Saturday, November 11, 2017

Ella's Beef

One part of the recent reading that stood out to me was when the audience was reading from the point of view of Stamp Paid. After he tells Paul D that Sethe had killed the baby, Paul D leaves the house without a goodbye and spends weeks sleeping in the church basement. Ella says he did not ask for help, so she didn't give it, and Stamp Paid is appalled. Frankly, I was too, and I empathized with his not being able to understand how a christian would not offer help to someone who needed it just because they didn't ask for it, particularly since Stamp Paid and Ella had spent years helping slaves escape across the Ohio River. So, my question is, why wouldn't Ella reach out?
Is it because Paul D had been involved with Sethe? Ella clearly has harsh feelings toward Sethe, along with nearly everyone else, for murdering her child. However, Paul D demonstrated the same fear and disgust by leaving when he heard the news, so his previous relations with Sethe being the reason doesn't really hold up.
Is it because, as Ella reveals in her conversation with Stamp Paid, that she knows about Beloved having moved in? I doubt she knows Beloved is the ghost of the dead baby, because not even Sethe realized that until she had spent quite a long time around her. Additionally, in that argument, Paul D hates Beloved, so that doesn't hold up either.
As a christian whose job is to help other black people in need, why, in this case, does she not?

1 comment:

  1. Hey Julie!!! Good questions! I was wondering the same thing and I'm not sure I really have an answer. It's confusing. It makes me think Ella must have some personal vendetta against Paul D, because her explanation doesn't line up with how she's acted in the past and her goal of helping slaves.

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