Beloved, The Final Installment

Hi all! Unfortunately, this will be my last blog post for Beloved! To preface all of this, I’ve had a phenomenal time reading the book, and Toni Morrison still doesn’t cease to amaze me.

After spending some time thinking about what I had just read as well as discussing it with classmates, I presented myself with a question about Beloved.  As I read this book as part of a free choice project for my AP English class, I decided to ask myself: is Beloved a book that should be read by AP , or is on par with other books read by AP classes?  Well, to answer that question on a simple level, yes.  But why?  To start, Beloved is a very difficult book to comprehend, which in the end enhances proper reading skills.  One major goal of an AP Literature course is to enhance a student’s ability to comprehend complex literature.  Beloved is a perfect book to work on this task.  Heck, I didn’t understand who Beloved actually was until I was three quarters of the way through the novel.  I’m still very unclear on all of the motifs, but started to get an inkling as to what each one represented towards the end of the novel.  This doesn’t show that I improved, but practicing the reading of complex literature in the end enhances the ability to comprehend it in the first place.  Yes, Beloved is one of the most difficult novels I have ever read.  Students should not read Beloved at the beginning of the year because of the complexity of the literature.  I can note an improvement in my ability to comprehend complex literature since the beginning of the year, especially following the completion of Song of Solomon, another Toni Morrison novel.  Beloved was the next challenge, and although I’ve described the text as one that is quite difficult to understand, that doesn’t remove the book from being AP worthy.  If anything, the book is intellectually too advanced for high school students (not intending to sound condescending here, as I had a great deal of difficult with the content), and requires maybe a few more years of practice before the book can be appreciated for the true value.  However, if a student has the capacity to understand the motifs and how they relate to the complex theme of escaping the literal sense of slavery, but never the social construct, the student clearly has understood the novel and has the capacity to write about Beloved on an AP Exam essay. Yes, Beloved is AP worthy!

Thank you one last time!

Dom

Beloved: The Final Quarter

Hello again! I’ve just finished reading the final quarter of Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

Just to bring everyone into the picture, we recently found out that Beloved is in fact the daughter of Sethe.  Sethe killed her child (Beloved) upon the arrival of four white males at the 124 residence. Stamp Paid remembered this whole scenario and decided that he might as well enlighten Paul D on how reckless and seemingly murderous Sethe is.  Paul D stormed out of the house after Stamp Paid showed him a newspaper clipping regarding the murder of Beloved, and now Sethe, Beloved, and Denver are alone at 124.  So let’s get up to speed on the most recent section of the book.  First of all, we find out that Sethe isn’t the only one who has killed someone.  Stamp Paid talks about how he changed his name after he murdered his own wife, whose name was Vashti.  Stamp Paid’s name used to be Joshua.  Paul D also lets Stamp Paid in on the fact that he was present for the murder of Beloved and didn’t really do anything about it.  During all of this, Beloved takes complete control of the household. This happens because Sethe finally realizes who Beloved is and wants to reciprocate feelings of love.  Beloved becomes so demanding that Sethe more or less is dying because of Beloved’s demands (oh and meanwhile, all of these people are going hungry, so Denver is out looking for some job to feed three people with, as apparently Sethe is so preoccupied with Beloved that she can no longer work).  So in the end, a whole bunch of women from the town approach the 124 residence after being informed on the situation from Denver, and Beloved, after a run in because of the presence of another “dangerous” white man, leaves the house.  Sethe is completely destroyed by the abandonment of Beloved.  Finally, Paul D returns to Sethe (who seems to be on her deathbed), and starts to return her into the state she was in towards the beginning of the novel.  

So all of that as plot summary, but now let’s talk about some of the more interesting stuff.  Morrison wrote a particular chapter in this story without any sort of punctuation.  The chapter followed two previous chapters of similar structure, in the sense that Morrison included similar sentiments from the characters she was describing.  The first two chapters in this series of three discuss how Sethe and Denver deal with the fact that Beloved is a family member.  Upon reaching the third chapter, Beloved attempts to give her insight on how she feels to be back in the family, but this is done entirely without punctuation.  Imagine reading five or six pages of a book where instead of periods, there are six spaces (fun).  The lack of punctuation could have to deal with the uneducated personality of Beloved, or just because she is a ghost, but I am yet to decide which one.  I just thought the stylistic component of that particular section was noteworthy.  I guess I’ll take one more shot at theme, as I’ve finished the book now.  I think I was on the right track with the whole slavery ordeal, and just how hard it was to leave a slave life behind and move into a new world.  As the book progressed, I found out more and more terrible things that each character had done or seen after leaving the realm of a slave plantation.  Morrison, with Sethe, shows that African Americans feel so disenfranchised by white people that they are driven to perform terrible acts of violence (such as the original killing of Beloved).  For other members of the class who have also completed this book, what are your thoughts on the theme?

Thanks for tuning in again,

Dom

Getting Close! This Marks the Third Installment of My Series of Posts!

Hey all! I’m back again for another installment in my series of Beloved blogs.  

In what seems to be her true style, Toni Morrison has yet again waited for what seems like an eternity to develop characters to a point in which a reader can fully comprehend the plot (or at least to a point where I can understand what’s going on). But back to the main topic of this particular blog post.  What do I know about the book at this point?  I left off last time with a seeming increase in the romance between Paul D Garner and Sethe (quickly just another interesting point, I determined today that this name was pronounced Seth-a).  By the conclusion of this section of the book, one can determine that the relationship between the two is completely destroyed, as Paul D just leaves the house and Sethe.  Why did Paul D leave?  Well to start, Sethe and him have this seemingly simultaneous flashback to the time that four white slave trappers came to the 124 residence to seize the family of Sethe.  In this whole flashback deal, the reader learns that Sethe, while she is at the 124 residence with the four men incident, happens to kill one of her four children.  She tried to kill Denver, but Stamp Paid stopped her from this terrible act.  Paul D didn’t know about the killing of children prior to this series of flashbacks.  However, you wouldn’t believe who this dead child is! It’s Beloved!  Just to clarify all of this,  Toni Morrison has used magical realism to create the seemingly real character of Beloved.  Beloved is Denver’s sister, so yes, Sethe’s daughter.  That shakes things up a little bit, as the interactions between Paul D and Beloved (for those who didn’t read the past blog post, those two had sex), a little worse.  Well there’s the plot update.  

Other areas of the novel also developed during this last section, most importantly the motif of milk, particularly that of a mother.  In this particular section of the book, there is a rather gruesome breastfeeding scene, where Morrison focuses in on the bloody nipple of Sethe.  What this triggered in my mind, was a personal recognition of the connection between the bloody nipple and Sethe’s somewhat bad relationship with her children (as two have run away, she killed one, and Denver is a complete mess).  This proves to be ironic, because as Sethe’s children continue to want to get away from her (maybe minus the magical version of Beloved), but other people continue to want to steal the milk of Sethe.  One would think that this relationship would be reversed completely.  So apart from this whole motif of milk, I guess I’m lost on some level. I’m struggling to figure out what Toni Morrison wants this work to mean as a whole.  Does Morrison put focus on the raising of children because she wants to highlight just how disenfranchised Blacks were because of slavery?  Or is Morrison throwing race out the window (unlikely, based on the content of Song of Solomon), and putting more of a “one must love and respect their family” kind of theme.  I guess only time will tell.

Thanks for reading again!

Dom

Morrison is Back, and More "Beloved" than Ever!

We’re back, and better than ever! Welcome to the second installment of this blog, which for those who haven’t followed yet, is about Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

I’ve recently finished the second quarter of the book, and have begun to realize some interesting trends in the novel.  The first thing that the second quarter of the book has personally done for me, is a reassurance of Toni Morrison’s writing style.  For example, upon reading Song of Solomon, Morrison included flashbacks as a primary mean of creating historical knowledge of characters.  But quickly, I’ve learned some more about the name Beloved.  Denver asked Beloved why people called her that, and the name seems to stem from some sort of name men have given to her.  Time to get back to the point here.

Song of Solomon included many interesting flashbacks, and so does Beloved, but on some level, the flashbacks are a little bit different.  In Beloved, there are so many flashbacks regarding the lives of each separate character that Morrison seems to be describing each of their lives up until the current point from at least a few years ago.  In this particular section, I was graced with further knowledge regarding the birthing of Denver, and actually how Denver was named.  Remember that girl Amy who helped Sethe give birth to her child?  Well Amy’s full name was Amy Denver, and this is how Denver got her name.  I also learned more about Baby Suggs, and how she played a role in the lives of those who live in 124.  Just a quick clarification here, I know that I mentioned the presence of Baby Suggs as almost a ghost like figure in the last post, but this is incorrect.  I think that Morrison has Denver haunted by Baby Suggs not in the literal manner, but in the manner that Denver has missed the presence of Baby Suggs ever since her death.  

So back to Baby Suggs.  Baby Suggs seemed to be an instrumental figure in the wellbeing of Sethe, not necessarily because her son is Halle (the missing husband of Sethe), but rather because she communicated and created ethical and powerful moral beliefs to the escaped slave community in and around the Cincinnati area.  Moving towards the escaped slave idea, we learned about the escape of Paul D, and how he walked from Georgia to Delaware, and then further to Ohio.  In this particular flashback, Paul D was attached to 45 other men on a chain (which was described as the finest iron in all of Georgia), and crawled under a fence to escape his “prison”.  I missed just how Paul D got out of his chain with the 45 other men, but nonetheless his journey on foot was impressive.  In between all of these very important flashbacks, problems have grown at the house in the novel’s current time.  For example, Sethe, Beloved, and Denver all venture to an old Clearing (clearing is capitalized in the novel, so I will continue the capitalization here), and somehow, Sethe ends up with some very serious bruises around her neck.  Denver accuses Beloved of creating the bruises, but I’m pretty sure this is another one of Morrison’s ventures into the magical realism realm, and hopefully I’ll find out more later.  Beloved also has been interfering with the life of Paul D, as one night she storms into his room and pleas for sexual intercourse.  This situation is even worse, especially based on the fact that Paul D just asked Sethe to bear a child for him (even after the narrator goes on some rant about how Paul D can’t handle all this stability because he doesn’t trust himself).  

Those are a lot of the major developments, but on top of that, I’ve begun to notice some overlapping themes.  Morrison has repeated some words in Beloved that I think serve as motifs.  I’ll go over two now just for kicks.  I’ve noticed a strong repetition of the word milk, especially if the milk comes from either Sethe of Baby Suggs.  Other characters always seem to be drawing on the milk of those two.  The wellbeing of Sethe seems to depend on if she has enough milk to give others or not.  A second motif I’ve noticed is the repetition of the word velvet.  Velvet has only been mentioned with the white character Amy, and so far appears to me as a dividing factor between the two races.  Amy says at one point that she desires velvet, showing that she has privilege and opportunity, and the response of Sethe is to ask Amy what exactly velvet is, showing that rather than having opportunity, Sethe does not stand in the position of whites to better her position in society.  

Thanks for tuning in again,

Dom

Works Cited

Works Cited

Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print.

Paul D and the Gang! Welcome to Beloved by Tony Morrison

Hi! I'm Dominic Repucci, and I've been reading the novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison.  

To provide a little bit of an introduction as to why I'm writing this blog, the major purpose is to share my thoughts and observations regarding Morrison's novel as a part of my AP English class.  The following blog post will cover my thoughts regarding the first quarter of the novel.

    Toni Morrison never ceases to amaze me with her use of magical realism.  Beloved starts right out with a section of magical realism, as Baby Suggs is theoretically a dead character and somehow still has the capacity to interact with Denver and Sethe! But I forgot something, in order to understand this, you all need to understand who the characters are! I’ll start out with the main character of the novel, who is Sethe.  Sethe is a single mother, who has lived an interesting life.  She used to be married to a man named Halle, of which she had a daughter with, whose name is Denver.  Just a quick note here.  I’ve read Toni Morrison before, in the form of Song of Solomon.  In that novel, there were stories and significances behind all of the names, but I have yet to figure out the significance of the names in Beloved.  Now back to the characters.  Sethe seems troubled because of her loss of Halle, and also because of the loss of her mother in law Baby Suggs.  Baby Suggs gave birth to eight different children, one of which was Halle.  Sethe has been raped before, which unfortunately occurred during her pregnancy with Denver.  This could contribute to Sethe’s seeming misogynistic view (I don’t know if it's to the extent of misogyny, but she has a distrust for males).  Now on to Denver.  Denver and Sethe seem to have an oppositional relationship, especially upon the arrival of Paul D (and no, I’m not talking about the reality TV star Pauly D, the character’s name is actually Paul D).  Denver is a very lonely person, and has a little house hideout for herself where she can run away from the family.  Her belief in the ghost of Baby Suggs is alarming, but not a new style of Morrison, so I believe it’s just a symbol for the fact that Denver doesn’t trust her mother and is looking for outside help.  Things at home get especially rough for Denver upon the arrival for Paul D, who seems to be a traveler without a home.  His immediate sexual gestures towards Sethe at just about the instant he arrives show his true abilities to treat a woman in a bad manner.  However, Sethe is lonely as well and seems to take a liking to Paul D.  The final important character that is introduced in this first quarter of the book is “Beloved”.  Yes, Beloved is the first name of the character.  Beloved is a young female without a place to go, so Sethe and Denver (as well as Paul D) take her into the house at 124 (I forgot to mention, the setting of this novel seems to be somewhere around Cincinnati).  Beloved can be characterized by her want to hear about stories, particularly those of pain, from Sethe.  Beloved seems to foil Denver in this manner, as Denver hates hearing stories.  This proves to be ironic because Denver and Beloved seem to get along especially well.  Just about the only person who doesn’t like Beloved in the 124 house seems to be Paul D.  I’m yet to learn more about Paul D Garner’s dislike for Beloved.

    In terms of overarching themes that I think may develop, I see the possibility of the complexities of transition from slavery into normal life, and the problems that may stem from the transition.  To paint this picture quickly, Sethe and Paul D have the capacity to develop a relationship so quickly because they knew each other prior to this encounter at the 124 house.  They knew each other on the Home Sweet slave plantation, and now have left and live in the North.  Bottom line, most of the older characters used to be slaves in the South.  Paul’s full name is Paul D Garner, but Garner is not his actual last name, it is the last name of his plantation owner.  I could also see this turning into a coming of age novel, as Denver seems to have many problems at home.  Morrison could revert to her style of the journey myth, just as she continued similar trends to that of which she had in Song of Solomon.  I have to admit, I did laugh when Morrison provided yet another in depth description of a character urinating.  I’ll update as soon as I finish the next quarter of this book!

Thanks for reading,

Dom