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.