Circularity

Philip page talks about Circularity theory that instead of moving forward or backwards you're actually moving in a circle. Philips talks about the part in the book where Sethe was walking in a circular motion around Paul D not wanting to her past to Paul D. Almost as if she was avoiding it but eventually when Sethe finally circles in and closes in on Paul she finally admits, It was almost if her past always comes to her and brings her back a few steps but then eventually moves forward but falls back again when the past is brought up. Kind like a never ending maze but in a maze you'll always either move forward and backward and eventually will come out but not in this maze. This maze is never ending. Its crazy about the circle motion they're moving because maybe I feel in this specific part when Sethe is opening up to Paul D about her past that maybe shes mentally thinking that her opening to Paul D shes actually moving forward but in realty shes physically moving in a circle around Paul D not being physically aware because shes space out about horrific past.
        Another point that Philips brings up as that there are contradictions in Beloved. Sethe imagines this perfect family but what's crazy about this is that in realty her family isn't perfect for all. For Sethe the fact that Denver and Paul D stuck by her is enough for her. Her two priorities are her strength but as well her dark past that she fears. Like for Denver she loves her to  death but is in fear whether she would get up one day and leave because her fearing that she thinks Denver actually portrayed this image of her, Seth, actually king her like she killed Beloved. Also Paul D, seeing him, brings back all these horrific memories of 'sweet home'. Put through Paul D perspective its more when he sleeps. This isn't mentioned in Philips essay but I can argue saying that this fits. So when Paul D can't literally sleep in 124 he goes every where in the house and still cant sleep until he's outside. But after he has sex with Beloved he's able to back into 124 normally with out comfortableness. Almost as if he went into a circle because also after having sex with Beloved the tobacco tin can, that represents his past,opens with out him noticing. This represents a circle because it starts off in the rocking chair, sethes bed, bathroom, and any space in the house to shed, and after the shed incident back into 124 like nothing. Like he can never escape his past now because a new door way opened to all his past coming out now and all his dark memories stored in the this tobacco tin can is all free and running wild.

A perfect circle

After reading Philip Page’s “Circularity in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”, Page makes the argument that the community that surrounds 124 is the circle that defines the story. For instance she believes that the “community acts together” in times of happiness, and in times of remorse. Page also believes that the residents of 124 Bluestone at times are members of the “neighborhood community”, but often times “isolate themselves from the community”. And in this state of isolation, “they are haunted by their past--first by the inanimate ghost of Beloved, then by the animate ghost of Beloved, whom no one but the residents of 124 [can] actually see.” The community is able to come together with the inclusion of Sethe and Denver when they exorcise Beloved. Moreover, in the end, the community slowly loses their memory of Beloved, and ultimately forget that she ever existed at 124. 

Another circle that Page believes to exist in Beloved is the family circle. Family a large part of the plot in Beloved, in that it is the sole reason why there is apparent character conflicts between the main characters. These character conflicts are recognized throughout Beloved. For instance, Paul D joining the family in the beginning of the story contributes to the conflict that is the “animated” version of Beloved joining the family as Sethe’s dead child incarnate. Another conflict that is seen only towards the end of the first part of Beloved, is when Sethe reveals to Paul D the real reason why her third child died. And as a result Paul D leaves 124, and escapes his problems through drinking. From Page’s writing, the circularity in the communities present in Beloved have their obvious flaws and beneficiary aspects. Through a psychoanalytic lens, we can see that because of the human condition, we assume the worst about ourselves and continue to be self loathing--although we may not be aware of it. The fact being that in the end of Beloved, it is presumed that the supernatural being Beloved, was a figment of the 124 family’s imagination--despite the realism that it presented. Paul D’s self loathing nature was evaluated through his calmed hostility towards Beloved, finally resolved through his reminiscing about his past mistakes. 

The human condition is something that leads people to be self destructed and poor decision makers. Page’s argument for circularity refines the meaning of the human condition, in that the communities present in 124 are victim to the human condition. This can be seen through their absence of one or all of the factors that contribute to the human condition. For instance, in Stamp Paid’s past as a slave, he had to give up his wife because the slave owner let his son sleep with her. The outcome was uncontrollable for Stamp Paid due to the fact that he was a slave, and because he was unable to prevent his wife from succumbing to the slave owners. His sense of rationality was questioned when he had changed his original name, Joshua, to Stamp Paid. Dehumanizing himself, while condemning his significant other, led him to believe that there was no attainable hope.

Fading Dreams

         "124 was so full of strong feeling perhaps she was oblivious to the loss of anything at all. There was a time when she scanned the fields every morning and every evening for her boys. When she stood at the open window, unmindful of flies, her head cocked to her left shoulder, her eyes searching to the right for them. Cloud shadow on the road, an old woman, a wandering goat untethered and gnawing bramble--each one looked at first like Howard--no, Buglar. Little by little she stopped and their thirteen-year-old faces faded completely into their baby ones, which came to her only in sleep. When her dreams roamed outside 124, anywhere they wished, she saw them sometimes in beautiful trees, their little legs barely visible in the leaves.           
          Sometimes they ran along the railroad track laughing, too loud, apparently, to hear her because they never did turn around. When she woke the house crowded in on her: there was the door where the soda crackers were lined up in a row; the white stairs her baby girl loved to climb; the corner where Baby Suggs mended shoes, a pile of which were still in the cold room; the exact place on the stove where Denver burned her fingers. And of course the spite of the house itself. There was no room for any other thing or body until Paul D arrived and broke up the place, making room, shifting it, moving it over to someplace else, then standing in the place he had made" (47).

          Dreams are symbolic because they tend to represent another world  of your own. Whether you know it or not, specific things happening in your dream actually represent something. According to common dream theory two symbols I notice that are very significant easy the railroad track and the house closing in on her
       

When Sethe dreams of a beautiful world outside of 124 in her dream there is a part where she envisioned a railroad track.  According to the common dream theory a road/track represents, the direction in where you head in life and where you question your current "life path." What's very interesting about this dream and specific symbol is that it was her little boys on those tracks. It also says that in her dream Sethe called her little boys to come back but never turned back. And in the very begging of the book it says how Sethe two boys left and never came back after they couldn't take anymore of the haunted house. So Sethe dreams reveal that since her two boys are on the rail road track and never look back when Sethe shouts to them, they chose there path since they were young boys. The railroad track, their path in life, shows that went away never to look back but is true because they ran away with out looking back ironically.
Another symbol in her dream is when her dream is transitioning into another. The transition as symbol because the transition was that after she witnessed the calm beautiful life she started lie falling back and her house was closing in on her, almost like she's been trapped. Being trapped in a dream refers to, " is a common nightmare theme, reflecting your real life inability to escape or make the right choice." The crazy part here is that Sethe is literally trapped in her past and can't manage to move forward. I believe that what maybe what's holding her back is living in the house, 124. She grew up a good majority of her life their and actually is being haunted by her baby beloved. I also believe the house is symbolized as shackles and her past. Since shes so into 124 and never wants to leave it's as if the house is holding her back from moving. Sometimes the best way to leave or forget about the past is moving on. In this case Sethe needs to realize that this house hold brings back such a dark past and because of this she can't imagine forgiveness. She needs to forgive everyone and everything for doing what they did to hurt her and move on. Move away from this dark past leave it behind and pack your things and leave. And this is the point that I believe that Sethe hasn't realized since shes all caught up in the present and having flashbacks that she cant control mentally. According to psychecentral, "Forgiveness isn't a sign of weakness. Instead, it’s simply saying, “I’m a good person. You’re a good person. You did something that hurt me. But I want to move forward in my life and welcome joy back into it. I can’t do that fully until I let this go.”

A Dirty Little Family Secrete...

           Beloved so far has me in shock. Going into Beloved I already has a sense of the book that will be very uncomfortable at times. The very beginning was confusing at first because there was a lot of flash backs going on here and there. From present to memories all the way back to "Sweet Home." Then all of the sudden this new girl in her late teens shows up. When I mean show up, I literally mean this girl just came out of the water. It was almost as if she "resurrected" or just got baptized . The most anticipating thing was the the girls name was "Beloved". Which was the name of her baby that she buried back in Sweet Home. Also what was crazy was the Beloved loved Sethe as child would love its mother. However, what made this more iroic was that Beloved actually had the mind set of still a little kid. There is suspicion that Beloved is actually the reincarnated baby of Sethe that is actually this one girl that came out of no where. And a weird coincidence that her name is "Beloved", same as Sethe dead baby. I have a feeling that is Seth's baby just reincarnated. Everything matches up like a puzzle perfectly fitting together. This beloved girl walks out of a river as if she was resurrected, her name is bBeloved, has the mindset of a child as if she was literally still a baby, and absolutely loves Sethe like an actual mother.
          Another crazy thing was that Paul D past hit him all at once where he wasn't able to sleep anywhere around the house. Like he went to the couch down stares, bathroom, living room, Sethes room, and the rocking chair where he normally sleeps. Until he sleeps in the inside of a shed where he's finally comfortable. All of the sudden Beloved walks in. She basically forces Pauly D to enter her and it brought a whole meaning to crazy.  Paul D is making her leave but she wont leave util she "touches" her. Eventually, Pauly D gives in and has sex with Beloved. Right when Pauly D is doing it the dirty with Beloved, the tobacco tin can that represent Paul D past starts to open slowly with out him knowing. That tin can represented all his dark past adn sleeping with beloved unleashed all these painful memories. As the book continues you Paul D continues this raunchy relationship. I just think this is crazy overall how all this escated really quickly from Beloived this young girl with a baby minded state goes from baby to a young womens mind set real quick.

A Condemned Past...

Just As I thought this book couldn't get more demented, tormenting, and plot twisting, it did. I had to open my mouth early. Well I finally figured that Sethe actually killed her daughter Beloved, no biggie. After, reading part 2 and 3 I have to say part 2 was the craziest. For three chapters in Part 2, each chapter was dedicated to either Sethe, Denver, and Beloved's past or start I guess you can say. The first chapter in part was all about Sethe. In this chapter basically Sethe killed beloved. I connected this image of the symbol of blood on the hands. Normally when blood is on a characters hand it represents that the guilt of what you did will basically eat you metaphorically. I thought this also fitted in with Sethe because in reality Sethe actually killed her own baby daughter Beloved. Despite whatever her true intentions were on killing Beloved she has death of Beloved in her hands. I found it crazy how Sethe was able to keep a secrete away like this from people so long. I question whether Sethe actually has a mental problem . But this is the questioned I asked myself while reading this exact chapter, "did Sethe killing was Beloved was an actual mental health problem she has or was it due to the fact that Sethe was dealing with a lot back then making her motives to kill Beloved into actually saving her?" Because at the time she was a run away her and her own mother was lynched for what not. I feel as if Sethe killed Beloved for a greater purpose as in her being born wouldn't want her child to live into this horrible world as these slaves saw it.z
       

          Next was Denver perspective of all this. We also came to realization that her other two kids that left her wasn't because 124 was haunted but actually because her own children were scared of her. They were scared that their own mother would kill them as well. Denver I feel since shes pretty childish she wasn't actually thinking reality that her mom would kill her. But maybe that fear itself would kill her, as in constant thought of her mother hurting her when she actually wouldn't as like a nightmare. Beloved chapter was just questioning because it talks about how basically maybe a women ate her and next thing she knows shes that women or took her presence some how. Next thing she knows shes coming out of the water like i mentioned before in my other blog almost as if she "resurrected."

Psycho Lens

          Reading "Motherhood in Toni Morrison's Beloved: A Psychological Reading" by Sand Mayfield has an interesting point that I have to agree on, as well as her main point. Sandra comes to recognize this theorist Jacques Lacan whose theory is that all unborn baby go through the "mirror stage," He says that a unborn baby while still is in the mother womb, basically absorbs all of the moms surroundings in to reflect that environment its absorbing. So Sethe experiecing her mothers death and a run away slaves with memories of "sweet home." That all got to her and while she was pregnant. Causing her kids to have this negative aspect and probability run away kids because Sethe experienced running away to. So it was in their mentality all along to run away but in the book they actually run away because they were afraid of their own mother killing them. Sandra argues that Sethe mentality was also damaged maybe unborn by something darker which I believe is true. I mean she witnessed her own mother get lynched imagine before her lynching what she actually experienced still as a former slave. So Sethes mental ability was probably reflected when in her mother wombs absorbing this negative impacts her mother was going through "reflecting" them onto Sethes mental Ability.
          What I also cought up on is that Sandra basically stating her main point that despite slavery women were still seen as inferior. It wasn't mostly about the racism but more of the sexist part that Sandra tries to tackle as her main point. Sandra tackles on this because she confronts the actual hardhsip of being a mother and the concept of motherhood. Agreeing with this point because Sandra also cited this part of women being slaved. It was that all the women had the last name "Gardner" which was their owners name and not their actual husbands. Thats how inhuman they were seen at especially slaves last names were taken which is considered their pride and orgins. They were taken that away and claimed as pets.
         

The grief of a people

“Not a house in the country ain't packed to its rafters with some dead Negro's grief. ”

The death of a loved one can have unprecedented consequences on those who they leave behind. However, those consequences are elevated and the emotional toll becomes greater, given the circumstances of death. Jim Downs author of Sick From Freedom estimates that a quarter of the 4 million freed slaves either died or suffered from illness between 1862 and 1870. So it is reasonable to believe Baby’s Suggs claim that every house is grieving.

A “Negro’s grief” here is used to describe the ghosts that haunting the homes of the now freed slaves. The ghosts can be actual supernatural beings but more than likely  they represent the guilt that many of the runaway slaves feel. In today’s world a “negro’s grief” represents a greater injustice the person of color still experiences. The effects of the past still cripples our ability to get jobs and makes us more susceptible to police brutality which may and often times leads to incarceration. As news outlets such as the Huffington post, Washington post, Forbes, and Think Progress report white high school dropouts have the same chances of getting a job as black college graduates. However, these same white dropouts have more accumulated wealth than the black college graduates. Emory University tax law professor Dorothy Brown reported, to Forbes.com in 2012, that “the median net worth of white households was 20 times greater than that of black households”. Not to mention the high incarceration rate among African-Americans. According to a 2014 Brookings study, African Americans males without a high school diploma have a 70% chance of  being incarcerated by his mid 30s. The system is rigged against the man of color specifically the African American male. Of course I can’t get into all of the consequences of slavery in 300- 500 words.

Responding and Reflecting #1 Motherhood in Toni Morrison's, Beloved

      As I read a psychological reading on Beloved by Sandra Mayfield, my initial reactions took a turn with a different point of view that I did not expect. The beginning of this reading starts to introduce the idea that the novel is “about motherhood and mothering.” As a women now in the 20th century, motherhood is an exciting new chapter, that most girls from early on want to experience. While being able to be a free women, without the worry of being a slave, is an idea that is still hard to grasp. From time to time, women seem to have more rights each time. While reading Beloved, and then reading the Psychological Reading, the idea of Sethe having kids and raising them, while being a slave is an interesting point of view that relates to the bigger picture. The overall picture that is trying to be said by the author of this reading, is that the hardships in life can drive us to make decisions, that later come back and haunt us.
       By taking old literary figures and seeing those figures, such as "Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe and Willa Cather, of with all appear in Playing in the Dark," helps to bring light to the argument made by Mayfield. This argument that even though slaves had a hard and series of unfortunate events, in the end they were still able to get out of this dark side of American History, but with the ugliness and memories that don't go away. When years and years go by, a new set of literary figures all come by with similar ideas, in the case of the figures above they all seemed to have a "blindness to an Africanist discourse, [that included]..the mind and spirit of Africans." This is an interesting way of trying to analyze just how much the idea of slaves in motherhood has a significant effect on "the mind and spirit of Africans."
       As Mayfield describes how Toni Morrison portrays and argues the opposite of literary figures through the "character of Sethe," she is also to provide an important side that we often forget. While reading through out Mayfields, "A Psychological Reading," I saw that nobody is really free, many can say that we are nowadays, but the reality is that our memories are what keep us from having closure. The mistakes that we make and the choices that we want to make, but end up letting go of them. This is one of the few readings that I took a lot of time trying to analyze, due to the reason that I did not grasp the authors intention at first.
        By reading and then rereading, I realized that their are a lot of ways that a psychological lens can help to analyze Toni Morrisons, Beloved. Psychology is something that I always look forward to reading more about and in this case I was able to do just that. I was also able to see what other points of view come up from this, it was a journey of memories and realizations that motherhood in the times of slavery was possible, but was something that came back to haunt them.

Psychological Reading about Motherhood

Reviewing Sandra Mayfield’s “Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: A Psychological Reading”, her perception of the common themes in Toni Morrison’s Beloved is very interesting. It is made apparent in the very first sentence of Mayfield’s critique of Beloved that Morrison conveys a sense of motherhood and what it takes to be a mother. Mayfield describes Sethe’s mother’s life while she was a slave, as though it was a burden being a slave and having a child on a slave plantation. During that time period, children of slaves were sold off in an auction by the plantation owners, and Sethe ended up at Sweet Home. Sethe’s limited memory of her mother was her unexpected encounter where “her mother showed her a mark under her left breast, a mark that would identify her in the event that her mother were hanged or burned.” She had experienced this interaction during the developmental stage of her childhood. With that, she would be “scarred” with the inevitability of living the life as a slave. Behavioral traits during the developmental stage are unstable, due to the fact that every possible interaction in one’s life can alter a person’s sense of reality and motives.

Peter S. and Justin X. by Chris Louie

Mayfield believes that the “horror of that event was always at the back of Sethe’s mind”, and that it has detrimental effects on Sethe’s psyche. In addition to that, “the psychological theories of the twentieth century would suggest that, for Sethe, the mother was associated with death”. “Death” does not necessarily represent the actual act of dying, but of remorse and melancholy.

Mayfield’s essay has shifted my focus more on the mentality of being a mother, and being haunted with the sour memories of her past at Sweet Home.  Living a life as a dedicated slave on Sweet Home, her aspirations for freedom were not based off of her own personal agenda, but for her children. Mayfield suggests that the role of Sethe’s existence seems to be questioned, as she continues to question her identity. Sethe’s “mysterious” past combined with her inability to remember her origins, suggests that her ambivalent nature was derived from these behavioral traits. While being a slave seems to be undermining her capability to achieve anything in life, Mayfield believes that Sethe seeks “to define herself as an individual, a faithful worker on the Garner plantation, but also as a woman who looked toward a future with her husband and her children.”

Acting out of "love"

I always believed that Beloved was a deranged novel with very difficult to interpret metaphors that make absolutely no sense. But in the midst of the novel, as the first third of the story is ending, Sethe comes to believe that she is headed down a road that would end up having to return to slavery. In the passage where Sethe is attempting to kill Denver, she reminisces about her past at Sweet Home. When she sees the “schoolteacher”, she is reminded of her horrifying experiences as a slave. And so, she convinces herself that the only way to prevent her children from experiencing a future of slavery--especially the same past as hers, she must murder her children for their own good. 

"ogsquad" Cameron C. John R. Nathan D. Chris L. by Chris Louie (c)

Out of anxiety and paranoia, Paul D is appalled by this unforgivable act that Sethe tries to justify, and as a result, he leaves 142 forever. Sethe wanting to kill her own children was vindicated by her reasoning to keep her children away from a future of slavery.

In retrospect, Sethe’s other children, Howard and Buglar, ran away from 142 because they were afraid of Sethe murdering them, like she had with her first born. And with that, we can assume that Denver’s reserved and distant nature must be derived from the fear of Sethe’s homicidal antics. 

If Sethe was willing to murder her own children out of “love”, then what is stopping her from going on a homicidal rampage? Despite Sethe’s absence of motherly behavior, she still exhibits natural motherly instinct. Additionally, her flaws as a mother can only be seen through her murdering of her third child. But as a precaution to her future children, she advocates for their safety in a deranged way that is sinister and cruel, but protects them from a life in slavery. After finishing Beloved I have become aware of the paradoxes that Morrison juxtaposes in order to establish an extended metaphor for the glorification of slavery. Morrison argues that there is no words or emotions to convey for the impact that slavery had on the African American community. And as society continues to grow, we still remain ignorant in a way to the oppression and horrificness that was slavery.

biblical associations in beloved

Morrison’s writing includes many allusions to Christianity and the religious associations with slavery. From what we know about slavery during the time period that Beloved is set in, slaves had no ownership of anything except their thoughts. And from that, most slaves resulted to following the religions that their slave masters taught them. For instance, there is a parallel between Beloved and the idea that she is “the savior”. Paul D describes Beloved as “gilded and shining”, without implying a positive interpretation. The words “gilded” and “shining” have very positive connotations, but Morrison twists the original interpretation of commonly used words, and denotes them by comparing or associating those words with a negative stimulation. 

Justin X. and Andy C. by Chris Louie (c)

The relationship between Paul D and Beloved is very stimulating. Beloved recognizes characters’ imperfections, and helps them realize that they are nothing to hide as if everyone has purpose in this world. 

Morrison captures this idea with biblical references to how Jesus died for people’s sins. But instead of Beloved dying, Morrison exemplifies the fore coming of Jesus Christ when she first comes out of the water. Beloved coming out of the water is a biblical reference to the act of baptising a child in holy water. Although Beloved is a young woman when she emerges from the water, she is a representation of Sethe’s dead child. Morrison uses these many different biblical allusions to capture the idea that there are relatable instances from real life to the bible. 

She makes the argument that there is an evil depiction of the slave catchers, when she portrays them as the “four horsemen” from the bible. The main idea when referencing the four horsemen is to describe the avenue to the end of the world. But not the end of the world itself, but as a metaphor to the end of Sethe’s world as a free slave. In that time period, the Fugitive Slave law permitted any slave that was seized in a free state could be reclaimed by their respectful slave owner. Morrison’s many biblical allusions are commonly referenced to depict actions and context for relatable events to Sethe’s dark past.  

Look who finally got around to do one.

Initially I had chosen the Feminist lens. However, in light of recent events of police brutally involving unarmed people of color, I reconsidered my lens. While I still regard reading this book through the feminism and gender roles lens as important; I also believe that the New Historian lens best encompasses both the feminist lens while still allowing me to look at the obvious racial factors that continue to linger with us today. The connection between the murder of Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and even Alex Nieto and the time this book was set on was clear and continues to be clear. We continually see the ripple effects of slavery. With the death of slavery came the birth to the white supremacy and race. As the sociologist Loïc Wacquant once said the “Racial division was a consequence, not a precondition of slavery, but once it was instituted it became detached from its initial function and acquired a social potency all its own.”

The Love of a Mother

"I had milk," she said. "I was pregnant with Denver but I had milk for my baby girl. I hadn't stopped nursing her when I sent her on ahead with Howard and Buglar." Now she rolled the dough out with a wooden pin. "Anybody could smell me long before he saw me. And when he saw me he'd see the drops of it on the front of my dress. Nothing I could do about that. All I knew was I had to get my milk to my baby girl. Nobody was going to nurse her like me. Nobody was going to get it to her fast enough, or take it away when she had enough and didn't know it. Nobody knew that she couldn't pass her air if you held her up on your shoulder, only if she was lying on my knees. Nobody knew that but me and nobody had her milk but me. I told that to the women in the wagon. Told them to put sugar water in cloth to suck from so when I got there in a few days she wouldn't have forgot me. The milk would be there and I would be there with it."(Morrison 19)

This passage demonstrates Sethe’s values as a woman and mother. As a slave woman she had nothing that belonged to her, but her children. Toni Morrison uses repetition, “Nobody was going to get it fast enough...Nobody knew that she couldn't  pass her air if you held her up on your shoulder...Nobody knew that but me and nobody had her milk but me”, to show the love of a mother, and the things Sethe treasures the most.

Slaves were property, women were property, no one was really free back in the day. Sethe wanted her children to be free and well. In this passage we can feel the desperation of a mother who send  her children off before her, for the better. Sethe had already lost a child, keeping her children safe and away from slavery was desire. Knowing she could have been bought again or hunt down by her previous master made Sethe value and treasure the moments she had with her children. This passage also shows what a women really values, as a slave and a mother. Back in the day slaves were not free if they would run away the masters would hunt them down. If Sethe was caught running then what would happen to her children? Who would care for them when she was gone? No one will ever love and care for your own children, but you. she valued so much her children, that she was willing to sacrifice for her children.

Going beyond what we would ever imagine

In my readings of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, I have found that the theme of loss of identity, complements the theory that the experiences we have in the past can not be forgotten. Morrison uses symbolism to not only replicate instances from a character’s past, but apply it to the present storyline. 

"eMotion" Chris Louie 2015(tm)

Any form of stimulus that would remind a character of their past as a slave is portrayed in a way that brings a sort of depth to the raw emotions that are conveyed in Beloved. For instance, when Paul D has intercourse with Sethe in the first chapter, they were both reminded of their lives as slaves at Sweet Home. The implication of being a slave bring both physical and mental torture to Paul D and Sethe. 


Despite the fact that her immaturity is apparent throughout the first part of the book, Beloved galvanized Paul D in a way that makes him look past his “tobacco tin” heart, in order for him to realize how to love again. And although Paul D has a contemptuous mindset towards Beloved, he surrenders his free will--almost as if he was forced to be vulnerable in that situation. Morrison uses this instance to identify gender roles in a slavery-burdened society. But instead she portrays Beloved as the perpetrator, and Paul D as the victim in the situation. In our society, we associate as men being the typical perpetrator, and women as the victims in situations like the one in the book.

In Morrison’s writing, she tends to twist positive symbols into something almost sinister and paradoxical. And by doing this she can capture the raw emotion of what slaves had once experienced, and create a different interpretation of society that contrasts our present day society. This can be seen in the first instances of the book where Beloved first comes to Sweet Home and involves herself with Sethe and Denver. When Beloved first arrives at Sweet Home, she is portrayed as a “fair-skinned” girl, that acts very childish despite her age. In addition to her childish attitude, Beloved shows many signs of immaturity, and or challenged behavioral qualities. Morrison adjusts the standard interpretation of a character that is fair-skinned and wearing all white. For instance, in common literature, the reader would associate the color white with purity, hygiene, clarity, sophistication, etc. With that in mind, when we read about Beloved, Morrison questions society's common belief, and makes these associations throughout the book.

Critical Lens Expert--Psychoanalytical

“She led him to the top of the stairs where light came straight from the sky because the second-story windows of that house had been placed in the pitched ceiling and not the walls. There were two rooms and she took him into one of them, hoping he wouldn’t mind the fact that she was not prepared; that though she could remember desire, she had forgotten how it worked; the clutch and helplessness that resided in the hands; how the blindness was altered so that what leapt to the eye were places to lie down, and all else-doorknobs, straps, hooks,the sadness that crouched in corners, and the passing of time -- was interference.------It was over before they could get their clothes off. Half-dressed and short of breath, they lay side by side resentful of one another and the skylight above them. His dreaming of her had been too long and too long ago. Her deprivation had been not having any dream of her own at all. Now they were sorry and too shy to make talk.”(25)

               When taking a closer look at this passage and what its elements are, a whole new story emerges from it. As they are getting ready to have sex, the distribution of details that have come up, show not only what they see, but also what they also show the ambient surroundings that are in. The ambient sound and iciness help the reader see the bigger picture of a scene in where both characters want the feeling of excitement and adrenaline, but even though they may want the feeling back, they can’t remember how to get it. Applying the psychoanalytic lens, gives a better understanding of how when they are in bed, the motivation and passion that is supposed to be present, is suddenly is gone with the wind and has left a tail of debris. What follows are unconscious actions that lead both Sethe and Paul D to regret what they have done. 

  The ambient sound that is presented in the surroundings gives this scene a sense of emptiness, but one that is haunted by the past. When sex happens most of the time there is no noise around and is left with the sound of silence or even the feelings of those doing the action, yet when we take a look at this particular scene, the sounds don’t come and go, instead they are trapped in a room of four walls. The white noise within the walls along with the “light [that] came straight from the sky” psychologically allows audience to feel that the past is always with us, in this part Sethe is able to “remember desire, [but forgets] how it work[s].” The distinct statements of reality show that unconsciously our minds wonderoff  to thoughts that create feelings, but don’t create instructions to get it back. This then translates into realizing that the warmness of sun is not warm and only creates a light of lies.  

  The coldness that is felt is through the memories that even though they may want to forget, unconsciously they still appear and reappear when we think that we have dealt with it. Unconsciously, a million things go through our minds, we see this to be true and explicitly shown through when Sethe and Paul D are “lay[ing] side by side resentful of one another.” When they lay side by side, they may be tired, but they don’t really seem to interact after that and instead are “sorry.” When we view this psychoanalytically, and try to put ourselves in their place, the mind is carried over to the mistakes that, even though may be some regret in the actions that happened, the real regret comes when you see that person again. Our minds try to get over what we desire in the past, but if we get that opportunity we most likely would take that chance. In this case, both Sethe's and Paul D's ego are desiring that feeling of adrenaline, but are also saying that it may not be right. As a consequence, that happens because of unconsciously and consciously subjecting to their superego of wanting to have sex of each other, since they never got the chance to. As the chance is set put forth in front of them, afterwards everything seems to freeze and they just stare in to the emptiness of ice when it is in the form of ice--molecules are all frozen in time, but once it melts, the water runs of and then evaporates. This metaphor is what makes them both deny what they just did, but in this case as they were having having sex, the ice was slowly breaking and once they were done it exploded. The ice exploded and the water started running as it evaporated, immediately after Paul D regrets what he just did completely.

    Rationalization, regrets, blank spaces and water are all rapidly written in a way that its a domino effect. The end of the effect is that the moments of the past make us want something that we may not be able to remember how it should be, but the feeling that we never got still lays within us. As we have seen, Sethe and Paul D, go through this and in the end realize that [their] deprivation had been not [like a] dream of [their] own at all. [And] Now they were sorry and too shy to make talk.” This is a choice that if we apply the psychoanalytic lense is something that is going to haunt them when they see each other again.

What is a tree?

Trees have a very harmless, positive connotation. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, the main character, Sethe, struggles to compose herself after having sex with Paul D, a slave she grew up with. Morrison portrays Sethe as a mother who has been been living in a house with the ghost of her dead child, and continues to grieve over it.  

How do we cope with grief? 

Surprisingly enough, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a swiss psychiatrist who is credited for her groundbreaking “near-death” mentality studies. But she is most famous for her theory of the “five stages of grief”, which is Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. 

Similarly, as a result of basic human nature, when we feel an emotional need for comfort or passion, we become vulnerable to what we interpret as compassion. Morrison illustrates this idea by personifying a tree, and comparing Paul D with the idea that trees have emotions and feelings. For instance, she believes that Paul D was “not a tree, … Maybe shaped like one, but nothing like any tree he knew, because trees were inviting; things you could trust and be near; talk to if you wanted,” almost as if Paul D was not approachable after intercourse, but not unapproachable as a character. As a matter of fact, Morrison makes it difficult for the reader to sympathize with Paul D. This may be because Morrison recognizes Paul D's mysterious and apathetic nature and contrasts that with the idea of trees.

In other words, trees are caring and understand compassion. Despite his caring actions, Morrison believes that Paul D is not a caring person, and that his intentions were only to sleep with Sethe. Sethe experiences grief differently from others. She confides in men like Paul D, despite the fact that he does not care for her and only wants her for sex. And yet, she does not want to move away from her source of grief, and find an alternative way of living. Sethe has skipped many stages of grief and jumped straight into accepting the fact that the ghost of her infant child is haunting her house. Ultimately, we should not be afraid of grief, because like all things, it must come to an end.