Rough Draft Coverings: The Apron

In Beloved, Toni Morrison uses fabric as a symbol of containment, specifically of memory and emotion. Fabric is used as a shield against observation from others and, sometimes, against parts of the inner self. When Sethe goes to the restaurant after her realization that Beloved is her daughter, she uses an apron to prevent recollections of her past. Morrison uses indefinite pronouns and metaphors to display this. Morrison writes, “she just turned her back and reached for her apron. There was no entry now. No crack or crevice available. She had taken pains to keep them out, but knew full that at any moment they could rock her, rip her from her moorings, send the birds twittering back into her hair...She had come to bury all recollection” (222). Between the short, effecient sentences of “she just turned her back...” and “there was no entry now,” Morrison shows a cause-and-effect the apron had to the inability for the memories to reach her. The next sentence, “no crack...” is a fragment with no verb. The impression of this sentences makes the apron’s ability to deflect definite and impenetrable. Then Morrison uses short metaphors to show both the apron’s strength and Sethe’s vulnerability: the first, “rip her from her moorings” refers to a ship docked at a port. When ships set out to sail, they cut their ties to the port. It is impossible to tear a ship’s moorings when on the ground; to “rip” implies a larger force, something bigger than the ship, who can strong-arm it. For the apron to be able to prevent this force says a lot about its strength. Likewise, “the birds” are references to the spikes of consciousness Sethe had when she tried to save her children from the slave-catchers. These “birds” are Sethe’s most primal, instinctual response to the situation, and the apron prevents them, too. The apron is used here as a bubble preventing Sethe from her recollections