Tag Archives: “Beloved” Pivotal moment

Project #2

Project 2 Most pivotal Scene in Beloved

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Beloved’s Most Pivotal Scene

Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” is about an ex-slave, Sethe, who killed her daughter to save her child from a life of slavery. What she experienced was so dehumanizing that she felt dying would be better than going back. She makes the decision to take her children’s lives mercifully, rather than leave them in the hands of the Schoolteacher.  Although life in Sweet Home became very hard after Mr. Garner died, I feel that without the nephews taking her milk, she wouldn’t have tried “saving” her children the way she did.

When the Schoolteacher sees what she has done he thinks “…Now she’d gone wild due to the mishandling of the nephews..,” and I feel that he is right. I think that the nephews holding her down and taking her milk had a direct relation to the killing of her older daughter, which was done to save her from a fate worse than death.

Years later when she is telling Paul D about this incident, we get a little glimpse of how much this event hurt her.

“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” (Morrison 19).

Sethe tells Mrs. Garner what the nephews had done, and in return gets beaten under Schoolteacher’s instruction. Her back was torn open, and would heal to become a tree of scars covering her back. In addition to the physical scars, this event left her with psychological scars as well. In fact, her wounds were probably not even done healing when Schoolteacher showed up in Baby Suggs yard.

The quoted passage continues:

“They used cowhide on you?”

“And they took my milk.”

“They beat you and you was pregnant?”

“And they took my milk!” (20)

Paul D. sees the tree and that is all he is could think about. Sethe including “And they took my milk!” shows us how strongly this hurt and dehumanized her.

Running away from Sweet Home, Sethe was all alone. Halle was supposed to accompany her but he never showed up.  At this point she was very pregnant, and her back was a mess. She later finds out from Paul D the reason Halle never showed up. Halle had seen what happened to her and had a mental breakdown.

“The day I came in here. You said they stole your milk. I never knew what it was that messed him up. That was it, I guess. All I knew was that something broke him… But whatever he saw go on in that barn that day broke him like a twig.”

…”It broke him, Sethe.” Paul D looked up at her and sighed. “You may as well know it all. Last time I saw him he was sitting by the chum. He had butter all over his face” (81)

Halle had seen what the nephews did to her, and was powerless to stop them. This drove him insane. Because of what the nephews did, Sethe lost her husband. He was not there to help his pregnant, barefoot wife to safety. Sethe and the baby still made it to Baby Suggs alive (thanks to Amy Denver), but with a husband and without a tree, the trip would not have taken such a devastating physical and psychological toll on her.

When Beloved comes back, Sethe is sure she would understand why she had to do what she did. Here we see Sethe thinking about what she would say to Beloved:

“…I didn’t have time to explain before because it had to be done quick. Quick. She had to be safe and I put her where she would be. … I’ll explain to her, even though I don’t have to. Why I did it. How if I hadn’t killed her she would have died and that is something I could not bear to happen to her. When I explain it she’ll understand, because she understands everything already. I’ll tend her as no mother ever tended a child, a daughter. Nobody will ever get my milk no more except my own children. I never had to give it to nobody else– and the one time I did it was took from me–they held me down and took it. Milk that belonged to my baby…. The one I managed to have milk for and to get it to her even after they stole it; after they handled me like I was the cow, no, the goat, back behind the stable because it was too nasty to stay in with the horses” (236).

Shethe was trying to keep her children safe. Going back to Sweet Home would have been a death sentence, and Sethe could not let that happen to her beloved. We see here, when she equates going back to a death sentence, that she brings up the taking of the milk. It wasn’t simply that they took it, but that it was for her baby and they took it regardless. The way they dehumanized her is on her mind when she’s explaining her actions.

She finally makes it to Baby Suggs, and starts getting better. She spends twenty-eight days with her family, new friends, and freedom. The rape of her milk, the beating, delivering in the forest, Halle still gone, these things don’t leave her mind. When the Schoolteacher shows up at 124, she loses it. She knows what he is capable of, and she goes ahead and tries to “save” her children from what she clearly believes is a fate worse than death.

If her milk hadn’t been taken, Halle would have been fine, and escaped with her. Delivering in the woods would still have been an ordeal, but with Halle there and no tree on her back, it wouldn’t have taken such a toll on her. Without that transformational event ,she would never have been able to kill her child.

 

Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Vintage, 2004. Print. Pgs 19, 20, 81, 236

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Week 10, Week 10

The pivotal passage

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Toni Morison covers many different scenes in different places. This differentiation makes the novel eclectic and keeps the reader’s mind busy and focusing in multiple scenarios. I believe the pivotal passage that would change the path of the whole novel if it hadn’t happened is when Baby Suggs got her freedom and moved to Cincinnati where she does work repairing shoes and owns her own house. So many events followed Baby Suggs freedom. Such as Garner’ death, and so forth.
Eliminating this passage from happening would raise many questions, would Baby Suggs be free? If yes, would she move to Cincinnati?
We can notice the effect of this scene and its importance in the novel. Many events following Baby Suggs’ freedom are relying on this particular scene.

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draft, Project #2

Project 2 Draft

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In the novel “beloved” by Toni Morrison, the characters face many hardships and go through many tough times. There is one moment though, that I feel had a major impact on all the following events and without said scene, the story would be very different. The scene I’m  referring to is when Schoolteachers nephews take Sethe’s milk.

The scene is described near the beginning of the story. Sethe mentions the tree on her back, and when pressed to explain herself, the following conversation ensues.

“…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!”

When asked about the tree she mentioned, Sethe starts talking about her milk and how important it was to get it to her daughter. Paul D seems confused at first about the change in topic, “We was talking ’bout a tree, Sethe.” She then explains how they held her and took her children’s milk, and when they found out she had told Mrs. Garner what happened, Schoolteacher had her whipped, even though she was very pregnant by then. Paul D is shocked to find out she was whipped while she was pregnant, but what bothered Sethe more was that her milk was taken. Her milk that she had for her little girl.

Soon afterwards she escapes, but without Halle. She has no idea why he hasn’t come as planned, until Paul D explains later in the story.

“He saw.” “He told you?” “You told me.” “What?” “The day I came in here. You said they stole your milk. I never knew what it was that messed him up. That was it, I guess. All I knew was that something broke him. Not a one of them years of Saturdays, Sundays and nighttime extra never touched him. But whatever he saw go on in that barn that day broke him like a twig.” “He saw?” Sethe was gripping her elbows as though to keep them from flying away. “He saw. Must have.” “He saw them boys do that to me and let them keep on breathing air? He saw? He saw? He saw?” … “It broke him, Sethe.” Paul D looked up at her and sighed. “You may as well know it all. Last time I saw him he was sitting by the chum. He had butter all over his face.”

Halle was in the rafters of the barn when the nephews came in and took Sethe’s milk. He was there witnessing the entire thing and was completely powerless to stop it. This drove him crazy, and kept him back when his wife escaped.

Sethe runs away tired, pregnant, barefoot, and alone. Without Halle to help her she nearly dies in the woods, luckily Amy Denver finds her, and nurses her back to health and helps deliver her baby. But the tree on her back, and her husband not being there, make the escape all the more traumatic.

She finally makes it to Baby Suggs, and starts getting better. She spends twenty-eight days with her family, new friends, and freedom. The rape of her milk, the beating, delivering in the forest, Halle still gone. These things don’t leave her mind, and when the Schoolteacher shows up at 124, she loses it. She knows what he is capable of, and she goes ahead and tries to “save” them from what she clearly believes is a fate worse than death.

If her milk hadn’t been taken, Halle would have been fine, and escaped with her. Delivering in the woods would still have been an ordeal, but with Halle there and no tree on her back, it wouldn’t have taken such a toll on her. Without that she would never have been able to kill her child.

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Homework, Week 10

Beloved, Week 10

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I think that if Sethe never went to the Garners house after Baby Suggs had passed away the story would be much different then how it is now.

“Paul D smiled then, remembering the bedding dress. Sethe was thirteen when she came to Sweet Home and already iron-eyed. She was a timely present for Mrs. Garner who had lost Baby Suggs to her husband’s high principles. The five Sweet Home men looked at the new girl and decided to let her be. They were young and so sick with the absence of women they had taken to calves. Yet they let the iron-eyed girl be, so she could choose in spite of the fact that each one would have beaten the others to mush to have her. It took her a year to choose–a long, tough year of thrashing on pallets eaten up with dreams of her. A year of yearning, when rape seemed the solitary gift of life. The restraint they had exercised possible only because they were Sweet Home men–the ones Mr. Garner bragged about while other farmers
shook their heads in warning at the phrase.”

This scene is one example of the story changing if Sethe did not go to the Garners house because Sethe would have never met with the five men that also lived in the Garner house. If Sethe did not go to the Garner house after Baby Suggs had passed away then she would not have met Halle who becomes her husband or met Paul D who she loves in the story when she is living with her daughter Denver. Sethe would also not have given birth to Denever or would she would have to give up on her first child if she did not go to the Garner house.

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.”

This is another scene that would also have not took place if she did not go to the Garner house. This scene has a great importance because if Sethe did not get her milk stolen by force then she would not have be traumatized so much. She would also not have to live with the fact that she was forced to do something that would scar her life.

Sethe living in the Garner house in her early teens years is what really gets the story going to how it is. By meeting the people she met at the early age and the events that happen to her on those early years plays a big role in what she ends up doing and how she lives it out. She gets married to Halle, gets raped, gives birth to children and so on is the result of what happens to her after she lives in the Garner house.

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Homework, Week 10

Marrage of Sethe and Halle

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I felt like if Halle and Sether didn’t get married, the whole book would have went in a totally different direction. I felt that the whole book revolved around Sethe being married to Halle. I thought this was a important scene because if Sethe and Halle didn’t get married they wouldn’t have kids. Sethe having kids led to a series of events later on in the book. For example, it led to having her milk stolen. This event led to Halle going crazy because he was there to witness it and he couldn’t do anything. If they weren’t married, there wouldn’t be any milk to be stolen, and that she wouldn’t have been scarred from what happen, and even whipped from the school teacher.

Another example if Sethe never got married with Halle, they wouldn’t have children. I felt like her children has a important role in the book because most of the things accruing in the book, it revolves around them. For example in the beginning of the book there was a gravestone of Sethe’s dead daughter, and engraved on it was, Beloved. Then later in the book Sethe, Denver, and Paul D encountered a women whose name was also Beloved. Coincidence? I don’t think so. If Beloved wasn’t born, she wouldn’t have forced out Baby Suggs and her two sons to leave the house because she was haunting the house. Another example if Sethe never married Halle, they wouldn’t have had Denver. Without Denver, Sethe would have never had met Amy Denver.

In the book on page 175, second to last paragraph, it said “Inside, two boys bled in the sawdust and dirt at the feet of a nigger women holding a blood- soaked child to her chest with one hand and an infant by the heels on the other. She did not look at them; she simply swung the baby toward the wall planks, missed and tried to connect a second time, when out of nowhere– in the ticking time the men spent staring at what there was to stare at– the old nigger boy, still mewing, ran through the door behind them and snatched the baby from the arc of its mother’s swing”. If Sethe never got married and had kids, this event would have never happened because she never wanted them to grow up experiencing the world from what is now.

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Homework, Week 10

Killing of Sethe’s Daughter

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In chapter 17 of my reading the narrator described the moment when Stamp told Paul D about what Sethe had done to her children.  “Stamp looked into Paul D’s eyes and the sweet conviction in them made him wonder if it had happened at all, eighteen years ago, that while he and Baby Suggs were looking the wrong way, a pretty little slave girl had recognized a hat, and split to the woodshed to kill her children.”  Sethe later explained to Paul D that once she recognized the hat she knew it belonged to School Teacher from Sweet Home who had beat her badly in the past.  She apparently would rather her children die than return to Sweet Home with School Teacher and the others to live a life of slavery.  She was successful in killing only her first daughter.  The killing of this child set off a sequence of events which makes up the plot of the story.

The passage quoted above is a pivotal moment in this novel by Toni Morrison.  This is because the major plot of story surrounds the death of Sethe’s daughter who is regarded as the baby ghost haunting 124.   The story began with a description of some of the supernatural happenings at 124.  The effect these events have on various characters is presented at the beginning of the story.  According to the narrator 124 was spiteful.”  “Full of baby’s venom.” “The women in the house knew it and so did the children.”  Sethe’s children Howard and Buglar eventually had enough of the baby ghost antics and left home.  Baby Suggs on her dying bed felt it was about time they did and did nothing to stop them.

Without the killing of this baby there would not have been a baby ghost to haunt 124. As the story progressed and Beloved showed up Sethe began to speculate that this was the dead baby reincarnated.  Denver was sure this was her sister but did not mind having her around and fear that one day she would leave.  She was more fearful of Beloved leaving than her concern that Beloved could harm her mother.  These are major events that make up the plot.  These events are present because that baby was unfortunately killed by Sethe.

If the death of the baby had not occurred and the subsequent haunting of 124 the plot would be completely different.  Because the story was set during the period of slavery, the experiences of Sethe, Baby Suggs and Paul D lives as slaves could be developed into a plot.  Morrison’s plot would include life of the characters living as slaves and the brutality, shamefulness and lack of humanity that they encountered as they were treated less than human and more like disgusting animals.  The plot would conclude with the outcome of each character whether or not they eventually had good outcome such as a better life despite the painful memories of slavery.

 

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