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.
I don't quite understand how the last point relates to the supernatural. It could serve more as a way to demonstrate the relationship between Beloved and Sethe, but I can't think of an instance where there is tension between Sethe and Beloved. How does the simile relate to the rest of the passage?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Connor. I think the majority of your analysis is good. I like your topic sentence and how concise and "straight to the point" you are throughout your piece. I am just confused on how the "black swords" part relates to the supernatural. I think that if you re-work the last few lines you could have a really solid analysis.
ReplyDeleteyou could also tie this in to the "appetite" of the fire and that motif. Or you could look at the progression: licked, tasted, eaten. It's like she tested out Sethe first and liked it. There's lots you can do with this. I also wrote on it :D
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