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.
You did a good job of pointing to specific rhetorical devices that are at play, and why they do what they do. :)
ReplyDeleteI thought that the connection of the three scratches to the mark on Sethe's mother was a particularly good insight. In addition though, I think you could have addressed more directly the baby-like smoothness of her skin, particularly her hands and feet. Most importantly, though I think your rhetorical analysis is quite solid, I think that perhaps your conclusion could go further. It's true that all these details indicate the girl's youth, but I think these traits combined with the name "Beloved" are important primarily because they form a sort of connection with the baby (whose only name was Beloved)/ghost that haunts the house. Especially the language which more or less symbolizes a birth goes back to Sethe's child. Perhaps you could have made the link between this girl with the dead baby Beloved who apparently haunts the house more explicit.
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