124 was spiteful. A house haunted by the ghost of Sethe’s dead baby, 124 was filled to the roof with memories; hideous memories of their days in slavery. Sethe, who has been free from slavery for eighteen years now, is still bound by her awful memories of it. Her daughter, Denver, was too bound by the past, but Denver’s past never included slavery. Instead, Denver is enslaved by her fear of the world outside of 124 and the loneliness she encounters while at 124. With the help of her mother’s past and their present, Denver eventually looks past 124 and out towards the world, allowing herself to create her own identity. Denver has grown up alone. When she was younger, 124 was filled with people; Baby Suggs, Howard, Buglar, Sethe, and many others. However, as Denver grew up 124 became emptier, until the only people remaining were herself, Sethe, and the ghost of Sethe’s baby, Beloved. The three of them lived “harmoniously”, almost as if they were a family. Until, one day Paul D, a man of Sethe’s past, shows up on the front porch of 124. Denver notices how the two instantly reconnected and were a twosome; the reminiscing of the past “made it clear [it] belonged to them and not to her.” With the only person in her life being Sethe, Denver “[hoped] that her mother did not look away [from her] as she was doing [with Paul D], making Denver long, downright long, for a sign of spite from the baby ghost.” Feeling left out, Denver wanted Paul D to leave, but instead Paul D “had gotten rid of the only other company [Denver] had,” the baby ghost. Denver’s only company was gone, “whooshed away in the blast of a hazelnut man’s shout, leaving [her] world flat.” Paul D was taking up Sethe’s attention and he got rid of the ghost, leaving D... ... middle of paper ... ...Sethe remained deeply affected by her confrontation with the past, however, Denver proved to be the most positively affected by Beloved’s presence. She matured. In her final conversation with Paul D, she explains her future plans for work and schooling and her proclamation “I have my own [opinions],” show her new independence and maturity. Denver has shown politeness and genuineness, a huge transformation from her rudeness, loneliness, and yearn for attention at the beginning of the novel. Slavery was a huge factor to the poor sense of self of all of the characters, Denver relying on her mother’s past to define herself. Although free from slavery, all were enslaved and bound by their pasts, unable to move forward. Once Denver let go of her mother’s past, her own past, and confronted her fears, she was able to make her own decisions and become her own person.
Paul D swings a table around, rids the house of the ghost, and determines himself apart of the home. However, his character change in relation to the illuminating incident does not occur for some time. It is when Stamp Paid urges him to confront Sethe regarding the incident that he learns of it, and his reaction is extremely important to the development of his character and his relationship with Sethe. He was considering having a child with her, but then he learns that her “love is too thick”, that “this here Sethe was new….didn’t know where the world stopped and she began” (164).
While serving as an incredibly impactful piece of indirect characterization for Denver, there are many dynamics of this paragraph that I found intriguing. There are so countless powerful phrases within the short excerpt making it almost too difficult to decide where to begin. Nevertheless, I think beginning with my relation to the words is an acceptable starting spot. This girl is clearly hiding from the world that she fears, whether it be from personal experience or what her mother has taught her, she is afraid to face the world and attempts to take refuge in a secret room. This is so similar to all human being as running away from our problems or fears is a common instinct that, in fact, propels the dilemma to greater proportions. I know
Toni Morrison's Beloved Throughout the novel Beloved, there are numerous and many obvious reoccurring themes and symbols. While the story is based off of slavery and the aftermath of the horrible treatment of the slaves, it also breaches the subject of the supernatural. It almost seems like the novel itself is haunted. It is even named after the ghost. To further the notion of hauntings, the characters are not only haunted by Beloved at 124, but they are haunted by their past, and the novel is not only about ridding their home of the ghost, but releasing their hold on what had happened to them in worse times.
Likewise, Denver indicates that she cannot grasp why her mother would pour the blood out of someone, especially her own daughter. The young girl contends that “All the time, I’m afraid the thing that happened that made it all right for my mother to kill my sister could happen again. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know who it is, but maybe there is something else terrible enough to make her do it again.” (242-243) Though Denver tells of her fears of the memories, she also speaks of her desire to know what the memories truly do hold. Morrison’s use of the nebulous word “thing” points to the reason behind Sethe’s motive of committing infanticide, which Denver can’t name. Chiefly, the “thing” is what causes Denver to be in a state of distraught. Denver believes this “thing” may motivate her mother to act the same way once again. Furthermore, Morrison’s use of repetition “I don’t know” twice—emphasizes Denver’s need to know what that “thing” might be and wants to know not only the objective facts of the past, but to understand the underlying motives that can cause her mother to perform such an act again without a clear understanding of why. Denver does not wish to be confined within boundaries where her “freedom” to live is taken away. One can see the internal struggle in Denver, which raises questions about Sethe’s inexplicable
Trauma: an emotional shock causing lasting and substantial damage to a person’s psychological development. Linda Krumholz in the African American Review claims the book Beloved by Toni Morrison aids the nation in the recovery from our traumatic history that is blemished with unfortunate occurrences like slavery and intolerance. While this grand effect may be true, one thing that is absolute is the lesson this book preaches. Morrison’s basic message she wanted the reader to recognize is that life happens, people get hurt, but to let the negative experiences overshadow the possibility of future good ones is not a good way to live. Morrison warns the reader that sooner or later you will have to choose between letting go of the past or it will forcibly overwhelm you. In order to cement to the reader the importance of accepting one’s personal history, Morrison uses the tale of former slave Sethe to show the danger of not only holding on to the past, but to also deny the existence and weight of the psychological trauma it poses to a person’s psyche. She does this by using characters and their actions to symbolize the past and acceptance of its existence and content.
Already in the first chapter, the reader begins to gain a sense of the horrors that have taken place. Like the ghost, the address of the house is a stubborn reminder of its history. The characters refer to the house by its number, 124. These digits highlight the absence of Sethe’s murdered third child. As an institution, slavery shattered its victims’ traditional family structures, or else precluded such structures from ever forming. Slaves were thus deprived of the foundations of any identity apart from their role as servants. Baby Suggs is a woman who never had the chance to be a real mother, daughter, or sister. Later, we learn that neither Sethe nor Paul D knew their parents, and the relatively long, six-year marriage of Halle and Sethe is an anomaly in an institution that would regularly redistribute men and women to different farms as their owners deemed necessary.
Eventually, David and Carolyn are able to relinquish the triadic relationship with their daughter, Claudia. This restructuring in the family essentially alleviates many of the problems that were the cause for the family to seek therapy in the first place. Claudia is able to break free from the well worn routines of arguing with her mother and her unwanted behaviors diminish. After removing the pressure placed on Claudia to be their source of intense emotion, David and Carolyn are left to face the daunting task of exploring and eventually reorganizing their relationship with one
To begin, Morrison establishes a healthy confusion by developing Beloved. Beloved is first introduced to the reader as the ghost of Sethe’s dead daughter. The ghost haunts Sethe’s house, 124. “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom” (3). Morrison creates abstract diction through the use of the word spiteful. The denotation of the spiteful
Sethe is the most dramatically haunted in the book. She is the one who was beaten so badly her back is permanently scarred. She is the one who lived and escaped slavery. She is the one who murdered her child rather than return it to slavery. So she is the one whose past is so horrible that it is inescapable. How can a person escape the past when it is physically apart of them? Sethe has scars left from being whipped that she calls a "tree". She describes it as "A chokecherry tree. Trunk, branches, and even leaves. Tiny little chokecherry leaves. But that was eighteen years ago. Could have cherries too now for all I know" (16). It is apt that her past is represented on her back--something that is behind her, something she cannot see but knows that is there. Also it appeared eighteen years ago, but Sethe thinks that it may have grown cherries in those years. Therefore she knows that the past has attached itself to her but the haunting of it has not stopped growing. Paul D. enters Sethe's life and discover a haunting of Sethe almost immediately. He walks into 124 and notices the spirit of the murdered baby: "It was sad. Walking through it, a wave of grief soaked him so thoroughly he wanted to cry" (9). The haunting by Beloved in its spirit form is stopped by Paul D. He screams "God damn it! Hush up! Leave the place alone! Get the Hell out!" (18). But Sethe's infant daughter is her greatest haunt and it is when Beloved arrives in physical form that Sethe is forced to turn around and confront the past.
If ignorance is bliss, then why is it human nature to uncover the truth? In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, the character Denver uses knowledge to feed her craving in hopes that it will fill the void her mother unsuccessfully tried to satisfy with the blood of the past and too little milk. To understand these truths one must accept that Beloved is a physical representation of the past, Sethe embodies the present, and Denver exemplifies the future. Throughout the novel these three characters interact on a superficial level, but each action has a deeper underlying influence on the other. This is why Denver’s assumed motive of using the attachment she forged with Beloved to develop a closer relationship with Sethe is cursory. When in fact it was for fear of her own life, that Denver’s intended to extract the information from Beloved, of what triggered Sethe to kill killed her.
...d in the governess's eyes. After feeling she had lost Flora to the ghost, when in reality the governess had scared the child to death, Miles still shown to be a ray of hope for the demented governess. She refused to leave him alone and began to become angry and suspicious of his corruption when he would ask of his desire for schooling.
At the start of the novel, Sethe tries to avoid the past and bury the traumatizing memories of her past. Part one opens with the words "124 was spiteful" (3) which sets the tone for the first portion as it associates a Sethe's home with a failure to face the past and thus, bitterness and pain. Sethe appears to realize the impossibility of escaping from memories and tells Denver, "`The picture is still there and what's ...
Writing about any artist or author makes us more curious about the writer and his or her view of life. I believe every writer reflects his or her own perspective in their writings even if they did not talk about themselves; this will appear to the reader in one way or another.
Sethe, as the protagonist in the novel, serves as one of the main characters who undergoes one of most difficult changes, leaving her wondering what purpose she serves in this lifetime. Serving as a slave in Sweet Home, she grew to be self-loathing due to the treatment and events that occurred. The abuse that she had suffered was awful but compared to how the “schoolteacher’d wrap that string all over my head, ‘cross my nose, around my behind. Number my teeth,” (Morrison 226), it was unbearable. She was treated like an experiment, a farm animal who had to have measurements taken. She was described as having animal characteristics “you got two feet...not four,” (Morrison 194) that only made her feel less human. Her children are the only inspiration that keep...
On page 35 you can see how Denver lost her childhood by trying to escape from the loneliness of 124 by going into her Emerald Closet, which is a place in the bushes to not be alone anymore which basically contradicts with it “...Denver’s imagination produced its own hunger and its own food, which she badly needed because loneliness wore her out” (Morrison 35). She tries to escape her loneliness by going to the “Emerald Closet” even though it actually contradicts which saying that the “Emerald Closet” is the only real home for her. The fact that she is not able to develop her own real identity leads her to get isolated and becoming an easy victim for Beloved. In Chapter 4, Paul D, Sethe, and Denver are going to a carnival which is one of the first events in Denver`s live where she is actually able to have fun “Denver was swaying with delight” (Morrison 59). Denver is being happy the first time in many years because Paul D is able to make a new beginning in 124. Beloved actually feels that the residents of 124 are starting to forget about her so she is going to make an appearance to remind them of her presence. The haunting of Sethe’s past spills Denver’s present by not letting other people forget about Sethe’s actions which leads them to treat Denver like an outcast “But the thing that leapt up to her when he asked it was a thing that had been lying there all along” (Beloved 121). Sethe’s past destroys Denver’s only joy in her life and that is to be in school. Denver´s inexperience of social events leads her to not tell on Beloved because the first time in her life she has a friend and she is not planning on losing