So by now you all are probably wondering why I always post quotes. It's because since around Sophomore year I started collecting quotes that I really liked. While reading a few nights ago I came across on that really struck me. I can't really think of a particular instance which I relate to it, but I think it's remarkably moving.
"Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another."
This quote obviously makes sense in context with slavery, but I think it also has multiple more implications. For example Morrison states that she was able to relate to this sense of freedom after she quit her editing job and really took ownership of her freedom. Have yall ever had a moment which you felt like this?
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4 comments:
I do the same thing Shaina! I think that that is a very good quote too. It's true that a slave could run away and seek freedom but without leaving the past behind them and trying to start a new life, they could find themselves just as enslaved as before. Only this time, it would be by memories and years worth of oppression.
I think this quote definitly relates to the idea of "rememory." I think, like Meredith said, a slave can literally free themselves by running away, but they can never be free of the memories they have. I think that this is a big idea in the book, and I think it was written in part so that we dont forget all of the opression the slaves endured, and so it is not repeated.
I think that this quote directly ties into PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). For example, when people come home from war, they're technically free, but what they've seen and experienced remains with them forever. So in theory, they're "at war" their entire lives, just like, as Meredith said, freed slaved were still "enslaved".
Morrson's definatly a really great writer. Becoming free, not just being labled free, is really important in this novel I think. I agree with what a lot of yall said about the memory of slavery and the dificulties of freeing yourself in this novel: there is one part twords the end when Paul D describes the first thing he ever bought with his money - he buys a bunch of radishes and is so happy because for the first time he has money and for the first time he can use it. I found Paul D's experiance with radishes similar to what Sethe (I think) had to say about trouble freeing yourself.
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