As Sethe comes to realize that Beloved is her daughter, she wants to explain why she killed her. Sethe thinks, “How if I hadn’t killed her she would have died and that is something I could not bear to happen to her.” In other words, if Sethe had not killed her child she would’ve diedĀ a slave, ad Sethe couldn’t bear to see that. This quotation shows that Sethe killing her child protected her from being captured by schoolteacher and taken to Sweet Home. Sethe’s love for her child is displayed in this quote. Killing her child was the only way to protect her from becoming a slave.
Sedition
: the crime of saying, writing, or doing something that encourages people to disobey their government
“And if she thought anything, it was No. No. Nono. Nonono. Simple. She just flew. Collected every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged them through the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt them. Over there. Outside this place, where they would be safe.”
When Sethe sees the schoolteacher approaching, all she could think about is no, no and no. She refuses to let the schoolteacher take everything that is precious to her away from her. She collected all the parts of her, Beloved, Denver, Howard, and Buglar and tried to keep them safe by bringing them to a place where the schoolteacher can no longer reach them.
Sethe says that her rationale for doing what she did was ‘simple’. As if it was the only rational and reasonable thing to do. To push them over to the other side where it is safe. The only safe and rational place to Sethe is death. Once her precious, beautiful, and fine children die, they cannot be harmed by the turmoil of slavery, abuse of the schoolteacher anymore. Outside of the story, outside of slavery, readers would think that no matter what killing your own children is crazy and inhumane but Sethe makes it simple and rational.
This quote gives readers an insight of how inexplicable slavery is and how it dehumanizes a person beyond belief whether it is the slave owners or the slaves. It makes people do unimaginable things such as killing your own children because you love them too much. In order to stop her children from experiencing the pain that she’s experienced, she’s will to kill them to bring them to a better place.
Introduce: In Beloved, the main character Sethe is presently living at 124 with her daughter Denver, however, she continue to relive the bad memories she endured as a slave at Sweet Home. Although, she tried to not mention the past to Denver, it would always come up through the daily activities of her life or when Beloved, her deceased daughter, would ask her to retell stories of her life. As for Beloved, she ignited Setheās bad feelings of the past, causing Sethe to feel depressed for the things she did that haunted her very conscious. Therefore, because Sethe was dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder from the harsh sufferings of slavery, Beloved used Setheās anguish to torment her even more. (I rarely use quotations from the text for my introduction)
Quote: One of the harsh sufferings Sethe went through, is when she was tied down at Sweet Home by men for her nursing (breast) milk. āAfter I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk. Thatās what they came in there for. Held me down and took it. I told Mrs. Garner on em. She had that lump and couldnāt 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.ā āThey used cowhide on you?ā āAnd they took my milk.ā āThey beat you and you was pregnant?ā āAnd they took my milk!ā (Morrison 19-20)
Interpret: In this quote, the owners of Sweet Home hold down Sethe, so that they take her milk. As her milk was being stolen, the schoolteacher was taking notes of this as if she was a lab experiment. Furthermore, her husband, Halle, had to witness this while he could not do anything about it.
Analyze: When Setheās milk was stolen, she was violated. Sethe was helpless and there was nothing she could do because she belonged to the owner of Sweet Home. This traumatic scene played a negative effect to Setheās psyche, causing her to kill her daughter, Beloved, and attempt to kill her other children, Denver, Buglar, and Howard, to spare them of the harsh life of being a slave.
Apply: (1)āGrowled when they (Sethe and Beloved) chose; sulked, explained demanded, strutted, cowered, cried and provoked each other to the edge of violence, then over. She had begun to notice that even when Beloved was quiet, dreamy, minding her own business, Sethe got her going again. Whispering, muttering some justification, some bit of clarifying information to Beloved to explain what it had been like, and why, and how come. It was as though Sethe didnāt really want forgiveness given; she wanted it refused. And Beloved helped herā (Morrison 296-297).
(2) āDenver thought she understood the connection between her mother and Beloved: Sethe was trying to make up for the handsaw; Beloved was making her pay for itā (Morrison 295).
Beloved was angry for what Sethe did to her, so she brought her torment by constantly fighting between herself and Sethe. Also, Sethe could not forgive herself for killing Beloved, so Beloved feed into Setheās misery, causing Sethe to feel more miserable for killing her.
This method is great but I am unsure if I am doing this right. Am I supposed to be writing my draft of part 1 in the format of the five-step method? As for my rating of this method, I believe it is helping me to organize where and how to use the quotation in my essay. However, this method does not help you to formulate a thesis statement.
One scene that I found quite powerful was when Paul D tells Sethe that Halle saw the men steal her milk. She comes to realize so many things in one moment. Not only was she angry because Halle didn’t do anything to help save her, but she also learns that he went crazy, and that watching that scene Ā unfold broke him and that’s why he didn’t join her in their planned escaped. If he hadn’t seen that maybe things would have turned out differently. After she finds out she sits with her newfound realization and is angry because her mind allows her to harbor another painful memory when she has had her fill of pain and suffering. She also realizes that she didn’t have the choice that Halle had to go crazy, even though she thinks to herself what a nice option that would have been to just let go and not carry on. She realizes that she never had that choice because her children were waiting for her and that she had to go on.
“Other people went crazy, why couldn’t she? Other people’s brains stopped , turned around and went on to something new, which is what must have happened to Halle. And how sweet that would have been: the two of them back by the milk shed, squatting by the churn, smashing cold, lumpy butter into their faces with not care in the world. Feeling it slippery, sticky – rubbing it in their hair, watching it squeeze through their fingers. What a relief to stop right there. Close. Shut. Squeeze the butter. But her three children were chewing sugar teat under a blanket on their way to Ohio and no butter play would change that.”
In this quote she is clearly saying that it would have been just as easy or better to have given into weakness. She to could have given up and let go, but she knew that her children would in turn suffer and that giving up was not an option for her.
I think this passage is reflective go how much Sethe has endured. How she feels like she has been left by those that she loves. Halle, Baby Suggs, her mother and even in some way Beloved, because though she killed her, she still laments her loss. She is filled with painful memories, and this revelation is another to add. She keeps going forward even though she is filled to the brim with pain, her love for her children keeps her going. Her will to live, whether she recognizes it, is stronger than her pain.
In our most recent class, we talked about using quotations more effectively. For homework, and to help you develop your next project, please use the method below to discuss one quotation you plan to use for Project #2. In your post, rather than writing this as a paragraph as you will in your project, break your work into each of the five steps, identifying each part so you can see what goes where, and so we can identify each part in each other’s responses.
Also include a response to using this method: what does it offer you that you didn’t already have in your writing tool-kit? What might it restrict you from doing?
Using Prof. Rebecca Devers’s IQIAA Method, with minor revisions, we’ll call this the five-step method for incorporating quotations:
Introduce: Use transitional phrases to inform your readers that youāre about to use someone elseās words.
Quote: When you quote someone, you are obligated to represent their words accurately. This means avoiding typos and mistakes, and it means providing accurate citations that tell your reader what source provided the words or images.
Interpret: If a quotation can stand on its own without interpretation, then your readers donāt need to read your project or essay. After including a quotation, explain it to your readers. Put that quotation into your own words, or into a language or discourse that your audience can better understand. To get comfortable doing this, consider starting sentences after quotations with phrases like, āIn other words, . . . .ā
Analyze: Interpretation translates the original authorās words into a language your audience will understand. Analysis tells your readers why that quotation is so important. It highlights the significance of an authorās word choice, argument, example, or logic. Analysis goes beyond the obvious, telling the reader what they may have missed if they didnāt read as carefully as you are.
Apply: Each time you use a quotation, make it clear to your reader how it supports your argument. You can do that by applying your analysis to your thesis statement. Remind your readers of your purpose for writing, and tell them how this quotation, and your analysis of it, helps you support your argument.
As you follow this method to construct a paragraph (or to write your broken-apart paragraph here), you may want to āquote the quote,ā pointing to specific words or phrases within the quoted passage that carry meaning or deserve attention.
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