Monday, November 21, 2016

Surviving vs. Living

"If there had been sadness in her eyes he would have understood it; but indifference lodged where sadness should have been."

To me, Beloved is a story about whether we can truly live again after experiencing something unthinkably horrible. Not merely survive, but lead a life worth living. Each character's struggle between hope (and thus a life worth living) and despair (and thus a life meant to be survived, not enjoyed) is symbolized through the motif of eyes.

The quote above describes Baby Suggs's eyes after "The Misery" happens and she gives up her community life. Sethe is also described as having cold "iron" eyes in the beginning of the book, presumably because of the horrors she has witnessed throughout her life.

Thus the true mark of a life not worth living is not sadness, but cold indifference. Indifference means you have been beaten down to the point you no longer expect anything good to happen - you have lost hope. Indifference caused Baby Suggs to spend the rest of her life laying in bed.

The story of Beloved seems to be a story about whether Sethe can move past this indifference and find a life truly worth living.

2 comments:

  1. This is really well written and insightful! I agree that the indifference that Sethe observed in Baby Suggs is somehting that she is going to have to either choose to overcome, or succumb to it.

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  2. I think another example of this could be when someone comes back from war. They tend to not be the same and others tend to get worse. It makes them suffer long term brain damage and instead of coming back and living like a hero they have to face a great punishment.

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