Saturday, April 6, 2019
Trees in Beloved
Out of all the motifs in “Beloved” we have seen and discussed, the tress are my favorite. I appreciate Morrison’s use of trees to symbolize the awful treatment of African Americans. The trees represent this poor treatment, of course, because African Americans were often lynched from the trees. Perhaps the most important scene involving trees we have seen thus far is when Sethe refers to the scars on her back as a tree. One, the scars are the result of several fierce whippings. Secondly, Sethe’s reffering to the scars as a tree, is representative of the way she feels about trees. She, too, views trees as an evil symbol of white cruelty. All in all, I think Morrison does a wonderful job utilizing trees as a motif of cruel treatment towards blacks.
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Trees also symbolize remembrance. If you think about it, trees are almost eternal. If you look at the wood, the rings you see represent a years worth of growth. As the tree grows, a new ring is made every year by the bark being pushed out from the center. This is an easy way to tell how old trees are. If something happens to the tree to stunt it's growth, maybe a lightning strikes it, maybe there's a drought, maybe there's been some acid rain, the year in which this occurs will be seen in the ring of the tree. The ring will look very different than all the others. This is one way to determine if the tree has had some struggles in its life or has been through some terrible things. The same can also be said with African-Americans during this time. While many of them were freed from slavery, the pain and sorrow from their previous years were always remembered on the inside, like a tree. Another connection can be that you can never actually get rid of a tree. If you chop one down, the roots will still be in the ground, the leaves may be somewhere else, or the wood will be transported somewhere else. You can try to remove a tree, but some form of it or a memory of it will remain somewhere. This is also like slavery with the former slaves. They can be liberated, but they will always remember their cruel past.
I agree with y'all! This use of trees also relates to Sing, Unburied, Sing. In this book, there were trees along roads and around houses. We had talked about how their roots are like history's hold on the present, and they loom over everyone even despite their age (history's presence is never gone). I hadn't thought about the tree rings; I really like that point! Ghosts are also used in both books, which is interesting. In both, there is the death of a grandma, someone who has much knowledge and experiences, but there's also the ever-presence of the past. Death isn't the end of someone's impact on the world, just as time doesn't erase history, and old roots still branch out!
Every time I encounter a symbolism of trees in a book, I think of two things: Mr. Tritico's English class with Their Eyes Were Watching God and @pplwhowereherinlowerschool Ms. Perret's art class where EVERYTHING was about trees. Besides the jokes, I do agree that a symbol of a tree in a book can have great importance and value in many different contexts, as we have already seen through the years and just in the two comments Ben and Natalia posted with their interpretations.
I love all the connections made on this post, I hadn't thought about the significance of the roots in particular though I see how it's important! It's amazing how there can me so many aspects that contribute to the significance of a single motif. It helps develop the novel and challenges the reader to dig deeper and read with more imagination.
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