Teddy Janes
AP Lang
April 2, 2013
Passion In Words: An Analysis of Beloved
In Beloved, before heading to the Clearing, Sethe remembers the passionate
sermons Baby Suggs used to give in front of the black community in Cincinnati.
Toni Morrison’s intense and emotional language emphasizes Baby Suggs’
leadership role and her impact on Sethe. Her speech begins by telling her
listeners to love themselves, she says, “Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do
not love your flesh” (103). Suggs
addresses their former owners as “they” in this passage. Throughout her speech,
Suggs uses negation in regards to how much the masters appreciated their
slaves. By showing how little they had been loved, Suggs’ words become more
emotional. The repetition of “Love it” emphasizes Suggs’ aspirations: to love
one self. Also, the adverb “hard” portrays the intensity behind Suggs’ words. Later
in her sermon, Suggs instructs the crowd “stroke [your hands] on your face
‘cause they don’t love that either. You
got to love it, you!” (104). Suggs’
emotion is revealed through Morrison’s writing. By stating “you,” Baby Suggs speaks directly to her
audience, creating even more emotion. The exclamation point too shows Suggs’
great passion. Concluding her speech, Suggs develops her final message: “More
than your life-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hear me now,
love your heart.” (104). The commas in this sentence create pauses that build
up the last two phrases, stressing their importance. Sethe remembers Baby Suggs’
speech because it reminds Sethe to love herself and to move on from her past.
Teddy, overall good job on this analysis! You talk a lot about the "emotion" used by Morrison to display Baby Suggs' passion but what kind of "emotion" is it? Happy? sad? encouraging? and How does this affect Sethe "emotionally" as well? I would also talk about how the word "they" makes the slaveowners seem distant and how it contrasts with the more personal word "you." Also, you could talk about how different Baby Suggs' idea of love is to Paul D's. Paul D says to "love no one" (I forget what page this is on) while Baby Suggs says to "love" yourself. The difference between the two ideas displays the struggle slaves had with coping with the emotions and feelings of love- the battle that plays within Sethe.
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