Beloved Blog Post #5

There is a lot of strife between Beloved and Paul D. She’s been convince, since the day that she arrived at 124, that he was out to take away what she had come there for: Sethe. Beloved’s love for her mother surpasses any love or like that she may feel for someone else, even Denver, who was the first out of the three to show her any type of affection. The way that Denver is treated by Beloved, to me, is kind of messed up, particularly because Denver absolutely adores Beloved. Page123 of the text states that, “Whatever her power and however she used it, Beloved was hers.” All that Denver wants is something, someone, to call her own. Someone who will never leave her. “She won’t put up with another leaving, another trick. Waking up to find one brother then another not at the bottom of the bed, his foot jabbing her spine. Sitting at the table eating turnips and saving the liquor for her grandmother to drink; her mother’s hand on the keeping-room door and her voice saying, ‘Baby Suggs is gone, Denver’. And when she got around to worrying about what would be the case if Sethe died or Paul D took her away, a dream-come-true come true just to leave her on a pile of newspaper in the dark.” (145). Denver has experience tremendous loss which shapes her view of everything. ‘Will Beloved leave me like the rest of my loved ones?’ ‘Will my mother drop dead or decide that I’m not good enough to love, and that what she really needs is a man’s love, not the love of her child?’. One passage that I found to coincide with the point that I’m trying to make is where Paul D goes to meet Sethe at her work. To fast forward a bit, Sethe end up feeding some stray dogs. If the passage is read plainly, a connection can’t be made. This is the passage: “The dogs ate without sound and Paul D thought they at least got what they came for, and if she had enough for them--.” (152). Morrison kind of leaves the rest of this passage for the reader to complete. What I believe the rest of this passage to be is, ‘would she have enough for me?’

A passage from the text that I’d like to touch on is the passage about Sethe’s milk and whether or not she’d have enough for all of them; Denver, Paul D, and Beloved. The first thing that came to mind when I though of that passage was, ‘Will Sethe have enough love to go around?’ Would she be able to nurture them all and give each of them the attention that they crave? It’s like there’s this person and everyone is craving for attention from them, and in order to please one, the others have to be neglected. That’s a tough situation to be in! It’s obvious that Sethe cares about all three of them very much, and to be put in a position where she has to choose would be a hard choice to make. 

Beloved Blog Post #4

As I read Beloved, I get more and more interested in what’s going on in the text. A particular part of the book that I found interesting was when Paul D, Sethe and Denver actually seemed like a “real family”. How Denver switched from pretty much hating Paul D, to actually tolerating him. That was pretty interesting. Part of the reason why I liked that scene was because I felt like a father figure is what Denver was missing in her life, and Paul D was giving her that, although she constantly rejected that. Since she never really knew her father, Halle, I don’t think she knew how to react to a man coming into her life and showing interest in her, whether it be as a friend or maybe even as a daughter. I think she also felt that because Paul D was officially “in the family” - in a sense because he grasped Sethe’s affection, her mother was somehow being snatched away from her and because of that, she didn’t know how to fathom losing another important person in her life. Her mother was all she had and she was all her mother had. From personal experience, I can relate to a bit of what Denver is feeling. I grew up having a stepfather because I really didn’t have any contact with my biological father; I knew who he was, I met him, I spent some time with him. At the same time, I didn’t know him the way a child would want to know their parent. Like Denver, there were people who knew my father and things about him that I didn’t know. It makes you wonder why you too couldn’t share in on the conversation about your father when it was presented right in front of you.

When Beloved made her appearance known to the character and the reader, for me it was so obvious that this Beloved was THE Beloved! It is clear in the text that the adult Beloved is the same Beloved that drove Sethe to commit infanticide. There are what I believe to be some clear examples as to how one can identify that the two Beloveds are one and the same. For example, when asked, the woman clearly stated that her name was Beloved. Also, she wore something around her neck, possibly to cover the slit that was created by Sethe when she slit her throat. She also showed baby/infant mannerisms. The way she was always tired and sleeping, the way she could barely stand up straight to walk, the way she craved something sweet, almost as if she craved breast milk. Even the whites of her eyes, which were whitish blue, screamed, ‘I AM THE SAME BELOVED THAT YOU CHOSE TO KILL’...but why? All of these “clues” stood out to me like a red flag. 

From what I’ve read so far, I’m really enthused about reading more of the text. I may not know what’s yet to come because everything is somewhat of a mystery, but I’m excited to find out.

Beloved Blog Post #3

Beloved is becoming more and more intense. More metaphoric, but a little easier to read. There is so much I could talk about in this blog post, but I’ll choose to single in on a couple of main points that stood out to me the most. 

There is a ton of imagery going on in pages 32 and 33 of the text. The top of page 33 reads, “As soon as one strip of husk was down, the rest obeyed and the ear yielded up to him its shy rows, exposed at last. How loose the silk. How quick the jailed-up flavor ran free. No matter what all your teeth and wet fingers anticipated, there was no accounting for the way that simple jot could shake you. How loose the silk. How fine and loose and free.” Upon reading it, someone may be confused about what’s really going on in this passage. I have an idea of what’s going on, but I’m not 100% sure if that’s the case. What I gather from this piece of text is this: sexual engagement. I come to this conclusion because of the use of phrase, “How quick the jailed-up flavors ran free.” What I believe the author is referring to is the sexual excitement of a woman, who in this case would be Sethe. According to the text, Sethe is an irresistible woman who was wanted by just about every man at Sweet Home. “It had been hard, hard, hard sitting there erect as dogs, watching the corn stalks dance at noon. The water running over their heads made it even worse.” These guys practically LUSTED after Sethe. 

Another thing that stood out to me was the way the book pulls the reader in; the use of imagery and metaphor helps with this. There’s a particular scene where Sethe is in what I believe to be the wilderness, and she’s in labor with Denver. This is how some of that labor is described: “But she could not stop, would not stop, for when she did the little antelope rammed her with horns and pawed the ground of her womb with impatient hooves.” If Sethe were to stop pressing forward, baby Denver would showcase this disapproval by literally FORCING Sethe, by causing her extreme pain, to keep going. What also aided in Sethe not giving up on living; she was worn out from the labor, was the voice of Amy, the white girl who found her lying down own the ground. “The sound of that voice, like a sixteen-year-old boy’s, going on and on and on, kept the little antelope quiet and grazing. During the whole hateful crawl to the lean-to, it never bucked once...It was the voice full of velvet and Boston and good things to eat that urged her along and made her think that she wasn’t after all, just a crawling graveyard for a six-moth baby’s last hours.” (41, 42). The fact that Sethe did not give up on her self and her unborn child, even when it seemed like all was lost, shows the love that she has for Denver. 

So far Beloved is becoming an interesting piece of text. It’s still hard to read at times, but I find that reading it aloud is making it a little more understandable and easy to follow. 

Beloved Blog Post #2

There is a segment from Beloved that I chose to riff on, not only because I found it to be an amazing representation about how women feel the need to act and look in the presence of men, but because it shows the type of relationship that women crave from their male counterparts. 

“Although her eyes were closed, Sethe knew his gaze was on her face, and a paper picture of just how bad she must look raised itself up before her mind’s eye. Still, there was no mockery coming from his gaze. It felt soft in a wanting kind of way. He was not judging her-or rather he was judging but not comparing her. Nor since Halle had a man looked at her that way: not loving or passionate, but interested, as was more like a brother than a husband. His care suggested a family relationship rather than a man’s lying claim.” (31). Wow. I am just at a loss for words right now. Too often women are concerned with how they look, especially when it comes to men. Am I pretty enough? Should I lose some weight? What if he doesn’t like me? Every woman has been plagued with these questions at some point in their life, whether they are conscious of it or not. The need to be good enough in the eyes of a man is something that has been ingrained in women since the beginning of time. Not only does this passage challenge a patriarchal relationship that’s all too familiar, it shows that a man can be more than just a husband. Typically, husbands are placed in a position of dominance which often doesn't produce genuine love and because of that, an unequal balance is created. When the relationship that’s more familial, a woman can feel more relaxed and not like she has to walk on pins and needles because there is no fear. 

What I believe a woman really wants is a man who can look at her from the outside and look beyond her physical beauty. That his love for her is not only based on what is seen, but by what's inside of her mind, her being; her character. For a woman to truly feel loved, being called beautiful is simply NOT enough. At least that’s how I see it. WHY is she beautiful? What makes her attractive? If a man can’t come up with a reason other than the physical, well...there’s a problem.

Beloved Blog Post #1

When I first started reading Beloved, I found the book to kind of difficult to read. I had no background at all about the book, and I’d never seen the movie. I’m sure that doesn't really matter because movies are never really like the book anyway. What I found most intriguing from the first 30 pages or so, was the fact that there was so much pain within those first few pages. The text left me asking questions like, ‘Why did Sethe chose to kill her daughter Beloved?’, ‘Why is Beloved so angry/sad?’. Questions like that. Although the death of Beloved may seem harsh and malicious to some; how could a mother kill her own child, I don’t necessarily see it that way. I see the death of Beloved as something that was done out of love, not out of hate. On page 5 of the text Sethe states that, “...if she’d only come, I could make it clear to her.” (Morrison, 5). A person could ask, ‘Make what clear?’. I take this passage to mean that, if Beloved would only “show” herself, Sethe could explain to her why she chose death instead of life for her. The text is very descriptive in regard to the way Beloved feels about her death. On page 6, she is said to be furious over the fact that her throat was slit by her mother. To me, this shows that Beloved doesn't understand the reasoning behind her death. She may have even seen it as her mother not loving her. If put in Sethe’s shoes, maybe she'll understand that it was all done because she loved her.

Not only is pain bestowed upon Beloved, it is also bestowed upon Sethe and Denver. Both Sethe and Denver are dealing with loneliness, albeit differently. The way that Denver deals with her loneliness is by showcasing jealousy, particularly towards Paul D and her mother’s relationship/friendship. “Hot, shy, now Denver was lonely. All that leaving: first her brothers, then her grandmother---serious since there were no children willing to circle her in a game or hang by their knees from her porch railing. None of that mattered as long as her mother did not look away as she was doing now, making Denver long, downright long, for a sign of spite form the baby ghost”. (15). Man. As I read this passage, all I could think about was a child longing for attention from her mother. Here was this man, a man that she didn't know, yet he knew her mother, coming in and practically taking her mother away from her, shutting her out. The only way she could think of getting her mother’s attention was to hope that Beloved felt the same way as she did. I can honestly say that I too have felt the same way that Denver is feeling in this passage. It almost makes it seem like you’re begging for attention and love from someone who should give it automatically. The way that Sethe deals with her loneliness is by crying out to Paul D, maybe to find some sort of compassion? She longs for someone to soothe the pain that she’s feeling. 

Beloved is a text full of pain, loneliness, and confusion. There’s so much complexity within its pages that it makes it hard to continue delving inside of it. At the same time, I've heard great things about it and I can’t wait to unearth the mystery that’s buried beneath.