In Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, which is set after the civil war, Sethe the protagonist of the novel is an escaped slave who fled to Cincinnati Ohio in hopes of a better life. However, the hardships of slavery had followed her into her new life.
This novel really does a great job of depicting the worst of slavery and what it can bring people to do. In the novel it is made clear that her home is haunted by her own child that was murdered at a young age. Sethe, Denver, and Paul D have been dealing with the haunted spirits of the home for quite awhile and have almost made peace with it. In this novel Sethe experienced a rebirth depicted when she says " Right in front of its door she had to lift her skirts, and the water she voided was endless." I think the timing of this scene was perfect because shortly after they take in a sickly girl that goes by the name Beloved.
Something that is mentioned in the book and that is found to be odd is that Beloved claims to have walked a great deal in order to get to the 124 house. However, it is noted that her skin has no wrinkles and her feet don't have any sores, which goes against her story of having walked a great distance. Another odd thing about their new house guest besides the fact that she showed up out of the blue is her name itself. On Sethe's tombstone for her baby the words "Beloved" are engraved and were the only words she could afford. I find it very odd that it also happens to be the young girls name as well. I have come to the conclusion that Sethe had a rebirth and the girl they have taken in is her child from the dead, reembodied in an older form. That would explain all the coincidences and odd characteristics of this girl they know so little about.
I totally agree with what you are saying about who Beloved is in your blog post. The rebirth also explains why there was so much emphasize put on the water and how Sethe had to pee so much when they got back from the Carnival. Another reason we know that Beloved was rebirth is because Here Boy is no longer there. He left when the ghost came the first time and he just left again. Also, it makes sense because Beloved was asking Sethe about the diamonds when she could not have known that Sethe had diamonds in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your approach on who Beloved is. I think the details associated with a girl walking out of water definitely suggests rebirth. Our discussion in class also highlighted how Here Boy is involved in this description. Here Boy happens to leave with the appearance of this strange person. This further leads me to believe that Beloved is most likely a rebirth of another character in the story.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your analysis, and I think that Denver figures it out earlier than anyone else which is why she wants to spend so much time with her; she wants to bond with her sister. I wonder if this can happen in this novel's universe how supernatural the story will end up becoming.
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