Through part one Beloved motivates Sethe to tell stories of the ordeals she faced in her past. All of the memories hold a certain tension when they were brought to the surface. Reawakening the past is a reoccurring pattern that we’ve come to anticipate as it brings a new element to the story. Instead of the novel reading in a progressive manner, we are giving blots of images from the characters’ past, however it is our goal to piece them together, similar to the film Memento.
In chapter three, Amy told Sethe “Anything dead coming back to life hurts”, this has been the emphasis of the first part of the story. From the start of the novel, Paul D was the most reluctant to bring up the memories they all shared, he saw it as a dark cloud looming over them but later changed his perspective. The characters realized that by recalling their past they are able to deal with the burden, as they say getting the “weight” of their shoulders. Paul D’s personality depicts him as a typical “man” from the old days; courageous, strong, and willful. However, when he was punished by the bit that was placed into his mouth, he felt his identity diminish. He felt like a lesser man, which is one of the reasons why he was so reluctant to speak of his their past. The slaves often used songs to tell their stories, with Paul D being no exception. Another reason for the hesitance in the characters speaking up their past was the control their slave masters had over their speech. This was evident when Sethe was whipped after reporting her milk stolen.
It is common in our own life that without any struggle or pain, there is no gain in life. Those people who face hardship in their life could handle anything easier unless they are fool to repeat the stupidity again.
“It’s gonna hurt, now,” said Amy. “Anything dead coming back to life hurts.” Pg. 42. This sentence depicts that life is not easy at any case. The word is so simple, yet so powerful in the meaning. Of course, it is impossible for life to reverse and come back to life. Here, a life is born and it’s dead already before birth.
In my religion, when someone dies and their soul does not rest properly, they will return back with violent intention especially if they had died with horrendous pain. May be, the Beloved, the new born baby faced the horrendous pain before she died. And it is impossible for a mother to kill her own blood child. But her intention was not bad.
Beloved, not, the Beloved. I cannot edit the comment so i coorect it here.
In this novel death plays a vital role in our understanding of the characters. The saying “anything dead coming back to life hurts” to mr truely defines the tragedy that is Beloved. This is hecause the enyire story is the churning and remembering of memories that hurt. These are memories that the owners wish were dead and bring them up is painfull. I can tell from experience that remembering something from the past that was tragic hurts and you just wish to forget it, to make it a dead memory. That is why i think memory and death go hand in hand throughout this novel. Death and hurt also go together and here the pain and hurt of the death of Sethe daughter stayed her and kept her down basically. I say this because of the of the ghost it is a manifestation of the pain and sorrow and regret she has about the death of her daughter. It has kept her stuck in a revolving door of hurt.
Actually, the whole novel Beloved is based on the memory but here i m talking about the particular sentence on Amy saying to Sethe, while Amy was helping Sethe in giving birth to child in the middle of nowhere. “Anything dead coming back to life hurts.”
This really makes a lot of sense and pieces together the missing parts to the story that I wasn’t getting. Based on what I have been reading so far I felt like a part of the story and I still feel that way, but at least now where this “door” is now closed another opens. The piece that I was trying to put together is one, the next step is to put together the rest of the novel in a way that is more understandable. This section relates to reality and what we as individuals go through in our daily lives. There are incidents that we try to forget ever happened, no matter what it may be its never really forgotten. We all at some point come back to the memory we try to forget just as Paul D is trying to get what he went through. but making ourselves forget is not the answer to our problems. Its best to not forget but to accept the fact that what happened, happened, and its because of our experiences in life that makes us who we are.
The word KARMA is very helpful in this story. And i want to add little more on slavery. During those period while slavery exist in America, it is same throughout this world. That’s why chineses master mind Mao Tsetung has killed 70 million people to stop the slavery system and maintain comunism in China. It’s one set of example. There are millions more exist and took place and so many lives were lost during the transistion from slavery to civilised modern world. We are so blessed to be born at the time of fully developed and out live threatning period.