Beloved: Close Reading 4

After Sethe spends more time around Beloved, she finally begins to realize who she is and her memories begin to come back to her.  Morrison uses an aural metaphor as well as  a nuancing of Sethe’s thoughts to depict the nature of Sethe’s thoughts. When she finally begins to refine her memories again and “when the click came Sethe didn’t know what it was” (206). The aural imagery that springs from “the click” implies an immediate realization and revokes the common saying, “And then it clicked.” Morrison pairs this seemingly sudden realization with the fact that was still unaware of what had come to her, and as a result implies that Sethe’s memories are all still there, but the recognition of these memories is gradual. As the click begins to become deeper within Sethe, she recalls that it began like “a beat, almost before it started; before she heard three notes; before the melody was even clear” (207). The continuation of this metaphor of Sethe’s memories as a song reinforces the idea that Sethe’s memories were always present and that they were just now developing further. This metaphor also revokes a sense of evolution in Sethe as the clicking is described as being there “before it started” yet it is only revealing itself now which implies the gradual buildup of the presence of her memories to this point, where they begin to come out in full. Morrison strategically uses the evolution of Sethe and her memories to depict the lasting effects of slaves on their emotions and the way they handle the internal scars by shunning them, retaining them, or progressively shifting from one to the other.