All posts by Shawn Singh
Glossary Words
1) Perfunctory:
1. performed merely as a routine duty; hasty andĀ superficial.
2. lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferentĀ or apathetic
“Beloved by Toni Morrison”
Ā “Together they waged a perfunctory battle against the outrageous behavior of that place; against turned-over slop jars, smacks on the behind, and gusts of sour air.” (page 1)
2) Monotonously:
adjective
1.Ā lacking in variety; tediously unvarying.
2. characterizing a sound continuing on one note.
3.Ā having very little inflection; limited to a narrowĀ pitch range.
The Shawl by Louise Erdrich
Ā She became a gray sky, stared monotonously at the walls, sometimes wept into her hands for hours at a time.
3) Lamenting:
verb
1. to feel or express sorrow or regret for.
2.Ā to mourn for or over.
Ā The lamenting voices strummed so convincingly, so passionately, it was impossible to suspect them of being phantoms. (page 4 paragraph 2)
4) Bier:
noun
- 1. a table or platform on which a coffin or dead body is placed at a funeral
A Rose for Emily
āthey held the funeral on the second day, with the town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers, with the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier and the ladies sibilant and macabre; and the very old menā¦ā (Part 5 Paragraph 2)
5) Dray:
Ā 1.Ā a low, strong cart without fixed sides, for carrying heavy loads.
2.Ā a sledge or sled.
3.Ā any vehicle, as a truck, used to haul goods, especially one used toĀ carry heavy loads.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
āHe had already seen his brother wave goodbye from the back of a dray, fried chicken in his pocket, tears in his eyes. ā (pg 258)
6) Muslin:
1. AĀ cotton fabric made in various degrees of fineness and often printed,woven, or embroidered in patterns, especially a cotton fabric of plain weave, used for sheets and for a variety of other purposes.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
āI set you down on the little table and figured if I got a piece of muslin the bugs and things wouldnāt get to you.ā(Pg 109)
7) Quizzical:
1. odd, queer, or comical.
āI reached for the closest rag, and picked up this piece of blanket that my father always kept with him for some reason. And as I picked it up and wiped the blood off his face, I said to him, Your nose is crooked again. He looked at me, steady and quizzical, as though he had never had a drink in his life, and I wiped his face again with that frayed piece of blanket.ā
The Shawl BY LOUISE ERDRICH
8) Spry:
1. full of energy, energetic, graceful
ānow she is spry, executing, even extending the assignments Sethe leaves for themā (Belovedā by: Toni Morrison P. 142)
9) Impertinence:
noun
1.unmannerly intrusion or presumption; insolence.
2.impertinent quality or action.
3.something impertinent, as an act or statement.
4.an impertinent person.
5.irrelevance, inappropriateness, or absurdity.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
āI get positively angry with the impertinence of it and the everlastingness. Up and down and sideways they crawl, and those absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere.ā
10) Cupola:
noun
1. A rounded roof or part of a roof
2. A small structure that is built on top of a roof.
āA Roe for Emilyā
āIt was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconiesā¦ā
11) Spigot:
noun
1. A device that controls the flow of liquid from a large container.
2. An outdoor faucet.
āBeloved by Toni Morrisonā
After the shed, I stopped. Now, in the morning, when I light the fire I mean to look out the window to see what the sun is doing to the day. Does it hit the pump handle first of the spigot?
12) Serenading:
noun
1. A love song that is sung or played outdoors at night for a woman.
2. A complimentary vocal of instrumental performance.
3. An instrumental composition in several movements, written for a small ensemble, and midway between the suite and the symphony in style.
āWhat You Pawn I Will Redeemā
āAs Irene and I sat at the table and laughed and drank more whiskey, Honey Boy danced a slow circle around us and sang along with Willie. Are you serenading me? I asked him.ā
13) Mirth:
Noun
- Amusement, especially as expressed in laughter.
āThus far, the elder traveller had listened with due gravity, but now burst into a fit of irrepressible mirth, shaking himself so violently, that his snake-like staff actually seemed to wriggle in sympathy.ā
āYoung Goodman Brownā
14) Jutting:
verb
āShe was moody and sullen one moment, her lower lip jutting and her eyes flashing, filled with storms. The next, she would shake her hair over her face and blow it straight out in front of her to make her children scream with laughter.ā
1.a reservoir, tank, or container for storing orĀ holding water orotherĀ liquid.
2.Anatomy. a reservoir or receptacle of someĀ natural fluid of thebody.
āOnce Stamp Paid brought you a coat, got the message to you, saved your life, of fixed the cistern he took the liberty of walking in your door as though if were his ownā
Beloved by Toni Morrison
By doing these glossary assignments I believe that my vocabulary has increased significantly. Ā If you look up every word you come across that you donāt understand, youāre vocabulary will increase. It will probably increase much more quickly than if you just try to understand the meaning of the word from the context. Youāre also much more likely to understand precisely what the writer meant to say.
Project #2 Cover Letter
The part of this project that I think i did an accessional job on was the actual essay for part 1 because despite the fact that I was dreading to begin this project because I was not sure if I had enough to wright and was not familiar with the five step method in weighting either, but when I began to wright I just could stop. It was an easier assignment than I actually anticipated. I believe I had more than enough to say about the scene that I chose and I think that I executed the five step method fairly well despite the fact that I have never seen this method before.
The part that i found most challenging was picking the passageĀ and scene because there was so many important scene in Beloved that was very crucial to the story line of this novel. Also this was a very hard read to wrap around and get into the story. the wording that the author chose to use for Beloved was very confusing and this book was very graphic and traumatizing with some of the scenes.
I learned how to analyze a scene in greater depth and just stop to imagine how the rest of the storyline would have played out if just one scene was taken out of the story.
If I could have changes one thing about this project I would be the entire book all together. I did not enjoy this book. I the book was a little more interesting and easier to understand I would have enjoyed this assignment even more.
Beloved Portrate
I chose to use this image because of the carefully selected words that symbolize the struggle and hardship that african american people had to overcome in the past.The character of Beloved embodies a generation of slavery and is a symbol of the ghost of the more general historical past of slavery just as she haunts the lives of her mother, Denver, and anyone else who comes in contact with Sethe’s family on 124.These stories that are contained within the complex characters of BelovedĀ in the novel by Toni Morrison, many of which are mere fragments that cannot be truly pieced together until the end of the novel, relate a vivid and relentless portrait of some of the worst horrors of slavery.
Lamenting
Monotonously
1.Ā lacking in variety; tediously unvarying.
2. characterizing a sound continuing on one note.
3.Ā having very little inflection; limited to a narrowĀ pitch range.
The Shawl by Louise Erdrich
She became a gray sky, stared monotonously at the walls, sometimes wept into her hands for hours at a time.(paragraph 2)
Project #2 “Beloved”
The novel Beloved by Tony Morrison is about a African American Lady names Sethe and how her past experiences are haunting her physically, mentally and emotionally. Sethe has survived multiple forms of suffering that is explained early in the novel as she is experiencing flashbacks of her slave years. As you read through this novel we see many scenes that contribute a great deal to the storyline. Some scenes are as clear as water but some are hidden symbols that was brought up once again more towards the ending of the story.Going back to Setheās suffering, we see one form of suffering that really carried on throughout the story. This suffering is of course from the scene where Setheās milk was taken from her. The milk scene played a major contribution as a symbol in this story. If Setheās milk was never taken from her the entire novel might have taken a different path and I will explain to you why.
The scene that I would like to bring to attention and I believe was a very significant detail to the story can be found in the beginning of the novel in chapter 1 page 10. This is a scene where we can easily depict the anguish and suffering that Sethe had to overcome.
“I had milk,” she said. “I was pregnant with Denver but I had milk for my baby girl. I hadn’t stopped nursing her when I sent her on ahead with Howard and Buglar.”
Now she rolled the dough out with a wooden pin. “Anybody could smell me long before he saw me. And when he saw me he’d see the drops of it on the front of my dress. Nothing I could do about that. All I knew was I had to get my milk to my baby girl. Nobody was going to nurse her like me. Nobody was going to get it to her fast enough, or take it away when she had enough and didn’t know it. Nobody knew that she couldn’t pass her air if you held her up on your shoulder, only if she was lying on my knees. Nobody knew that but me and nobody had her milk but me. I told that
to the women in the wagon. Told them to put sugar water in cloth to suck from so when I got there in a few days she wouldn’t have forgot me. The milk would be there and I would be there with it.”“Men don’t know nothing much,” said Paul D, tucking his pouch back into his vest pocket, “but they do know a suckling can’t be away from its mother for long.”
“Then they know what it’s like to send your children off when your breasts are full.” “We was talking ’bout a tree, Sethe.”
“After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk.That’s what they came in there for. Held me down and took it. I told Mrs. Garner on em. She had that lump and couldn’t speak but her eyes rolled out tears. Them boys found out I told on em. Schoolteacher made one open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree. It grows there still.”
“They used cowhide on you?”
“And they took my milk.”
“They beat you and you was pregnant?”“And they took my milk!”
To explain this in simpler terms,Ā Sethe was beaten down by schoolteacherās nephews and her breast milk was taken from her by force. This flashback is very important because it begins the symbolism of milk in the story. After reading this, we can see that Sethe was treated poorly in the past. This scene is very important because without this part of the story the entire story would of been told differently. Setheās mindset would of been completely different. The events that trigger this flashback of her milk being taken from her would not of happened. This scene also brings the topic of her suffering and how the suffering frightened her. This scene brought a chain reaction throughout the rest of the story.
Setheās milk being taken from her is probably the most significant part of Beloved. This was a very traumatizing moment in the story not only for Sethe but for the readers as well. With that said I would like to bring to your attention another scene from the story that can be found in chapter 7 page 41 of the novel.
āThere is also my husband squatting by the chum smearing the butter as well as its clabber all over his face because the milk they took is on his mind. And as far as he is concerned, the world may as well know it. and if he was broken then, then he is also and certainly dead now.ā
In other words, the incident where milk was taken from Sethe was traumatizing not only to her but to her husband Halle as well. It was something that both of them could not get out of their minds. This horrific incident put unwanted thoughts in Halleās mind and did not know how to deal with this kind of stress. This one single incident drove him insane and drove him away for good. Halle was never seen agin after the butter scene which impacted Halle and his wife Sethe pretty hard. After reading this we can pretty much assume that Halle would be dead. Just the thought of being a widow to Sethe was a very unsatisfying feeling . This feeling stayed with her even after leaving Sweet Home. This scene is one of the most pivotal scenes in the story that resulted directly from the scene where Setheās milk was taken from her. Because of this Setheās heart was broken because of the loss of her husband Halle. I think this scene was also a direct relation of Sethe being able to being able to grow and move on. Without Halleās disappearance Sethe would still be with Halle and not have escaped from Sweet Home to start a new life with Paul D and she would of probably still been living at Sweet Home. Therefore the milk scene was a very significant and story changing scene.
As we read on later in the story we begin to see a different side to Sethe. She is more compassionate towards everyone especially to Beloved and Denver. As a mother she loved her children. She wanted to give everything she had away to her children whoever the milk scene did in fact still take place so she is scared but that did not stop her from showing love to everyone around her.
Seth wanted to provide for her children regardless of what has happened or what could happen in the future. Based on the knowledge that we have of Sethe we can conclude that she has somewhat of an obsession with her goals. I believe that Sethe began this obsession with this goal the day her milk was taken from her. If this had not happened the entire story line would have changed. Since the day that her milk was taken from her she began preparing herself to give up everything that she had in order to provide for her children.
I would also like to talk about the events surrounding the milk incident that occurred as a direct result of it. As we know, Paul A and Sixo are missing throught the entire book because they are dead. The milk scene was a direct contribution to their deaths because they dies right after Mrs. Garner was notified about the attack. After that, the schoolteacher found out about the grand escape and proceeded to execute them. The birth of Denver was also a result of the milk scene. Denver was conceived by Sethe with the help of Amy. During the escape, Sethe, seriously injured, was ready to give birth but the conditions were too intense and almost died in labor. Amy found her struggling and insisted on helping her. She got Sethe to a safe place to give birth and proceeded to help with the delivery of her baby. To show her recognition for her help Sethe named her child after Amy Denver and named her baby Denver. Lastly, the murder of Beloved. The thought of slavery tainted Setheās mind and she refused to let her children live the same way that she was forced to live so she attempted to kill them but only succeed in killing one in the process which was Beloved.
In conclusion, the milk scene was the most significant and story changing scene in the entire novel because this event transformed Sethe and her entire mind set. This event enabled her to grow as a woman and not an animal that she was pictured as in the beginning of the story when she was still living in Sweet Home. This scene resulted in many crucial events that in the end all surrounded that one scene where Setheās milk was taken from her. If the milk scene had not taken place, Halle wouldnāt have ran away, Paul A and Sixo wouldnāt have died, Denver wouldnāt have been born properly and Sethe would not have kill Beloved which would of totally transformed the entire story line.
Pivotal Point of Beloved
The story of the birth of Denver merits significant attention. Two key things are happening to Sethe. Sheās trying to leave Sweet Home and slavery on foot, and sheās about to give birth to Denver. Tired, hungry, with blistered feet, Sethe is nearly ready to give up hope about living through this when a girl, Amy Denver, appears before her.Ā Amy is a nurturing and compassionate girl who works as an indentured servant.She helps Sethe when she is ill during her escape from Sweet Home, and when she sees Setheās wounds from being whipped, Amy says that they resemble a tree. Amy claims to be on her way to Boston to shop for velvet. Upon running into this poor woman on the verge of dying or giving birth (whichever should come first) Amy decides to help her through the experience. Amy leads her to a place where she can help Sethe be comfortable. I believe that this is the most significant pivotal point of the story because if Amy did not help Sethe when she was delivering her baby this story would of been completely different. Sethe lives for the only fact that she needs to take care of her children. She left Sweet House to start a family and if she had not given birth to Denver she might of stayed in Sweet Home.
Beloved, Week 9
The passage that stood out from the rest was the scene where Sethe was talking about the thieves that took her milk. In this scene Sethe explains that she was whipped before she ran from Sweet Home to meetĀ Baby Suggs and her children, whom she had sent ahead, in Cincinnati. The white girl who helped deliver Denver said the resulting scars looked like a chokecherry tree and then Sethe cries and says that the men who beat her stole her babyās milk before she ran.Ā This seen was a very emotional, depressing and graphic depiction.
“I had milk,” she said. “I was pregnant with Denver but I had milk for my baby girl. I hadn’t stopped nursing her when I sent her on ahead with Howard and Buglar.”
Now she rolled the dough out with a wooden pin. “Anybody could smell me long before he saw me. And when he saw me he’d see the drops of it on the front of my dress. Nothing I could do about that. All I knew was I had to get my milk to my baby girl. Nobody was going to nurse her like me. Nobody was going to get it to her fast enough, or take it away when she had enough and didn’t know it. Nobody knew that she couldn’t pass her air if you held her up on your shoulder, only if she was lying on my knees. Nobody knew that but me and nobody had her milk but me. I told that
to the women in the wagon. Told them to put sugar water in cloth to suck from so when I got there in a few days she wouldn’t have forgot me. The milk would be there and I would be there with it.”“Men don’t know nothing much,” said Paul D, tucking his pouch back into his vest pocket, “but they do know a suckling can’t be away from its mother for long.”
“Then they know what it’s like to send your children off when your breasts are full.” “We was talking ’bout a tree, Sethe.”
“After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk.
That’s what they came in there for. Held me down and took it. I told Mrs. Garner on em. She had that lump and couldn’t speak but her eyes rolled out tears. Them boys found out I told on em. Schoolteacher made one open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree. It grows there still.
“They used cowhide on you?”
“And they took my milk.”
“They beat you and you was pregnant?” “And they took my milk!”
perfunctory
1. performed merely as a routine duty; hasty andĀ superficial:
perfunctory courtesy.
2. lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferentĀ or apathetic:
“Together they waged a perfunctory battle against the outrageous behavior of that place; against turned-over slop jars, smacks on the behind, and gusts of sour air.” (page 1)
