because she has no self" (145). Memories of Baby Suggs' death instantly violate her mind, where Denver fears she will relive the same heartbreak with Beloved's disappearance as she did with that of Baby Suggs'. Again, this attachment Denver has to Beloved emphasizes her loneliness. Everyone Denver loved had left her; therefore, she is terrified for Beloved to do the same. This made me realize how broken Denver is, as well as how much pain she has endured. Throughout the novel, I had always labeled Sethe as being the one who suffered. However, I now recognize that Denver has endured a different kind of struggle.
ReplyDeleteI think your highlighting of how neglected and insignificant Denver feels is really important because it has a big impact on their family dynamic. This causes her to get to increasingly jealous the more people are added to her life, but she's also jealous when she doesn't get attention from everyone.
DeleteI really like Jessica’s point about the “warped love triangle” with Sethe, Paul D, and Beloved. It’s interesting to see the strange duality of both Paul D and Beloved seemingly competing for Sethe’s attention, seeing as both of them are figures from her past that have now recently been reintroduced, it appears as if they are linked. With Paul D further pushing to have a family with Sethe, even saying “I want you pregnant, Sethe. Would you do that for me? (151)” only prompts Beloved to further drive through their relationship, making Paul D “touch her and call her by her name (137).”
ReplyDeleteAs a reader, it is also intriguing being able to witness these instances of dramatic irony where characters such as Sethe are unaware of what appears to be completely obvious to the reader. Oftentimes throughout the novel, Sethe distinctly recognizes Beloved to be a daughterly figure to her, but doesn’t realize why. This confusion tied in with the increasingly elevating tension among the characters lead to an eerie tone. Sethe’s repressed memory is starting to bubble to the surface, as one can tell she is slowly growing to recognize Beloved as a daughter figure more frequently. This tone and duality of Beloved and Paul D leads me to wonder when Sethe will grow fully aware that Beloved is her daughter.
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ReplyDeleteFirst, I must remark on Halle's reaction of smearing butter on his face. I understand that it signifies Sethe's stolen milk, however, I cannot say, with certainty, why butter (a more solid form of milk) and why on the face. It's slightly disturbing to find out that Halle saw and dealt with such problems so close to his escape. I find Beloved's appearance to be quite disturbing, increasingly so, in fact. She continues to annoy me considering her intentions seem rather evil. May I again say that her appearance becomes more and more disturbing. I’m still a little confused. I think that perhaps I have not come to terms with the meaning of Beloved's original death and rebirth. What is the purpose of Beloved's rebirth? Why does no one explain the situation to Paul D earlier?’
ReplyDeleteThis reading was so very disturbing, It was a bit confusing too. I'm not sure I quite understand the parallel between the two mating turtles and Paul D/Beloved's relationship, but it certainly was NOT at all expected at all.It seems that Beloved's anger at the end of Ch9 over two turtles having sex mirrors her anger at Sethe and Paul D, who are also coming out of their shells slowly to touch each other. The dropping of her skirt into the water foreshadows a dropping of all pretenses and a determination to split the couple. Is Beloved doing this only to create tension without the household? Is she simply making Paul D uncomfortable so that he will leave 124 for good?
I also am a bit disturbed by Denver's relationship with Beloved, as it is definitely not a healthy one. Denver is far too dependent on Beloved for her own good and I know that this will only hurt her in the end. When she's not hanging around with her dead sister, she is bored, almost hopeless...as if she doesn't know of anything else to do with her time. The last thing that confused me was Sethe's choking/Beloved's choking. Were these instances somehow related to one another? It just seems strange that Beloved would want to strangle herself, yet I could see why she would be able to strangle Sethe. Perhaps Baby Suggs actually was involved with one of these stranglings?
One recurring theme in the novel is that of Paul D’s “tobacco tin.” He has the “tobacco tin” in his chest and in it he stores all of the painful memories he has experienced both on Sweet Home and while he was imprisoned in Georgia. He uses it to repress his memories and hide them away, however it represents how these painful memories will always be a part of him. “It was some time before he could put Alfred, Georgia, Sixo, schoolteacher, Halle, his brothers, Sethe, Mister, the taste of iron, the sight of butter, the smell of hickory, notebook paper, one by one, into the tobacco tin lodged in his chest. By the time he got to 124 nothing in this world could pry it open (133).” The tobacco tin has made him a somewhat cold and detached person, but as the horrors of slavery made many people go mad, including Halle, it seems that Paul D believes he is protecting himself by being closed off. However, as the novel goes on it seems as though Sethe and the presence of Beloved are slowly prying the tobacco tin open. Sethe brings him comfort and Beloved seems to have the power to get everyone in 124 to recount their past.
ReplyDeleteI love your point, Grace! I think it's really interesting that as much as Paul D resents Beloved, she has the power to pry open the tobacco tin that replaced his heart even though he believes nothing would be able to.
DeleteThe relationship between Paul D and Beloved has taken a turn that will inevitably lead to disaster. The two of them have been in a power struggle ever since Paul D walked through the doors of 124 and banished the ghost of Beloved. In my last post, I talked about Paul D’s confusion about the “shining” glow that Beloved carries on her face as she gazes at Sethe. He doesn’t like Beloved, and he knows that she doesn’t like him, which is why the scene that unfolds between them came as a shock, but also made perfect sense. Beloved’s goal is to get rid of Paul D, and she devised a plan to seduce him in order to do this, “she hoisted her skirts and turned her head over her shoulder the way the turtles had” (137). This scene is especially off putting because of the language that Beloved uses, talking like a child. Paul D says no at first, but ultimately goes through with it, completely confused about his actions, believing that Beloved has some sort of spell over him. He knows that Beloved doesn’t have any feelings towards him, only having love for Sethe, “She don’t love me like I love her. I don’t love nobody but her,” and yet he continues to perform the unjust act (137). Paul D knows that he has to tell Sethe about Beloved, but rather than telling her the truth, he asks her to have his baby, “a way to hold on to her, document his manhood and break out of the girl’s spell - all in one” (151). Paul D feels disconnected from the other women because he has no relation to them, but if he were to have a baby with Sethe, he would ensure his place at 124. It will be interesting to see how his question to Sethe will affect the dynamics of the relationships at 124.
ReplyDeleteAs I have mentioned in my previous blog posts, the repression of memory is an important theme throughout Beloved. Prior to Beloved’s arrival, Sethe was reserved and did not dare talk to Denver about the challenges in her past life. Sethe states that she does this to protect Denver because she wants to spare her the burden of the painful memories. However, once Beloved arrives, Sethe is eager to tell her stories of the past, she opens up and is possibly beginning to heal. Similarly, we see Paul. D. begin to open up the longer Beloved stays at 124. In this section, we learn about Paul. D’s tobacco tin. We also learn that he was arrested after he tried to kill Brandywine (the man who bought him from Sweet Home). The conditions Paul D were forced to endure during his time in captivity are unimaginable. He was chained together with the other inmates and “they squatted in muddy water, slept above it, peed in it” (129). They had no freedom and were treated like animals, living in squalor conditions. They also endured sexual harassment and at night were forced to sleep in boxes in the ground. All of this is incredibly traumatic for Paul.D and after he escapes to Delaware, he looks all of his past memories away in “the tobacco tin lodged in his chest” (133). The memories are so painful and scarring that he does not want to remember them, he doesn’t even want to talk about them. He wanted to hide the suffering so badly that “by the time he got to 124, nothing in this world could pry [the tin] open. While at 124, Paul. D is having trouble sleeping because he feels uncomfortable around Beloved. He begins to sleep outside but Beloved follows him and in a strange way, seduces him. Paul. D. wanted to resist but her strange power-like presence wins him over. However, the tobacco tin breaks open. I took this as a metaphor that Paul. D. may begin to open up as Beloved spends more time at the house.
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