Monday, March 25, 2013
Eternal Hurt: Rhetorical Analysis of Beloved
As Sethe begins to discover the effect her storytelling has on Beloved, she realizes how painful memories of her past are to talk about. These memories of course, refer to Sethe's life as a slave, and her descriptive language in this passage reflects this. Sethe observes that everything in her life "was painful or lost" (69). By separating the words "painful" and "lost" with a conjunction, Sethe clarifies that these are two separate feelings; she neither associates loss with pain, nor pain with loss. As a result of slavery, Sethe now has many categories of hurt, in which she groups each of her memories. Sethe also points out that even when talking with Paul D, "the hurt was always there" (69). The word "there" has a double meaning. Sethe could be referring to "there" as in her mind and her memories, but the phrase would also work if "there" referred to Sethe's life as a slave. As a slave who was beaten and endured copious pain, Sethe could be saying that the pain in her life was constant, and "always there." Sethe completes the phrase "always there" with a simile: "like a tender place in the corner of her mouth that the bit left" (69). Sethe compares her life as a slave to that of an animal by suggesting that her "tender spots" are similar to those caused by a bit on a horse. Horses have a bit to give them a tender spot, while Sethe's bit is representative of slavery, and the tender spots are the painful memories she carries from that life. The language Sethe uses in this passage reflects how painful her life was as a slave, and how even though she has been freed, she will carry this hurt with her for the rest of her life.
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Olivia,
ReplyDeleteI really like your comment about separating pain and loss, and I think that really makes a statement about how Sethe compartmentalizes her feelings. With the "always there" part, could you explain the second connotation of this phrase, I'm not sure I understand the part about her life as a slave and how it differs from the first connotation. Perhaps you could explore the animal to human comparison, as it is often a reoccurring theme when talking about the slave experience.
I really like what you've done with the specific textual evidence to display your points. Especially the detail of "or" showing that painful and lost are separate things building off each other. In light of more recent readings, one could take a different approach to the simile "like a tender place in the corner of her mouth that the bit left." Now we know that this bit refers to more than merely a horse bit as it was used as a form of punishment for unruly slaves. That makes a more direct connection between the physical and emotional pains of slavery that might be interesting to explore.
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