Directions: In past blog responses, I provided you with a bullet point list of moments, tracing the stream of conscious of the characters from the third person narrator. For your post, please provide your own list of moments with page numbers, as I have done in the past. You may use my past lists as a guide for formatting. Also, provide a brief paragraph at the bottom to describe your analysis, reasoning, and any questions you have for our class discussion.
Angela Davis and Toni Morrison
List of moments:
ReplyDelete-That ain't her mouth (181)
-the newspaper clipping (183)
-this ain't her mouth (184)
-hummingbirds (192)
-safe (193)
-"Your love is too thick" (193)
-2 feet not 4 (194)
-Stamp Paid's guilt (200)
-Baby Sugg's burial (201-202)
-voices (202-203)
-28 days (204)
-"Nobody saw them falling" (205)
-"He smelled skin, skin, and hot blood" (212)
-the red ribbon (212-213)
-"I ain't got no friends take a handsaw to their own children" (221)
-earrings (222)
-stealing (223-225)
-human characteristics on the left, animal characteristics on the right, line them up (228)
-"How you going to pay it off?" (231)
-the jungle (234)
This section was filled with suspense, and I am really looking forward to reading the next part and finding out what happens. With this blog post, I wasn't completely sure what to do. I put up moments that stuck out to me, but I'm not sure whether these are moments that the author intended as important or if I'm just reading too much into them. Some of them, such as "this is not her mouth,"/the newspaper clipping, and 2 feet not 4 are turning points in the plot, and others such as "he smelled skin, skin, and hot blood," "how you going to pay it off," and the jungle, have clear connections to a wider point that Morrison is trying to make. But I was confused with moments such as hummingbirds, and "nobody saw them falling," where they stood out because of the repetition of those words/phrases, but I don't yet understand the metaphor. Does anyone have any suggestions on why Morrison could have repeated these?
That ain’t her mouth (181)
ReplyDeleteThe circles (192)
Safety (193)
“Your love is too thick” (193)
2 feet not 4 (194)
Forest (194)
Baby Suggs’s burial (201-202)
“Lay it all down, sword and shield” (203)
28 days (204)
18 years (204)
Nobody saw them falling (205)
THE CLICK (208)
“...black girls who had lost their ribbons” (213)
Handsaw (221)
Stealing (223-225)
Jungle (234)
Safety is subjective. When the school teacher arrives at 124, Sethe panics and stows herself and her children away in a shed. As the school teacher approaches, she determines that death is a better future for her children than slavery. Morrison illustrates this by explaining Sethe’s feeling of constraint, and how the only open space for Beloved and for ‘the wings of the hummingbirds’ is under the ‘veil’ of death. Sethe, like any other woman, talked about love, “about baby clothes like any other woman, but what she meant could cleave the bone” (193). Therefore, when the school teacher uncovers Sethe, he finds that she had killed her own daughter with a handsaw.
Paul D is disturbed. It wasn’t that Sethe killed her baby, but it was that she wasn’t aware of the difference between safety and murdering her daughter brutally with a handsaw. Ultimately, Paul D insults Sethe, arguing “‘Your love is too thick’” (193). Paul D is no longer at 124 and Sethe figures out that Beloved is her daughter, creating another new family dynamic.
I wrote about the same idea. Though there is a clear difference between safety and murdering [her] children, I think that Sethe was in a situation where she had to think about things a little differently. Killing your own children isn't ethical— everyone knows that including Sethe. Committing that action is not easy, and as a loving mother, it certainly takes a lot of thought and seems almost contradictory in a sense. However, I believe that given her circumstances (slavery/that Paul cannot see because he is a man/he lacks experience with having his own children), Sethe had her own reasons from her perspective. I don't think it was right for Paul to walk out like that but I also see where he's coming from. It can be shocking to discover a new idea about someone which goes against everything you had previously had in mind.
DeleteI completely agree with your analysis. I like how you connect events from different parts of the book into a fluid two paragraphs, starting with the scene in the shed all the way to Sethe discovering that Beloved is her daughter. One question I had about your list is why you wrote the click in capital letters. Is it that you think the click is the most important part of this section, or is there some other reason for the caps?
Delete“That ain’t her mouth” (181)
ReplyDelete“I did it. I got us all out” (190)
Sethe Circling (189)
“Your love is too thick” (193)
“You got two feet Sethe, not four” (194)
Paul D leaves 124 (195)
Baby Suggs Burial (201)
“Nobody saw them falling” (205)
Beloved and the song (207)
“There is no world outside my door” (217)
“Can't nobody offer?” (219)
Schoolteacher’s cruelty towards the slaves (228)
The escape plan (233)
The Jungle (234)
In this section, Paul D learns about Sethe’s attempt to kill her kids that day she saw the schoolteacher. While Sethe views her attempt to murder her kids as a way to protect them from slavery, Paul D believes she was wrong and cannot understand her reasoning. Because of this, he decides to leave 124. Later on, Stamp Paid questions who the other girl, Beloved, is, he finds out Paul D has been sleeping at the church. He’s frustrated that nobody offered to take him in. I think this conveys the broken community left behind after Sethe’s tragedy. The community vastly changed after that day, as no one came to 124 anymore and the community as a whole became less uplifting and generous towards one another. Sethe’s actions not only affected her family, but it altered the community around her as well. During this reading section we also uncover more memories from Sweet Home that led up to the escape plan that led her to 124. We learn about the Schoolteacher’s cruelty towards the slaves and how he had his pupils characterize Sethe and the other slaves features into human and animal ones. The way he treated them was so inhumane and traumatic that when Sethe saw his arrival to her safe place, 124, she believed her only option was to kill them in order to save them from the life of slavery she had endured.
I think the parts in this section about community, and small town culture, were also a little frustrating. This also made me think of Andover and if this sort of change and lack of generosity has recently affected it after a tragic event.
Delete“That aint her mouth”(181)
ReplyDelete“Pigs were crying in the chute… poking cutting skinning cas packing and saving offal” (181-2)
“He had made up his mind to show him this piece of paper--...a woman who favored Sethe except.. her mouth. Nothing like it.”(183)
“Who was this woman.. Whose eyes were almost as calm as hers?”(183)
“He was going to tell him about how…”(184)
“..new whitefolks with the Look… the righteous Look every Negro learned to recognize..”(184-5)
“So stamp pa did not tell him how she flew…”(185)
“She was already crawling when i got here.”(187)
“She was spinning.” (187)
“Remember aunt phillis...so there wasn't nobody. To talk to who'd know when it was time to chew”(187-8)
“It made him dizzy”(189)
“Perhaps it was the smile, or maybe the ever-ready love..the way colts, evangelists…”(190)
“I did it. I got us out”(190)
“Listening to the doves in Alfred, Georgia…”(191)
“Calico. Stripes it had with little flowers in between...thats a selfish pleasure i never had before.. Couldn’t let her nor any of em live under schoolteacher.”(191-2)
“Sethe knew that the circle..she could never explain...No. No. Nono. Nonono.”(192)
“She remembered a fence with a gate...hitched their horses...backwards step with each baby heart until none.”(192)
The prickly, mean eyed Sweethome girl he knew … this here Sethe was new… love is too thick”(193)
“You got two feet not four.. ‘goodbye’...”(194-5)
“Stamp paid could hear it.”(199)
Delete“Paul D was the only one”(199)
“Sneaking was his job…”(199)
“AFter- not before- he considered Sethe’s feeling… deeper and more painful than Denver or Sethe...so Baby, holy, devoted to harmony, was buried amid spite.”(200-2)
“Stamp raised his fist to knock...he expected from Negroes in hid Debt...the coldness of the gesture.”(203)
“Lay it all down, sword, and shield...digging in the heap…those twenty-eight happy days…’what these do?’...she threw shoes.”(203-5)
“Nobody saw them fall… an arm around each girl...wrapped in quilts and blankets.”(205-6)
“She loved the burned bottom of bread…i made that song up and sang it to my children.”(207)
“Fingering a ribbon and smelling skin… its in the marrow... Think about the color of things...indifference lodged where sadness should have been… the Word.”(208-9)
“The skin was one thing, but human blood cooked in lynch fires was a whole other thing. The Stench Stank… What a roaring.”(212-3)
Sethe had gone to bed smiling...late for work...wild and fast… The world is in this room.”(213-5)
“Neither saw the prints nor heard the voices...things she no longer had to remember...just saw the box...got you a gravestone...thought you were mad...how bad is the scar?”(216-7)
“Stamp paid fought fatigue and the habit of a lifetime...they had won...he banged furiously...the door did not open...he didn’t know her..nobody, but nobody visited that house.”(217)
“He decided he didn’t owe anybody anything...that act paid them off..the receipt was a welcome door that he never had to knock on.”(218)
“Since when a black man come to town have to sleep in a cellar like a dog?...It’s her, ain't it?...I run him off...I showed him the newspaper.”(219-21)
“You know as well as I do that people who die bad don’t stay in the ground.”(221)
“Once she was soft, trusting...earing made her believe she could discriminate among them. Every school teacher there was an amy.”(222)
“She just didn’t want the embarrassment of waiting out back...ashamed too because it was stealing.”(223-4)
“Thank god I don't have to rememory or say s thing because you know it….run up and roll down...their backs .. always away from me...you had the sweetest face...figured if i got a piece of muslin.”(226-7)
“No, no. That’s not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; he animal ones on the right. And don’t forget to line them up.”(228)
“My scalp was prickly… Flies settled all over your face…‘What do characteristics mean’...‘A thing that’s natural to a thing’...‘A good scrubbing is what it needs, not scratching...I heard why schoolteacher measured.”
“What they say is the same. Loud or soft… Who’s going buy you out? Or me? Or her?... While the boys is small...I walked right on by because only me had your milk and God do what He would, I was going to get it to you.”(231-3)
“She opened the door, walked in and locked it tight.”(234)
“The mumbling of the black and angry...none that he knew lived a liveable life...even educated colored...they had the weight of the whole race sittg there.”(234)
“White people believed beneath dark skin was a jungle...gentle, clevr, loving, human, the more tangled the jungle grew...it was the jungle the whitefolks planted...the screaming baboon live under their own white skin; the red gums were their own.”(234)
“The secret spread of this new kid of whitefolks jungle was hidden, silent.”(235)
“Unspeakable thoughts, unspoken.”(235)
I’m really glad that we’ve gotten more from Stamp Paid in the last couple chapters. He seemed like an extra character when first introduced, much like most of the other off-hand mentioned names like Ella and school teacher, but like the other’s he has proven to be much more interesting and complicated than originally anticipated. Personally, I’m starting to grow tired of Sethe and her sickening isolation and unhealthy attachments. I feel like Sethe lacks a lot of perspective and empathy, understanding that you would expect of a character who has seen such hardship but managed to maintain their sense of love and caring, but it’s clear she’s lost something else. On the other hand, hearing more about what people think of Sethe and the controversy of that night is a welcome supplement as a reader trying to understand such a complex character thinking and passing one's own judgment on the morality of the happening. Stamp plays this sort of in-between character who cares deeply for Sethe but is also apart from her after the years of isolation at 124. I think as we begin to hear more of the stories of the people surround 124 and the town, we get a sense of the shared experience of those who have escaped slavery, but also where that experience differs from person to person. Stamp has this sort of solemnity and wisdom about him that helps the reader to understand the situation. He sees both the terribleness of the act but doesn’t forget the terribleness, like Ella seems to have, of the circumstance that led to the act. He tries, with some trouble, to reach out, as he “fought fatigue and the habit of a lifetime,”(217) in order to try to speak to Sethe about Paul D. He seems to have the same survival instinct that Sethe has, as he “decided that he didn’t owe anybody anything,”(218) except, while Sethe cares only for her family, Stamp doesn’t have a family and so finds a way to connect to people and build his own sort of family, I think, especially in Baby Suggs. I think his admiration of Baby Suggs fuels a lot of his action, but I also think he has a strong understanding of how morally nuanced the life that all of them live is. How at any time they could be forced to make a decision which may prompt one to forget their morality or stick to it. We hear, briefly, about how he “handed over his wife to his master’s son.”(218) It says that he didn’t kill anyone but in a way he killed himself, losing his wife, rather than live on in slavery. Admittedly, like in the case of Baby Suggs and Halle, his wife consented and urged this decision for his sake, but regardless, while he didn’t kill his children rather than have them enslaved, he allowed himself to be killed. He understands the choice because he toO has made it.
DeleteI really like your insight into Stamp Paid. I was a little confused about what he meant when he talked about "hand[ing] over his wife to his master's son," but it makes more sense after reading your comment. I especially like how you talk about how he, in a sense, killed himself. It reminds me of a quote from a war movie where someone says that surrendering to the enemy is more of a death than dying fighting, and it brings up a lot of questions about the true meaning of death. Like Stamp Paid, Sethe seems to also have killed a part of herself when she killed her daughter. It seems that for these two characters, the people they love are so much a part of them, that when they lose these people, they lose a part of themselves that they can never gain back.
Delete“This ain’t her mouth” (183)
ReplyDelete“He was going to tell him that” (184)
“Not anybody ran down...to say some new whitefolks with the Look just rode in” (184)
“So Stamp Paid did not tell him how she flew” (185)
“So Stamp Paid didn’t say it all” (186)
“She was spinning. Round and round the room” (187)
“Each and every one of my babies and me too. I birthed them and I got em out and it wasn’t no accident” (190)
“I was big...when I stretched out my arms all my children could get in between” (190)
“Circling, circling, now she was gnawing something else instead of getting to the point” (191)
“I stopped him” (193)
“It occurred to him that what she wanted for her children was exactly what was missing in 124: safety” (193)
“Your love is too thick” (193)
“You got two feet, Sethe, not four” (194)
“He didn’t rush to the door. He moved slowly” (194)
“He’d moved out of 124 that very day, Stmp felt uneasy” (199)
“Had he stopped the one shot she had of the happiness a good man could bring her” (199)
“Nobody besides himself would enter 124-an inquiry Sethe answered with another by refusing to attend the service Reverend Pike presided over” (201-202)
What he heard, as he moved towards the porch, he didn’t understand” (202)
“Stamp Paid raised his fist to knock on the door he had never knocked on (because it was always open to or for him)” (203)
“Lay it all down” (205)
“Holding hands, bracing each other, they swirled over the ice” (205)
“Nobody saw them falling” (205)
“Beloved turned to look at Sethe. ‘I know it,’ she said” (207)
“Stamp approached 124 again” (208)
“They ate like men, ravenous and intent” (215)
“Stamp Paid abandoned his efforts to see about Sethe, after the pain of knocking and not gaining entrance” (235)
For my bullet points, I included what I thought were shifts in the stories tone or important aspects that are essential to the chapter. I deemed main parts of the story as important. I also think the moments that revealed more parts of the character’s personalities were important to include. In chapter 17, we began learning about the character Stamp Paid and he remained essential for the remainder of the next few chapters. He was the character who told Paul D about what Sethe did but we also see the extent in which Stamp cares for Sethe. We read about the interaction between Paul D. and Sethe after Paul confronts her about the newspaper clipping. Stamp feels responsible for Paul removing himself from Sethe’s life and cares about how this will affect Sethe. Paul criticizes her love for her children before leaving, sending Sethe into a state of grief. Chapter 19 is a very heavy chapter, including many essential aspects of the story. We see more of how much Stamp cares for Sethe and experience Sethe’s revelation that Beloved is a reincarnation of her deceased daughter. Later in the chapter, more of the past of Sweet home is revealed.
I like your bullets. I think they're very accurate and you took a lot of time on them. I also liked how you broke them up by chapter. I had trouble in the last chapter we had to read because I felt the entire thing was one long rant from Sethe, and therefore didn't have many changes in tone or direction? I was wondering what you did there.
Delete“That ain't her mouth” (181)
ReplyDelete“A whip of fear broke through the heart chambers as soon as you saw a Negro’s face in a paper” (183)
“But his smile never got a chance to grow” (190)
“I got us all out” (190)
“Your love is too thick” (193)
“You got two feet, Sethe, not four” (194)
“So long” (195)
Baby Sugg's burial (201-202)
"Nobody saw them falling" (205)
“the click” (207)
"He smelled skin, skin, and hot blood" (212)
Red ribbon (212-13)
“How bad is the scar?” (217)
“Can't nobody offer?” (219)
"take a handsaw to their own children" (221)
“And you telling me that’s not stealing?” (224)
“Put her human characteristics on the left, her animal characteristics on the right” (228)
features (229-30)
“He want something” (231)
“I got you out baby” (233)
“under every dark skin was a jungle” (234)
During this section, both readers and characters learn a great deal about past history, leading to some large decisions. When Paul D learns details about Sethe’s murdering of her own child, he sees just how determined Sethe is to protect her family. As much as he has tried to understand Sethe, he cannot get over the brutality of the situation, feeling as though Sethe is too far gone to see that her actions to shield her family can actually hurt them instead. Paul D tells Sethe was she has “two feet… not four” (194), indicating she cannot put so much burden and responsibility on herself. Sethe isn’t aware of her limits, often not seeing situations and solutions as they really are. She takes on the work for four legs instead of the two that she has, landing her in extremely tough situations. He also says that Sethe’s “love is too thick” (193), meaning her love for her family obstructs her view of opportunities and options in front of her. Paul D feels he has no longer has a meaningful place at 124 and leaves. At 124, Sethe realizes that Beloved is her resurrected daughter, adding to the thickness of her love. With this new information, the atmosphere in the house changes, and Sethe begins focusing solely on the present, not the past or future.
I agree that Sethe is beginning to focus only on the present, rather than the past or the future. Her ugly, brutal past of murdering her daughter drives the man of her future, Paul D, away. Sethe is now only truly concerned with Beloved and Denver. She decides to focus on building a future with her children and, as a result, lets Paul D walk away. I do not blame Paul D for leaving her, but can Sethe truly be happy without him in her life? How will knowing that Beloved is her daughter affect Sethe?
DeleteI actually had a different initial perception of two feet not four. I thought Paul D was telling Sethe that she was a human, not an animal, so she should behave more "humanely". I thought so in part because of all the other mentions in this section of black people being perceived as animal-like, such as when Schoolmaster instructs the boy to draw Sethe as a human on one side and an animal on the other. However, I think your analysis of Sethe taking on the work for four legs instead of two also makes a lot of sense.
Delete“That ain’t her mouth.” (181)
ReplyDelete“Snatching up her children like a hawk on the wing.” (185)
“It made him dizzy.” (189)
“I took and put my babies where they’d be safe.” (193)
“There could have been a way. Some other way.” (194)
“So long.” (195)
“Maybe he should have left it alone.” (200)
“Over and over again he tried it.” (203)
“Nobody saw them falling.” (205)
“Red ribbon.” (213)
“I can forget what I did I changed Baby Suggs’ life.” (217)
“Jungle” (234)
In the earlier sections, Paul D discovers Sethe’s act of killing her children and decides to leave 124. He found it shocking, and trying to understand “made him dizzy.” I thought that it was especially interesting how even though they both experienced the hardships of slavery, Paul D could not seem to grasp or understand exactly where Sethe was coming from in her justification— it put her moment into perspective for me, and showed that it was a situation which one must experience in order to truly understand her. A mother-child relationship is a connection that cannot be explained through words. Furthermore, I also thought the transition from the argument to ice skating was particularly telling. I feel that it was almost abrupt since Sethe and Paul D were starting to form a meaningful relationship with unique foundation. As Sethe is one to likely hold onto the past, this scenario doesn’t exactly represent that— I am curious to see if Paul will make a reappearance further into the story.
I really like your analysis of this section and agree that the relationship Sethe has with each of her children is unique and hard for others to understand. This makes it difficult to live and love Sethe. Paul D wanted to stay at 124 but once he learned about Beloved's murder, he felt him and Sethe would never think the same. Although they both lived at Sweet Home, they formed very different styles of thinking afterwards, leading them to see the world very differently.
Delete“That ain’t her mouth”(pg.181)
ReplyDelete“So Stamp Paid did not tell him how she flew…” (pg. 185)
Spinning (pg. 188)
“I did it. I got us all out.”(pg. 190)
“Your love is too thick”(pg. 193)
Forest between them (pg. 194)
“Nobody saw them falling.” (pg.205)
The click (pg.206)
“There was no entry now.”(pg.222)
“Stamp Paid abandoned his efforts to see about Sethe, after the pain of knocking and not gaining entrance”(pg.235)
In this section the part that stood out to me the most was when it talked about 124 and as though Sethe locked it to keep it separate from everything that was going on outside and to not like anything escape. When the three of them are inside the house it seems that it comes to life. Stamp Paid kept trying to approach the house and see what was happening inside but everytime he got so close he would back away. One question I have is that when it was talking about seeing the two people in the window and him not recognizing Beloved what is going to happen when he figures out who she is because I feel like that might be a big plot point since he knew about what Sethe did all those years ago.
I think that you chose some really important moments to the chapters. You chose some crucial aspects that focused on Stamp Paid. He seemed to be an essential character because he was frequently included in the majority of the reading. You also discussed Stamp in your paragraph will further emphasized his importance. Reading these chapters, I wonder if he will be around for the rest of the novel or if his character will remain central to the story.
DeletePigs were crying in the chute
ReplyDeleteStamp started with the party
“But that aint her mouth”
“She was crawling already”
It made him dizzy
“I did it”
Sweet, she thought.
While Stamp Paid
Nobody saw them falling
Fingering a ribbon
She just up and quit
He smelled skin
I don’t have to remember
No crack or crevice available
Thank god…
These chapters set Sethe in a different light for me. I always thought she was trying to avoid both the past and the future but that wasn’t exactly true. When Sethe finds out that Beloved was her daughter, she kept thinking “now I don’t have to rememory” (226). She was holding onto the memories of her daughter for so long that she didn’t really let herself come to terms with them. As though getting over the memories and letting those wounds fade would make the memories fade too.
Also, instead of the calm, collected Sethe that Denver described in the first few chapters, we see this other side of her. Paul D saw it as a “new” Sethe. He described that “this new Sethe talked about safety with a handsaw” (193). Her calm was disconcerting, it showed a psychotic level of her that we never really got to see before.
I thought it was interesting how much she changes.
Also: did anyone really catch what happened to Sixo? We’ve basically learned what happened to everyone else but all we’ve heard about Sixo was that he was “crisped” or “fried”. He was burned at the stake? I’m wondering if we’re going to get more of a story there.
I like the way you talked about rememory and agree that she was holding onto her time with Beloved without holding onto the reality of the situation. In a way, memory can really hurt the healing and growing process. Sethe never seems to think in greys, only blacks and whites, causing her to make bold, dramatic decisions when others wouldn't.
Delete“That ain’t her mouth” (181)
ReplyDelete“A negro’s face in the paper” (183)
“Whitefolks with the Look” (183)
“Circling him the way she was circling the subject” (189)
“His smile never got a change to grow” (190)
“I stopped him” (193)
“You got two feet, Sethe, not four” (194)
“Afterward - not before - he considered Sethe’s feelings” (200)
“Raised his fist to knock on the door he had never knocked on” (203)
“Nobody saw them falling” (205)
“The click had clicked” (207)
“They came in my yard” (211)
“A red ribbon knotted around a curl of wet woolly hair” (213)
“The things she no longer had to remember” (216)
“Improving your property” (224)
“Which one are you doing?” (228)
“While the boys is small” (332)
This section of reading contained many examples of people coming to realizations. Paul D. learned the full story of Sethe’s history. Sethe learned Beloved is her daughter after all. Stamp Paid learned what exactly had made Baby Suggs retire to her bed. Many of the transitional moments on this list come at moments in which a character is coming to some realization or observing a new piece of evidence, something they hadn’t considered yet. Whether it’s Paul D. surprised that his smile has no opportunity to grow or Stamp Paid discovering the red ribbon on his boat, these chapters seemed to revolve around discovery.
I agree with you, it seems that many pieces and central ideas are coming together in these sections. It was also interesting to see how different topics were unfolding at the same time.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAint her mouth 181 & 185
ReplyDeleteSlaughterhouse 181
No way in hell…if not gasps 183
Eyes as calm…stranger the lips 183
How she flew 185
I knew her before 185
Spinning, circles 187 & 192
Smile 190
With out Halle too 190
Truth was simple 192
No. No, Nono. Nonono 192
Love is too thick 193
Like Halle, New Sethe 193
Two feet, not four 194
So long 195
Falling 205
The stench stank 212
Red Ribbon 213
Rememory 226
There was a Jungle 234
I feel that Morrison writes this chapter like the way Sethe explains her story to Paul D, dancing around the truth until you can no longer avoid it. While reading this chapter, I was reading through the eyes of Paul D at the beginning of the section, not able to believe such a story attempted murder and success. As a reader we are torn between how we knew Sethe, loving, strong, independent, and sane, and the "new" Sethe, insane and insensitive. Morrison even tries to remind of us of this familiar Sethe, by making Sethe remind us that she, without Halle, freed herself, but also how similar in positive attributes she was to Halle. While I think I would have liked Paul D to stick around a little longer for the sake of Sethe, however I can't say that I'm surprised that he left. He is limited in love, struggling to latch on, hold on despite her disturbing flaws.
There was also a paragraph earlier on in the section that stuck with me that was unrelated to Sethe. Morrison touches upon the newspaper and black people are portrayed in them, that they are not mentioned when something good happens or brutally murdered by racist America. This made me think about the news today, and how this has changed and remained the same.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"...sleep in a cellar like a dog?...” (219-21)
ReplyDelete“Pigs were crying in the chute… poking cutting skinning cas packing and saving offal.” (181-2)
“Perhaps it was the smile, or maybe the ever-ready love..the way colts, evangelists…” (190)
“Calico. Stripes it had with little flowers in between...thats a selfish pleasure I never had before..." (191-2)
“She remembered a fence with a gate...hitched their horses...backwards step with each baby heart until none.” (192)
“You got two feet not four... ‘goodbye’...” (194-5)
"He smelled skin, skin, and hot blood"-to-"The Stench Stank… What a roaring.” (212-3)
“Put her human characteristics on the left, her animal characteristics on the right.” (228)
“White people believed beneath dark skin was a jungle...gentle, clever, loving, human, the more tangled the jungle grew...it was the jungle the whitefolks planted...the screaming baboon live under their own white skin; the red gums were their own.” (234)
“The secret spread of this new kid of whitefolks jungle was hidden, silent.” (235)
“Unspeakable thoughts, unspoken.” (235)
The line between animal and human is heavily drawn where properties set in stone an erratic, distinctive separation. Drawing on the six senses, it plays on an animal's extraordinary, above human sense of smell and drives to hunt or be as prey; from “Put her human characteristics on the left, her animal characteristics on the right.” (228), to “White people believed beneath dark skin was a jungle...the screaming baboon live under their own white skin; the red gums were their own.” (234), instils a sense of detached, animalistic depravity that further establishes Black people as wild animals, who value in killing [espeically their young], merely because that is their wild nature.
“That ain’t her mouth” (181)
ReplyDelete“A whip of fear broke through the heart chambers as soon as you saw a Negro’s face in a paper” (183)
“But I was willing that day” (184)
“the sweet conviction in them almost made him wonder if it had happened at all” (186)
“You got two feet Sethe, not four” (194)
“To lay it all down, sword and shield” (203)
“Nobody saw them falling” (205)
“She ain’t even mad at me” (214)
“And when she left… she neither saw the prints nor heard the voiced that ringed 124 like a noose” (215)
In this section of reading, we learn about Beloved’s death and hear Sethe tell the story to Paul D. They have conflicting opinions on the situation, and cannot seem to agree. Sethe sees her murder as an attempt to free her from slavery while Paul D sees this as wrong and cannot fathom why she would do such a thing. This prompts him to leave 124 and Sethe, who he feels he no longer understands. He can only see the wrong in the situation instead of trying to understand her reasoning behind wanting to protect her children. Paul D tells Sethe that she has “two feet… not four” (194), showing that she cannot give herself so much responsibility. Sethe’s connections to her children appear to be coming in between her relationships with other people. She cannot put anyone else before her children, which seems to be creating flaws in her connections with those around her. Hopefully in further chapters we can further see the aftermath of Paul D’s departure and if Beloved will try and get rid of Denver as well, in order to make it just her and Sethe.