Monday, April 4, 2016
Beloved=Slavery
Today in class, we talked about the many things that Beloved represents. She is the true to life presence of the baby's ghost, an African girl who experienced the Middle Passage, and she is the material manifestation of the many Africans that suffered from slavery and the Middle Passage. I think, in a way, Beloved also represents slavery as a whole. Throughout the ways that Morrison portrays Beloved's character and how people think of her, we see the similarities between the girl and this widely discussed topic. Like slavery, Beloved is seen as a very negative character. However, she is still for some reason accepted. Many white people in the book didn't like slavery, but they still just kind of accepted that it occurred. Also, at the end of the book, as time goes on, they all work together to get rid of Beloved just like people all over had to work together to get rid of slavery. In these ways, Morrison is using Beloved to represent the issues of slavery.
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Yeah, Beloved also burdens Sethe down and sucks all the life out of her. Each day, Sethe becomes more withered while Beloved grows fat. She reminds Sethe of her horrible past that scarred her for life, and Sethe needs Paul D to have any sense of hope for the future.
The most interesting thing about Beloved representing both Sethe's past as well as the Ancient history of the African Slaves of America. Beloved's dual soul serves as a source of African American history and lineage.
I think Beloved mainly represents the communal past of the African Americans. For example, Paul D never directly knew Beloved, but he still was majorly affected by her. Ella, in the end of the book, decided to help Sethe out with the community in order to save her from Beloved. Beloved definitely has a direct effect on the whole African American community and while she does represent the past of Sethe, she also represents the past of the whole community.
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