Sethe Accepted by the Community

So I’m thinking that my theory about the community and their denouncement of Sethe was pretty accurate. As soon as Beloved begins to drain the life out of Sethe and Denver ventures out, the community finally rallies together to go to 124. Ella organized a group of thirty or so people to march to 124 to confront Beloved. Based on Morrison’s description, it did not take too much convincing to get them to come together. That means that a good majority of the community truly did not harbor extreme negative opinions about Sethe. When Ella, one of the most skeptical of Sethe and her story, works through Denver’s story, making her own conclusions, she says “nobody got that coming” and “children can’t just come up and kill the mama” (301). Although she did not agree with her actions (or did she?), she did not agree with the punishment that seemed to have been put in place.

I think that part of the abandonment of 124 and Sethe had come from not only Sethe’s actions, but also Baby Suggs and her feasts causing jealousy. After Baby Suggs decided to hold a massive feast for approximately ninety people and they had a huge celebration, a lot of people held negative emotions towards her afterwards. They wondered why she was able to do such things and why they were not allowed to themselves. She had not suffered the way that they had (although in reality, I don’t think you could compare any of their suffering) and therefore did not deserve all the goodness that she had.

Even though they may have harbored some negativity towards Baby Suggs, she was, in a sense, their teacher. She told them to love and take care of themselves or else who would do it for them? So, when she died only a short time after Sethe arrived, the community was able to combine two negative events into one and they blamed and denounced Sethe.

Yet, in the end, they came together and marched to 124 where they ‘saved’ Sethe from the life-absorbing Beloved. I now have very little doubt that their negativity was for her action alone and I believe that they may have done the same if placed in the situation. At the end, they are all (eventually) able to forget about Beloved and move on with their lives. Of course, that brings the question of what/who was Beloved, but I’m going to hold off on that question. I think that the community kind of adopts a forgive and forget attitude at the end, able to leave Beloved behind, move on with their lives, and accept Sethe into the community. Toni Morrison said that Sethe’s actions were truly the highest act of love as she would rather kill them then have them live and die in slavery and I believe that there is much truth behind that.

Finally, I just want to say that I really enjoyed this novel. At the beginning, I was kind of skeptical and I was kind of confused with all the switches in point of view, but Toni Morrison is truly an amazing writer and I loved not only the story itself, but the way that it was crafted together.

Community in Beloved

There is a great amount of community in Beloved. It presents community as something that is essential for life. Baby Suggs holds these gatherings in the Clearing where she tells the men, women and children to love themselves in a physical sense. During these gatherings the women would cry, men would dance, children would laugh and they could all just be physically free in this group setting, as a community.  When Sethe experiences her first few days of freedom she becomes a part of the Cincinnati community and this was when she discovers her sense of self of as an individual. But the Cincinnati community also played a more negative role as well. When the community failed in alerting Sethe about the schoolteacher, that was ultimately the cause of the death of Sethe's daughter. These events display the importance of community for survival.

The Concept of Beloved

After Beloved appears out of the water and is received by Sethe and Denver, the book gives you many context clues as to who she is. They describe her as being in her late teens, or early adulthood, yet her skin is flawless. She doesn't even have any wrinkles on her knuckles. She looks brand new. Additionally, their dog called Here Boy immediately scurries away in fear. This can be explained by the treatment the dog received at the beginning of the book. Sethe recalls when Here Boy is thrown against the wall of their house by Beloved in her ghost form. So it's pretty for the dog to be afraid of Beloved and want to run away. However, there are multiple points about the book and Beloved that honestly confuse me as this book is unraveling.

How does is take Sethe such a long time to realize that this girl is her daughter? And additionally, if she didn't know for that long, why did she take care of a complete stranger like she was her own? Maybe she hoped that this daughter, and unconsciously knew the truth before she actually figured it out. And while there is no way Sethe would be able to recognize the girl, since she lost Beloved at such a young age, there were multiple clues other than the dog and the new skin to realize that this was no average girl.

Is this actually Beloved? Or is this going to be one of those books where you find out at the end that Sethe ending up going insane from her extremely traumatic past, and has been hallucinating her life every since, and that Denver either left her years ago or died, and Beloved is just another hallucination that haunts her from her past? This could be one of those stories where Beloved is basically just a symbol or theme for something bigger then herself, and she was never there in the first place. Just thoughts, you know?

The Torture Devices of Slavery

Slavery was a terrible time for the Africans that were enslaved. To make it even worse, the slave owners used tools, that were more like torture devices, to keep the slaves in the animal mindset. One such tool was a bit. It was an iron mask that allowed the slave to breathe but disallowed them to eat the sugar cane that they were picking. The slaves would work with this cover on of hours in the sun. The mask would become so hot that when it got pulled off their skin would come with. This is exceptionally gruesome to imagine, and gut-wrenchingly terrible. Another bit has a metal tongue piece that was held in a metal ring that can tighten. This disables the ability to speak to the other slaves. While wearing these, slaves were repeatedly whipped and worked to death. With these torture devices, it only made it worse for them.

How (or what) is exactly Beloved?

At first read into the novel Beloved, many readers may seem satisfied with the notion that Beloved is merely just Sethe's baby's ghost taking a human form. Even the characters in the book seem to believe that Beloved is just a ghost transformed back into a human. However, at closer examination (and knowing how Toni Morrison seems to always leave a deeper meaning to characters and motifs in her novels), one really questions what Beloved is exactly.

It's clear that some may strongly agree that Beloved is just a physical representation of a ghost because the book explicitly states that. There is even textual evidence that Beloved could potentially be just a "regular" ghost taking shape in a "regular" human. For example, the fact that once Paul D appears into Sethe's life, Beloved's ghost magically disappears, and the house lacks its haunting qualities as a result. Also the fact that once the house seems to be rid of any sort of spiritual forces, Beloved (as a human) arrives onto the steps of 124.

But yet, there is textual evidence that refutes the idea that Beloved is just Sethe's baby's ghost taken human form. Take into consideration the passage when Beloved is recounting her past, and how she originally showed up onto the steps of 124. She mentions "men with no skin", and while yes, they are supposed to represent white men, couldn't these "men without skin", also represent skeletons? After all, skeletons literally don't have any skin. In addition, Beloved mentions dead men on her face. Again, yes, this could be symbolic of the millions of men and women that have died during the Middle Passage, but they also could represent the deceased spirits who have traveled to hell, purgatory, or the underworld. With this under consideration, what if Beloved is more than just a ghost? What if Beloved is something darker and more ghoulish, like a demon of some sort?

Similarly, what if Beloved isn't just a ghost or demon or spiritual force, but an embodiment of Sethe's traumatizing experiences as a slave and guilt for killing her baby girl? Even when taking into consideration the ending of the book when Beloved is getting bigger and bigger while Sethe is getting frailer and frailer. This simple statement could symbolize Sethe's guilt and trauma eating her up, and her inability to cope with them. As they get gain more control of not only her life, but also her thoughts, Sethe is seen getting weaker and unable to fight them any longer.

Essentially, Beloved could potentially be something much greater than just a ghost taking a human form. Beloved could really be anything, given the perspective of the situation and what you believe she is.

Slavery and Seeing Ghosts

When we got Beloved in class, I glanced at the back of the book summary and learned that the novel is set in the 1800's when slavery was still in full swing. What I would soon learn is that this book is about so much more than conquering and living through slavery. There's another huge element of the book that makes it even more intriguing; the fact that Sethe and her family are being hunted by a ghost. And not just any ghost, the ghost of her dead baby that she murdered. To me, this added a whole new layer of interest to Beloved.

My grandparents and most of my cousins live in California so since I've been five, my family has usually flown out during the summer to see them. There's a certain village called Old Town because it's one of the oldest parts of San Diego. They have an old fashioned candy store and then also a lot more modern shops and restaurants on the surrounding streets. Shopping and eating are fun but my favorite part of the day is going to the Whaley House.

The Whaley House is ranked as one of the most famous haunted houses in America and I can personally vouch that that title is well deserved. The house was designed by Thomas Whaley and then built in 1855 when he moved his wife, Anna, and their six children there to live. A few months after moving, their youngest child, still an infant, Thomas Jr., died of Scarlet Fever. And that was just the beginning of bad omens for the Whaley's. People have claimed to hear a baby wailing or have said they see the baby's old cradle moving on tours.

As it happens, the house was cursed from the beginning. Built on the site where a man named Yankee Jim Robinson, a man infamous in San Diego for lying and stealing, was hung, his ghost is said to haunt the house since the Whaley's moved in. Violet Whaley, one of the oldest daughters, committed suicide in their outhouse by shooting herself with her father's gun. By the time her father ran out and brought her inside, she had already died. Some say they see a young women dressed in older fashioned clothes disappear in mid air or get hit by a wave of absolute despair when near the outhouse. It is assumed that she suffered from severe clinical depression and spiraled when her fiance left her, turning out to be a con man just wanting her money. I've caught multiple orbs (circular balls of energy that in the right context, can represent a ghost)  by the outhouse when it's too dark to be dust or anything my phone created.

Since I was 9 or 10, I've always had a connection with the house. From seeing apparitions appear in front of me to feeling the Whaley's dog brush against my leg, I've always experienced something that my brother and mother never have. I've even caught orbs on camera in places where I felt an energy draw to me. Clearly I believe in ghosts and while it may sound crazy, I have always felt a connection to the "other side."

When we dove into the possible theory that Beloved could be Sethe's baby reincarnated and learned about the whole plot of the ghost that haunts her house, it immediately caught my attention. I really like how Morrison added this to the plot because it adds another layer to the novel that you don't usually read about in books set during slavery or about slavery. Whether you're a skeptic or a fully fledged believer, I think this element to the story line makes the book even more unique and intriguing than it already is.

Orb in the lower right corner

Orb by the outhouse in middle left corner

The white area that looks like Thomas Whaley

Home

In Beloved, there are many notable themes, but it is the theme of the home that is most interesting to me. The theme of the home might be the largest of the themes in the novel, but it also appears to be the most overlooked. Morrison finds a way to fit 124, Sweet Home, and the ever-changing location of the characters into her definition of home. Even though Sweet Home feels the least like home, it plays a heavy part in almost every character's life, though usually filled with poor memories. It is 124, where a large portion of the book takes place, and this is a location that is most memorable for Sethe and Denver. 124 and Sweet Home are two physical examples of home, but the ever-changing location of the main characters manages to play a minor role in the story.  This is also the only portrayal of home that does not involve some version of haunting. Sweet Home provides multiple characters with haunting memories, while 124 is haunted by Baby Suggs.

 Sethe and Denver unsuccessfully attempt to determine Beloved origins. As they question Beloved about her past continues to give them short responses, telling that she only remembers a white man, a bridge, and being taken away from her mother. Going forward, Sethe believes that she is an abused women, while Denver believing that she is a reincarnation of her dead sister's ghost. But Denver believes that after her disappearance and reappearance that it is something more that just her sisters reincarnation. Who is Beloved Truly ?

Past as Process

As seen by Sethe and the way she experiences the external world around her, the past is consistently enveloping her to the point where it may be debilitating. When she goes to the Clearing to try and make sense of her life and revisit what used to be, she finds herself getting choked by the "ghost of Baby Suggs". Many may consider this as an actual ghost, but it could also represent the nature of her hostile past coming back again and again, and finally striking.
Of course, this was not the first time Sethe's past has revisited her at all hours of the day. However, this is a scene to note because it further exemplifies the idea that the past is always following us. It does not stay in the period of time in which it was born, and is not a passive agent in life. Rather, it is an active agent that helps people develop into who they become.
The remaining question is, who will Sethe ultimately become, and how is her past a more aggressive, active agent than Paul D or Beloved? When the past is constantly up her sleeves, we can only assume this isn't the only time Sethe's past will take a physical toll.

Being a Slave

I think the most interesting part of Beloved, is Sethe. It's definitely unusual to see a black woman tell her truth about slavery. Sethe buries all of the pain and hurt she felt during slavery and now it's all being brought back up. I think the abuse of black women, especially during that time gets often overlooked; which is terrible considering they were constantly abused. I kind of wish that it was only told through Sethe and no one else. Sethe can explain the sexual abuse and the neglect, and that's what I'm interested in. Black women in general don't get their story told enough, and I think if this book focused only on her, I would enjoy it more.

Beloved and the Importance of Sadness

The other day, I overheard a conversation about Beloved. A substitute teacher said that she read the book several times, but stopped because she couldn't find the "joy" in it. I mostly just confused, because Beloved is the last book I would ever read if I was looking for a happy read. But I also thought, why am I reading it (besides being required to, of course)? Why read a book that's so relentlessly depressing?

The truth is, most of the books hailed as the most important and influential are incredibly depressing. This isn't always the case; some of my favorite books have happy endings–but even so, they're never happy without a cost. Beloved, though, is on a whole new level of sad. Partially, though, that's what makes the book so amazing.

If Beloved were a happy book, it would lose most of its power. This is mostly because of its subject: slavery. It's always tempting, when learning about a horrific subject, to try to look for some glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, this can lead to the spreading of misconceptions about that subject. If we are taught happy stories about slavery, then why would we think slavery was that bad? This is true even if the story paints those suffering as overcoming. We often hear stories about the slaves escaping to the North, but not about the suffering they were still forced to endure even after finding freedom.

I don't believe that a story can't have any happiness to be worthwhile, but I do believe that an entirely happy story with no conflict isn't much of a story. I also believe that when it comes to real-life events, tragedies should be shown as unbearable as they truly were.

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?

Beloved and Ghosts from Outer Space

Morrison’s treatment of supernatural elements, especially the character of Beloved, bears a close resemblance to Stanislaw Lem’s 1961 science fiction novel Solaris. Lem describes a crew of researches from Earth fruitlessly trying to establish communication with a telepathic alien organism - a living ocean covering the surface of planet Solaris. After the scientists turn to more radical methods of stimulating the ocean, the organism responds by materializing replicas of people from the crew members’ individual repressed traumatic memories. In nearly every aspect, Beloved’s nature seems much closer to those replicants than to traditional folklore ghosts. Just like the Solaris replicants, Beloved doesn’t have a past. She has no memory, and hence identity, of her own, separate from Sethe’s. Also, just like the replicants, Beloved can’t physically bear to be separated from her host. Beloved was even spawned from the water, just like the mirages of Solaris.

Writing the character of Beloved, Morrison could have drawn inspiration from Solaris, since the novel’s first translation into English in 1970 received fairly wide recognition. But the similarities might also be incidental, since Morrison and Lem crafted their analogous supernatural creatures as physical metaphors for similar psychological phenomena. They represent, in terms of psychoanalysis, autonomous complexes: systems of memories, emotions, and thoughts repressed from the conscious, but continuing to independently affect a person’s psyche. Beloved, as before her materialization did the ghost of 124, is a tangible force that uncontrollably influences Sethe’s personal identity as well as her interactions with others. The symbol of the ocean, or water, may also be explained in terms of psychoanalysis as the archetype of the unconscious. Yet, it seems that unlike the Solaris replicas, Beloved possesses some sort of agency, altering Sethe’s life not simple by the mere fact of her presence, but sometimes by active effort. She also meaningfully interacts with other characters, like Denver and Paul D. Although the similarities between the supernatural in Beloved and Solaris seem obvious, the few but important differences that there are make me wonder if this comparison limits the range of Beloved’s character to a narrower framework than Morrison intended. Can Beloved be reduced to a mere psychological function of Sethe’s mind, or does she have an even greater significance in the novel?

Stereotyping Beloved

The reason I like Beloved is because there are no stereotypes involved. All the characters are complex, contradictory and all the interactions are tense, longing and real.

For instance, from the beginning it is clear that Denver is lonely. She has no friends, spends all her time in 124, and is jealous of Paul D for attracting the attention of her mother. However, she is simultaneously afraid of her mother, her only companion, and really longs for her father.

Furthermore, it is clear that Sethe is strong willed and independent. She runs away from Sweet Home and gives birth on the road with only the help of Amy, a white girl. But she is also overcome with memories that threaten her sanity. She is a loving mother but she is also a murderer.

The community that Sethe, her children, and Baby Suggs live in is one of unity and tight bonds. Stamp Paid says that he never has to knock at most doors before he goes on in. But it is also one of jealousy and hurt: when they see how well-off Sethe's family is they don't warn them about the four white people coming to kidnap.

I think that this book helps to reveal the many nuances in people and in life. I think that if you passionately hate a group of people, be they a minority, a political group, a religion, then you are mistaken or misinformed. People are not simple enough to be characterized as evil or good. Binaries like these are social constructs that create dangerous simplifications. They get rid of the reason to try to understand people individually. They get rid of any need for critical thought or analysis. They make it easy to hate. When we recognize that people are difficult to comprehend we open up a place for them to be the one defining and not the defined.

Perspectives

One of the most interesting parts of Beloved and something I like the most about the book is how it is told from the slave's perspective, as opposed to a white person's. Most books are from a white person's perspective- Huckleberry Finn for example, and I think that while they are talking about slavery, it is much more powerful for the slave to tell their own story. rather than how the white people see them. In Beloved, when the perspective turns to the white person for a little bit,  you can see how they look down on the people you have gotten to know so well. For example, how the slave catcher, schoolteacher, and the nephew, look at Sethe, Baby Suggs, and Stamp Paid as crazy and wild when we, the audience, have gotten to hear their stories and the hardships they've gone through. We have gotten to know them as very strong, powerful people. This change in perspective was very powerful for me, and, for this reason, this is my favorite book I have read about slavery and the time period so far.

Chronology in Beloved

I find it really interesting,  although confusing, how Morrison intentionally leaves the order of events vague, or references things that the characters know, but no the reader. For example, when Sethe still thinks Amy is a white boy, she is scared "that he too still had mossy teeth, an appetite." (38)

Sethe often fazes in and out of being in the present and flashbacks, which makes the reader experience what is happening to her, an ugly blend of the present and her horrible past, not fully sure which is which. Denver seamlessly goes from her own memories to Sethe's, without particularly distinguishing between them, showing how she bases so much of herself on the past that she considers some of Sethe's memories to be just as much hers as her mother's.

Ice Skating With a Ghost

At the beginning of part II of Beloved,  Sethe goes ice skating with Denver and Beloved. This experience becomes an important moment for Sethe's character development. It also speaks to the speaks to the value of relationships and how a community does not have to define you.  

This moment is one of strength for Sethe. She find that even with the issues in her life from the ghost of the baby and the way the town has treated her after what she did she can find enjoyment and fun in life. Additionally, she begins to realize that Beloved could be, through some mystery, her dead daughter reborn. This realization makes Sethe hopeful for a future on her own terms.

The bond that this experience creates among the two younger women is also important. Dever's crisis of trying to find her own identity is partially resolved through Beloved who provides the companionship that she needs to help form it.

Masculinity in Beloved pt. 2

My last blog post was about Paul D's "a man ain't a goddamn ax" comment, and his surprisingly progressive take on masculinity. As I was reading further, I found a contradiction to this statement.

Paul D is describing how frustrating it is to lose control to Beloved, and how it strips his masculinity. He says, "because he was a man and a man could do what he would: be still for six hours in a dry well while night dropped; fight raccoon with his hands and win; watch another man, whom he loved better than his brothers, roast without a tear just so the roasters would know what a man is like."

I sighed  a little when I read this, shaking my head. Oh, Paul D. The concept of masculinity is going to follow us, no matter what. Paul D can stand up to Sethe about Halle not "acting like a man," but it seems he is unable to stand up to himself. He still holds himself to a manly standard, forcing himself to not feel, not express fear, be aggressive. He has internalized the messages of what is a man, and these have spread everywhere back in those times, without media or the Internet. Now, we have infinite forms of simple mass communication to get our messages across, and too often those messages contain gender standards that have infatuated all of us, to some extent.

Spark notes is Clutch

Reading Beloved is Hard.  I have trouble staying focused and then I miss important events in the book.  I did the reading the first few nights and just read, and when we talked about it in class, I thought something completely different than actually happened.  After I did that for a few days, I decided to read the spark notes along with the reading, and it is very helpful. 

At first, I was so confused and had no idea who any of the characters were or what was happening in the class, and now I know what is going on and understand what happens in class, and it makes it a lot easier for me.  That is why spark notes is clutch.

Chamomille in Beloved

Near the beginning of the novel, the smell and sap of chamomile are mentioned several times during Paul D and Sethe's reunion. While it is a minor detail, I feel as though too much emphasis was put on it for it not to be significant. It is first mentioned when Sethe runs to the water pump, and begins to wash the sap off of her using the water pump. She explains that she was covered in it because she was careless and had taken a shortcut through a field. Here, chamomile represents the mistakes of her past, and the water pump is her penance. Although is literally representative of the moment she is in, it could also refer to the mistakes of her past, like her attempt on her children's lives. This is even more significant in that chamomile is known to be associated with miscarriages when consumed during pregnancy, and Sethe killed the child that remained unnamed. Without her name, she never went through traditional birth customs, and in a way could be symbolically never born. Therefore, it is almost as if Sethe washes away the sins of her Beloved's murder at the water pump.

But despite the fact that she washed herself of sin, Paul D sings about their meeting and describes Sethe as still having the sap on her legs, as though he himself had not accepted that she washed herself of it. This is shown later when Sethe confesses what happened. Sethe defends herself as justified in doing so, but Paul D is unable to see her the same way, and leaves. Although it is a bit far fetched, it is possible that Morrison intended chamomile to be a symbol of sin.