Saturday, March 17, 2012
Motifs...
While I was reading Beloved, I began brainstorming more motifs and themes. I think that feet and traveling by foot could be considered another motif. There seems to be a lot of journeying by foot done by various characters in Beloved (Sethe's boys, Sixo, Paul D) and there are Sethe's bare feet when she meets Paul D, as well as her swollen feet when she is pregnant. I think feet could be important because they are the one instrument that slaves had that allowed them to become free. Perhaps that is why Paul D is so insistent on staying in motion. He is afraid his one god-given liberty could be stripped from him.
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I think you're most definitely right Meredith. They do mention feet a lot in the first few chapters. Yes the characters do do a lot of traveling. So did the slaves before them. The Underground Railroad was anything but an easy path as the slaves had to run through unknown territory and at night when they couldn't see. Also, the Great Migration which we spoke of was also another huge movement of slaves to the North. I'll keep an eye out for more mentions of feet as I read.
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