Shoes, Beloved, and Independent Reading

For my independent reading, I chose Oliver Twist. In my paper, I wrote about the author's points on social status, and I included a paragraph specifically about the use of clothing. Charles Dickens uses it as a physical symbol of social status to show that social status is only surface-deep and contrived. It is also tied to identity and society's views and expectations of people of different classes. As Oliver is moved around the social ladder, his clothing changes, his treatment changes, but he is still the same person. This has a connection to Beloved in that in Beloved shoes hold significance. We started talking about shoes in class, but didn't fully talk about them yet. I think the fact that feet are what you use to run away is very important. Maybe it is important that Baby Suggs has to fix shoes for white people; she has to help make them comfortable when it is the African Americans who are forced to labor all day on their sore feet. Amy massages Sethe's feet when she meets her, and this is important because it reverses society's expected roles for them. Also, Baby Suggs preached about self love, and I think fixing friends' shoes symbolizes empowering them. There's also that saying about "walking in someone else's shoes". Perhaps that relates; shoes, and one's journey, are tied to identity and experience. Baby Suggs fixes shoes and tries to make them better than before; maybe this relates to improving life for others. I'm curious to hear about y 'all's independent reading books and how they might relate to other things we have read!