Sethe has now encountered another situation where people are fleeing I24. Paul D, conflicting with her over why the "crawling already? baby" is killed. This brings back the idea that sometimes, leaving the known world of hostility can bring more volatility to one's life. Sethe makes the argument that killing her child is better than having her return to slavery, while Paul D believes that life is always better than death, and her actions resulted in a life worse than death. A life of isolation, loneliness, and bitter resentment from the community around her for her actions. That begs the question though: was Sethe right to kill her child when the four horsemen of the apocalypse (Schoolteacher, Sheriff, Slave Catcher, and Schoolteacher's son) arrive to take them away?
Baby Suggs and Stamp Paid both play significant roles within this particular section. Although baby Suggs is dead, the idea of colors is repeated as a motif within the section, and that was what Baby Suggs focused on when she was dying. Death is portrayed with colors throughout the section (most of the time the color red comes up). Meanwhile, the living are portrayed in a world of constant cold, as the section takes place in winter, with minimal color. The colors only being used when regarding death is significant because it comes back to the the idea that death is the only way to end the perpetual state of slave-like conditions that Sethe experiences. That death is the ultimate savior to end the pain of which she endures, of which Baby Suggs endured, and of which Sethe made her baby not have to endure. Life is portrayed as bleak and dismal, while death is portrayed in color to show how life is not so great for the people of I24, and that death is the final escape for those trapped in isolation at the house. Death is the one thing that nobody can escape within this novel, but seems to be the one thing consistently welcomed by the few who are near it.
Good discussion of some of the motifs of the novel. Do you think the emphasis on death is due to the atrocities of slavery that Morrison explores? Is there a difference between death for those who are enslaved and death for those who no longer are? Or are all of the characters still enslaved in some way.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note: Morrison bases Sethe's action of killing her child on a true story.
It appears as though Beloved is just as involved as Song of Solomon was. I find it interesting how Toni Morrison really pushes unique, meaningful names in her books. Beloved sounds a lot deeper than my book, The Kite Runner. The Kite Runner has good imagery, irony, and themes, yet seems to lack motifs like Beloved. Would you say that this is a book worth reading, or is it too early to say for sure?
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