Locked Away: A Cold-Hearted Paul D

In Beloved, as Paul D describes his recollections of slavery and its horrors, he halts himself out of fear of bringing back unwanted recollections. If Paul D had gone further, he may have “push[ed] them both into a place they couldn’t get back from” which could have put Sethe and himself into an inescapable slave-memory limbo (86). Some memories are too painful to bring up, and additionally have too many disturbing visuals attached. Paul D had turned his heart into a “tobacco tin” in order to order to seal away his memories (86). In essence, some memories are believed better untouched than mended. This book exemplifies how it is nearly impossible to rid ones family of slavery and its affects, so some choose to shield their feelings. Additionally, Paul D is projected is characterized as rigid and unable to love when his “red heart” is replaced with a box (86). When observing that the tin’s “lid [is] rusted shut” one cannot help to think that Paul D is somewhat cold and cannot accept or give off emotions (86). This is demonstrated when Beloved is never truly accepted into the household in the mind of Paul D. The closed tin symbolizes his boxed in feelings that are essentially trapped and cannot be reached for the time being. The memories inside can only sit and culminate without a place to go, so at some point in the near future Paul D will have to reveal what he thinks and feels about slavery and most relevantly, Beloved’s living place. 

The Battle of Shadows

Thomas Bebbington

KP, p.5

AP Lang/Comp

March 26, 2013

The Battle of Shadows

During Beloved’s stay at 124, she begins to yearn for Sethe’s presence, and therefore waits for her to wake in the early morning. In this scene of Beloved, Toni Morrison utilizes metaphorical diction to describe the body language of Beloved in an attempt to portray her as a supernatural being. As Sethe wakes to make fast bread, Beloved watches her in the kitchen and Sethe felt “licked, tasted, eaten by Beloved’s eyes” (68). Not only does Morrison utilize asyndeton to emphasize the duration of Beloved’s stare, but she also employs harsh adjectives that are attributed to fire to demonstrate the power of Beloved’s hardened eyes. Throughout the passage, Sethe realizes the “burn” of Beloved’s stare upon her in the early morning as “she hovered” around Sethe continuously (68). The use of verb “hovered” lends itself to the idea of supernatural beings, which foreshadows the actions of Beloved in the future of the novel. Beloved soon becomes attached to Sethe’s presence, much like her memories of her own child, also named Beloved, and one could argue that Morrison plays upon supernatural diction to draw a parallel between Beloved, and Sethe’s deceased baby. Finally, “their two shadows clashed and crossed on the ceiling like black swords” (68). By comparing their shared presence to a sword fight, Morrison further alludes to the battle to forget the memories of slavery that Sethe possesses. Furthermore, the verbs “clashed” and “crossed” further emphasize the connection between the two as they are locked into each other’s presence. The connection shared by Sethe and Beloved is portrayed as inhuman and supernatural to remind of the spirit of Sethe’s deceased baby, and how the memories of past events still plague her life eighteen years later. 

Denver and the World

Beloved’s appearance in the novel helps Toni Morrison expose the personalities of the main characters in Beloved. Denver’s life has been defined by its loneliness and sheltering within the family home, so Morrison uses Beloved’s curiosity in Sethe’s life in juxtaposition to reveal Denver’s close-mindedness and selfish tendencies. Morrison shows this dynamic when she writes, “Denver hated the stories her mother told that did not concern herself, which is why Amy was all she ever asked about. The rest was a gleaming, powerful world made more so by Denver’s absence from it. Not being in it, she hated it and wanted Beloved to hate it too, though there was no chance of that at all. Beloved took every opportunity to ask some funny questions (71).” When Morrison writes “not being in it, [Denver] hated it,” she uses ambiguity to show Denver’s impression of the world. The lack of an antecedent, the lack of a noun to turn back to in order to clarify the sentence, parallels Denver’s inability to understand Beloved’s curiosity because of her lack of prior experience with the world.  When Morrison uses the term “the rest” to describe the stories which were not about Denver, with this ambiguity she implies more broadly that Denver doesn’t want to hear about Sethe’s greater life experience and history. The term “the rest” implies a lack of primary importance or usefulness. The use of “the rest” as a substantive noun can be interpreted in context as Denver’s disinterest in “the rest” of the world, “the rest” of life, and, more personally, the family history. All of this evidence suggests that Denver is still childish and unconcerned for things outside herself. Furthermore, by use of the word “funny,” Morrison uses word choice to show not humor, but the alternative definitions of “funny” as a descriptor of peculiar, freakish, and dubious things. It is ironic Denver regards Beloved’s curiosity as weird when this is how most of the world thinks of 124. This irony shows the sealed off and limited nature of Denver’s experiences. The effects of Denver’s isolation within 124 are evident here through her immaturity and close-mindedness. 

Beloved Analysis 2

After a mysterious woman, later found to be Beloved, emerges from the water, Sethe has an urge to vacate her bladder with intensity similar to her water breaking. In the subsequent description of Beloved, Morrison uses imagery to depict Beloved as a baby and suggest Sethe’s suspicion of her identity, despite her grown-up appearance. When Beloved desperately consumes four cups of water she leaves “a little water on her chin” and “gaze[s] at Sethe with sleepy eyes” (62). Both these images serve to subtly suggest Sethe’s suspicion this is no ordinary woman. The image of water dripping down her chin calls to a young child drooling and not knowing the decency to wipe their face. Sethe also notices her skin is “flawless except for three vertical scratches on her forehead so fine and thin they seemed at first like hair” (62). This observation demonstrates Sethe’s emerging suspicions of the woman’s youth, and the woman’s three “scratches” exemplify the motif of distinct markings, and supply a parallel to later in the novel when Sethe painfully recalls the mark on her mother. Morrison employs tactile imagery and a simile to show the scratches similarity to growing hair, and to further put doubt in Sethe’s mind that the woman looks her age. The initial description of the woman both exposes her as both someone who is much younger than she appears, and someone who prompts Sethe’s memories and motherly instinct.

Repressing Memories through Color: Beloved’s Orange Patches

 Monet Nielsen

AP Lang/Comp

Period 5

3/21/13

Repressing Memories through Color: Beloved’s Orange Patches

A strange woman appears unexpectedly at 124, Beloved, who is soon welcomed by the inhabitants, especially Denver who tends to her like a nurse. Baby Suggs had an appetite for color, Sethe blocks color to block her memories until Paul D. starts to help her look into the past which leads her to seeing color again, Beloved pursues color and Sethe’s memories constantly hoping for a glint of the past. During Beloved’s illness in which she was slipping in and out of consciousness, “it took three days for beloved to notice the orange patches in the darkness of the quilt.” (65). Seeing color takes time for her, as it did Sethe, but once she sees color, she constantly seeks it. Beloved pursues the patches of orange just as she hunts for Sethe’s stories of her past. While working as Beloved’s nurse, Denver realizes that Beloved is “totally taken with those faded scraps of orange” (65). Beloved’s fondness for color is repeated in her love of Sethe’s memories. Later on, Beloved asks Sethe to tell stories about a pair of earrings she use to own or about her mother. Beloved, like Paul D., helps to unlock the past for Sethe. Paul D. helps by being a living reminder of the past and having experienced many of the same memories. On the other hand, Sethe feels she can tell Beloved of her past because of her distance from it. Although, seeming different both Paul D. and Beloved help Sethe rediscover the colorful world around her.  

Inhuman Characteristics: Beloved Analysis

Chris Nkoy

AP Language

Period 3

March 26, 2013

Beloved: Second Close Analysis

In Beloved, when Denver observes Beloved in the keeping room, she notices that Beloved’s physical characteristics are abnormal and inhuman. Toni Morrison, the author of Beloved, uses an uncanny description of Beloved’s facial peculiarities to give Beloved an unearthly, spectral aura that suggests the possibility that Beloved is not a typical human being. Morrison writes that Denver looks at a face “with no trace of sleep in it” (66). For a person who is bedridden and shows symptoms of a life threatening disease, cholera, it is noticeably unnatural for Beloved to show no signs of fatigue in her current condition. When describing Beloved’s eyes, Morrison notes, “The whites of them were much too white—blue-white” (66). The portrayal of Beloved’s eyes as “blue-white” gives off a cold, frigid sense. The blue takes away from the archetypal white shade around the eyes and furthers the notion that Beloved is ghostlike and inhuman. Morrison finishes her depiction of Beloved by stating, “deep down in those big black eyes there was no expression at all” (66). Morrison’s use of alliteration emphasizes the pairs of words with matching letters at their beginnings to portray the peculiarity of Beloved’s eyes. The visual imagery given by looking “deep down” into blackness seems to hint at an abyss. The phrase “no expression at all” adds to the perception of emptiness in Beloved’s gaze. There is no feeling, no emotion, no life in her eyes. Beloved carries certain puzzling characteristics that indicate she can’t be human.

Beloved Analysis

Drew Dischmann

AP Lang/Comp

25 March 2013

                       

            In Beloved the descriptive nature in which Toni Morrison describes her characters is an essential and intricate part of this puzzling novel. On the banks of a river near 124, a new character, Beloved, is introduced in the novel. Morrison harps on Beloved’s mental and physical condition as a way in which Beloved can be further introduced to both other characters such as Sethe and Denver but also to form the spiritual aspect of Beloveds character. After drinking numerous cups of water and answering a few questions, Beloved dozes off “in the middle of Sethe’s welcome”(64). Once Paul D, Denver, and Sethe realize she must need more rest Beloved “opened her eyes to slits”(64”). Upon struggling to walk on her “soft, new feet” she eventually makes it Baby Sugg’s bed where she “collapsed”(64). This description offers insight into the development of one of Morrison’s complex characters. Beloved is also drastically tired and worn out as she can only open her eyes to “slits” but through Morrison’s imagery and intricate adjectives Beloved is also relatively work-free as she has “soft, new feet” – unlike all of those living in 124. Morrison also shows the overwhelmed and physically incapable side to Beloved as instead of simply lying down or lounging into bed, Beloved “collapsed” showing her unstable and truly worn-out mental state contrasted by a seemingly facile physically state as shown in her perfect skin and un-worked hands and feet. Through description Morrison is ultimately able to develop her characters into more complex and unique characters in her novel, Beloved.

Beloved Rhetorical Analysis

Serpentine Appetite

In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, when Sethe is going into labor with Denver and encounters a white woman (thinking at first the woman is a boy), a sudden urge to attack the woman surfaces, much like the predacious appetite of a snake. Sethe describes to Denver that “something came up out of the earth into her” (38). The use of the unspecified pronoun “something” suggests that Sethe was either unwilling or unable to adequately describe what came over her, as if the experience were frightening or unnatural. Sethe furthers the characterization of her experience as unnatural when she says the feeling was “like a freezing, but moving too” (38). Sethe’s description of herself “freezing, but moving” perhaps suggests that she was not in control of her body (she was not able to move but still found herself moving), or in other words, was in some way possessed by whatever came out of the earth. She says it “‘look[ed] like I was just cold jaws grinding’” and that “suddenly she was eager for [the woman’s] eyes, to bite into them; to gnaw [her] cheek” (38). With phrases like “cold jaws grinding” and eager to “bite into” the woman’s eyes and “gnaw [her] cheek,” Morrison connotes a malevolent, almost snake-like appetite for the woman. This snake-like characterization coupled with an experience similar to possession could be a reference to the biblical serpent, a representation of both forbidden appetite and corruption. 

Beloved Analysis

Sarah Birkett

P.3

AP Lang & Comp

3-26-13

            In Beloved, Morrison uses the images of shadows and similes to show the changing tensions between Sethe, Paul D, Denver, and the new girl: Beloved.  When the three return from their day at the carnival, they discover a woman who is clearly sick and embodies every characteristic of an infant from her skin to her hair. Although this girl is a stranger, very soon into her stay, “Sethe was licked, tasted, and eaten by Beloved’s eyes” (68). The curiosity that Beloved has for Sethe is described as an appetite for her stories. Beloved feeds of off what Sethe has to offer her in her stories about her past, regardless of how dark they may have been. Morrison goes on to say that “[Beloved] hovered,” (68) which gives her more of childlike connotation because children are often noted to be hovering around their interests. As Beloved hovered around Sethe, “their two shadows clashed and crossed on the ceiling like black swords” (68). The images of shadows exemplify the idea that both Sethe and Beloved have their own inner demons that are starting to fight back against one another. The fact that the shadows “clashed and crossed” implies that the two shadows are not meeting peacefully but instead are combating. The idea of combating is further by the simile “like black swords.” The color black has a negative connotation by itself but the fact that the shadows are described as swords makes their connotation seem even darker and sharper. Morrison’s use of these images and similes makes the tensions between the three family members and the new member Beloved clearer and also displays the idea the Sethe and Beloved may contain their own clashing inner demons.