Throughout Beloved by Toni Morrison, the past and present are often mixed together making it hard for even the owners of the memories to tell them apart. There are few reliefs of this heavy burden, some of which are shown through sharing the memories with others. For my group presentation we read the passage where Sethe and Paul D are sharing their memories about Sweet Home. In fact, they share the most dehumanizing moments they spent at Sweet Home. For Sethe this was when the schoolteacher's nephews stole her milk, with Halle watching as we learn from Paul D., and for Paul D. it was when he had a bit in his mouth. They seem to find brief solace in this interaction and possibly help each other move forward by confiding in one another.
When I first read this I didn’t immediately see the connection. However, I later thought back to the very beginning of the year when we were reading about Benjamin. When Mr. Heidkamp talked to our group about our passage he mentioned that the conversation would not have been the same had Paul D. or Sethe been talking to a therapist. This got me thinking back to the Benjaminian idea of mutual recognition. A lot of that had to do with gender, but also that shared experiences are experienced differently. Paul D and Sethe both suffered an immense amount while they were at Sweet Home, and while this experience was extremely dehumanizing, through mutual recognition they are able to start recognizing each other as full/valid human beings.
DQ: What other themes of this year are you seeing show up in Beloved?
This blog post was really interesting for me to read because I never thought of bring mutual recognition in to this part of Beloved. I think that a lot of it has to do with mutual recognition but I also think that since they both had dehumanizing experiences, they are able to create a bond.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that mutual recognition plays a big part in this novel, but I'm not sure it's the only thing at play between Paul D. and Sethe. Although they have a shared experience from Sweet Home, I think that Sethe or Paul D. could've been able to fully recognize other people if they had shared their "rememories" about a dehumanizing experience that they had experienced as well. I think that even though the shared past helps Sethe and Paul D. connect, they each could find mutual recognition with other ex-slaves who had experienced similar things, but somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the whole mutual recognition and how it plays a huge role in the novel. I never would have guessed to thing of mutual recognition but thanks for bringing it up because now I understand that it really does play a big role in the novel itself.
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