Analysis 4

            Baby Suggs once gave Sethe advice to let go of her past in slavery. When Sethe thinks she understands Beloved to be her daughter, she tries to take this advice. Her eyes are open to a whole new world in which her daughter, Beloved, is alive and came back to her. Baby Suggs massaged Sethe and told her “to lay it all down, sword and shield” (203). The military imagery illustrate her past as a war filled with violence.  The sword and shield’s symbolism of Sethe’s past in slavery put into context why she wishes to block and forget her memories before Beloved comes. In her past she was beaten and raped before escaping. Baby Suggs had also told her to put her weapons down by a rushing stream, which can symbolize cleansing and purification. Baby Suggs wish for the cleansing demonstrates Suggs true wish for her to disengage her past and accept. Sethe “rummaged among the shoes of strangers to find the ice skates she was sure were there” (204). Sethe begins to view the world in a different light after her realization of Beloved being her daughter. She becomes happier excited about Beloved’s first which she didn’t experience when Beloved would have been growing up. Sethe goes ice skating with Denver and Beloved to accept her past and move into the future. She brainstorms positive ideas to go out with her daughters including her newly returned daughter, Beloved.