An Adult Baby: Morrison's Duality

From pages 248-252, Toni Morrison provides a snapshot into the brain of Beloved. For the first time in the story, the reader hears the rawest form of Beloved's thoughts, so raw that Morrison deliberately excludes all punctuation and conventional grammar in order to better depict the inner workings of Beloved's mind. The effect of this style is profound; Morrison develops a image that, in layman's terms, can only be described as an adult baby. How could an author grapple with this oxymoron in such an elegant way? Morrison masters this art on pages 248-252.

Morrison depicts an adult baby in this passage most prominently by using elementary style sentences to portray incredibly complex ideas. For example, one of the striking lines in the chapter reads, "in the day diamonds are in the water where she is and turtles" (251). Throughout the story, diamonds are used to represent stories and story telling. So, in a literal (baby) understanding of this phrase, Beloved says that Sethe is in the water with turtles and diamonds. In a figurative (adult) understanding of this phrase, Beloved is identifying Sethe and her stories in the water, which I personally believe is used to represent Sethe's past. The addition of the turtles in the most confusing part of this phrase because up until this point, turtles have not held any greater meaning. Hence, the turtles are an image meant to add detail to the depiction of Sethe in the water. The depiction of Sethe immersed in her past, surrounded by her stories, is a powerful image, one much more complex than a woman standing in water with a turtle.

Another striking example of baby versus adult imagery: "I see her take flowers away from leaves" (248) (this phrase is also repeated later). Removing the flowers from leaves is a simple and literal image, however, Beloved speaks of something greater here. My best interpretation is that the flowers are the best parts of Beloved's existence, possibly even Sethe herself, and the leaves are Beloved's history, the parts she doesn't want to see. The leaves are the fact that she was killed by her own mother.

Therefore, these short phrases depict a greater duality of Morrison's writing where she constantly creates a literal (baby) and figurative (adult) image for the reader to grapple with. What I know for certain is that nothing in Beloved can be interpreted one way. Beloved is both the baby and the adult.

My VR Refugee Experience

I thought that the virtual reality experience was very interesting and definitely had an impact on me but at the same time I was fidgeting with my phone, thinking about how I didn't have my earbuds with me and how some scenes were not up to high definition quality.  These are my problems but when I really dove in to the virtual reality experience I found bigger problems that needed to be addressed.

It was definitely hard for me to place myself in these refugees shoes because I was "seeing" what they were going through but not feeling what they were going through.  I can sympathize and feel for the refugees in the virtual reality videos and for Nadia and Saeed in Exit West but I won't understand any of the back story.  Videos and books are up to interpretation and that's what makes them so powerful but the power of them only ingrains itself into my mind so far because I can not relate to the stories that are being told.  I think that the stories of the Refugees in The Displaced were very insightful and heart wrenching but I missed all of the small details.  Some details that I undoubtedly missed could be, what used to be these children's towns, what do the children need for survival and what kind of lives did these children live before they became refugees?  These are critical questions but at the same time only the individual living their life can answer them accurately.  If these kids witnessed my earbud misplacement crisis it would effect them all differently and in a unique way.  At the same time I am seeing their legitimate crisis and am able to feel sympathy but I have no idea what is really going on, physically and mentally.

The virtual reality experience definitely sheds light on these young boys and girls dire state.  The videos make me want to take action and to help.  I want to give my support but from the virtual reality standpoint I think that I still can not relate in the slightest to these refugees.  I feel sympathy for them and have the ability see what they see everyday, but I will never be able to show empathy and really make a strong connection to them unless I step into their minds.