From the moment Beloved stepped out of the water Toni Morrison has given us many reasons to be skeptical of the "glowing" woman: the choking of Sethe, coercion of Pauly D, Beloved's uncanny obsession with the past. In fact, Morrison has given the reader very few reasons to like Beloved, or to even trust Beloved. Sure she is a companion to Denver but that is about it. So what does Sethe see in Beloved?
Perhaps Sethe knows the danger of Beloved's situation, being a Black woman wandering the streets. As Sethe says to Pauly D, "...feel how it feels to be a coloredwoman roaming the roads with anything God made liable to jump on you. Feel that." (80)
Or maybe Sethe knows what Denver knows --- Beloved is the baby who has been haunting 124. The reader has reasons to believe Sethe knows who Beloved actually is. "If the boys came back one day, and Denver and Beloved stayed on--well, it would be the way it was supposed to be, no? And the minute she saw the dress and shoes sitting in the front yard, she broke water. Didn't even have to see the face burning in the sunlight. She had been dreaming of it for years." (156)
Beloved's intentions are still unknown to the reader but they seem dangerous. Is Sethe blinded by empathy, love, or maybe even guilt?
If it is truly the daughter risen from the dead, do you think she deserves this opportunity to live the life she has missed? And a follow up, should her life be held to higher expectations than the life of a mortal since this is her second chance? Or do all things (including deaths) happen for a reason?
ReplyDelete