Saturday, March 26, 2016
Ancestors
Throughout Beloved, we see a common presence of ancestry. If you think about it, it isn't that different today. Most people today talk about their grandparents watching over them from heaven and guiding them in the right direction. We have seen this view of ancestry in "Beloved" and in "Things Fall Apart" but views today truly haven't changed that much since then. We believe in the same sort of things as the people in this past do.
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I think that in Beloved, there is less of a sense of strong ancestral presence or our forefathers watching over us, as much as there is a importance on our own past. In "Beloved," Morison focuses on Sethe and how she uses the African American tradition of using her past to propel herself forward and make decisions. Beloved is a reincarnation of Sethe's past no her ancestral history or family lineage. Just my two cents.
I think that these are a little different as well. As Antonio said, Beloved represents the past, not really a grandparent-like presence. The novel itself is a dedication to the 60 million and more slaves that died, but they are not really directly connected to Sethe. They are connected through her heart, but not like the ancestors in TFA where they directly worship or depend on them for guidance. There is clearly connection between ancestral world and Beloved.
cultures and ancestor worship? @quinet
It's also interesting to note the magical realism that Morrison uses in Beloved. As long as the ghosts in the story are not forgotten by the community, they are physically present and are able to actually interact with the living world. After Beloved is driven out of 124 Bluestone in a sort of exorcism led by Denver, she completely disappears and eventually nobody can even recall a thing she had said in her lifetime.
Ancestors are a part of most religions--in one way or another. They could be throughout the community like Africa or kind of integrated like in Catholicism. In beloved, ancestirs are represented as ghosts like as in Beloved, set he's dead daughter. The entire community pays attention to Beloved in some way, so she is very representative of the communal ancestors
When you said "ancestory" I thought about ancestory.com. There is a whole website about a person finding out about their ancestory. People want to know about where they came from. I've always wanted to try this so I could see where I've come from. I think ancestory is an amazing thing. I want to see who my ancestors are and where they came from.
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