Critical Lens Experts

Rememory

In Beloved by Toni Morrison, one recurring theme is memory of the past. In the quote, “It took longer for those who had spoken to her, lived with her, fallen in love with her, to forget, until they realized they couldn't remember or repeat a single thing she said, and began to believe that, other than what they themselves were thinking, she hadn't said anything at all” (323) It is shown that memory is optional to each person. Beloved was a part of Sethe, Denver, and Paul D’s lives but they chose to erase her along with the memories of her.  If Beloved’s  behavior was imagined by each of the characters they could also chose to forget about her. Beloved was imagined to be what they needed her to be in their minds. This plays on the theme of memory because most of this book is centered around the choice of memory.  Everyone remembers events and things differently, as they can chose what parts they want to omit or elaborate on. This book shows us that bringing up memories can be painful for different people. The author could have used this to show the readers the importance of remembering painful memories. The readers show us how it maybe be easy to chose to remember only good memories but by forgetting it feels wrong to forget much of an important event. It is almost like they're forgetting her subconsciously just like all the painful memories of slavery. Beloved's story was painful along and brought back memories of all of their backgrounds. The characters can choose to forget about beloved just like choosing to forget about all other memories the might not want to remember again.

In the article “Revisions, Rememories, and Exorcisms” it shows how this novel discusses difficult subjects like slavery in a way that makes the reader understand the full significance. This also shows us the importance of remembering slavery. This article shows that the author probably intended to make the reader shocked that everyone is forgetting about these shocking events, only making it more memorable. Because the book is written seeming to suggest that it is okay to forget slavery it puts more emphasis on remembering slavery.

In the quote when they say “They forgot her like a bad dream” this shows the reader that the memory of beloved was not a positive one. This also shows us that the memory of Beloved was already starting to feel unreal, like a dream. In the part of the quote where it says “they realized they couldn't remember or repeat a single thing she said, and began to believe that, other than what they themselves were thinking, she hadn't said anything at all” this shows us that they people closest to her couldn't even remember what was truly her. They were able to remember there opinion and thoughts on her but they were not able to remember the truth about her and her actions. This shows the reader that even the people who were close to her chose not to remember her.

While reading this section of the book I thought it was shocking that they would have wanted to erase the memory of Beloved because she had seemed like a key part of the story. When considering it more I realised that by erasing the memory the people were just choosing what they wanted to remember. It is like the characters are choosing to forget about the painful parts of these memories. When the author writes that we are all meant to forget it left more of an impact on me. I think that the author did this on purpose to help the readers remember the significance of revisiting memories of painful things.

Close Reading Blog Entry

At the time, what was going on in the author’s society? What connections do you see between the events in the text and the author’s life?  

"White people believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a way . . . they were right. . . . But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place. . . . It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew. It spread . . . until it invaded the whites who had made it. . . . Made them bloody, silly, worse than even they wanted to be, so scared were they of the jungle they had made. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own." (Chapter 19)

In this passage we see that slavery changes how people view each other. In this passage the way that they are talking about slaves makes us feel as though these peoples aren't even valued or seen as people. This passage also shows us that both people who are slaves and aren't slaves are affected by slavery. For example the slaves are seen as a wild jungle, they are compared to “Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood”, these are all things that seem to be wild and dangerous. In one quote from this passage it is stated that “it invaded the whites who had made it... Made them bloody”, in reference to the white people. This means that even the white people who started slavery were suffering from the consequences of it, like slavery was invading them and making them bloody. This shows us that the white people created this dangerous wild situation and lost control of it. We are able to see that from the perspective of blacks they became dehumanised and the white people lost controls of slavery and it spread and became wild.

At the time that this book was set in slavery was just recently ended. The main character Sethe was greatly affected by her life as a slave. Even though her life as a slave is over the environment around sethe is still very segregated. This segregation makes it easy to remember about her past. But even though it had been years since Sethe lives as a slave the memories of the past still haunt her. Like it is said in the quote people do not completely view slaves as humans and Sethe is still feeling this way about herself. Because of Sethe's past she is not able to value herself as a human or live a life without the negative memories of how she has felt from the past.

When comparing the events of Sethe's past to how she lives her life I feel as though many of her actions are results of her unfortunate past. Since Sethe lost her ability to make her own choices and have freedom, many of her choices became centered around her freedom. For example Sethe can now move from the haunted house that she stays in but she prefers to stay there. She might prefer to stay there because the does not want to feel like she is always running. Another example of Sethe putting freedom first is that she gets rid of most of children so that they will not experience the life that she lived. This shows us that the results of Sethes past truly affected her deeply so that she is unable to live her life without the fear of not having full freedom.