In Beloved, Sethe thinks ‘nothing ever
dies’ and ‘anything dead coming back to life hurts’. How do these ideas relate to some of the reading of the novel or concepts we have been studying. Consider how the intersections of memory and history impact the reading and our understanding of the novel.
Dr. Hill
Dr. Hill
The thought that nothing ever dies is somewhat true. It reminds me of the saying, what has been seen cannot be unseen. Pain is inevitable. It has and always will be apart of our earthly lives. The things Sethe has experienced through slavery and her escape for freedom have scarred her and the memories hurt just as bad as it did when it happened. When we think of painful times, the emotions seem to flood back with it and that is exactly what Sethe experiences. She is constantly reminded of her past and the thought of it hurts her.
ReplyDeleteThe thought that nothing ever dies immediately made me think of Sethe's first daughter that she murdered. Sethe believes she the baby's ghost is haunting her house and also that she came back in human form as the girl Beloved. I think by believing that the baby was still around, Sethe showed her eternal love for the child. This is one idea that i think Sethe could have been thinking about when she said "nothing ever dies".
ReplyDeleteWith sethe thinking that nothing ever dies, I feel that in a way this is true. The reason why is because even though someone dies physically oldies not mean that their spirit is dead or that they could come back in another human being. Like the case with beloved, she was killed as a child but ended up coming back as an adult. This also ties into the 'anything dead coming back to life hurts' scenario.
ReplyDeleteThe idea Sethe believes nothing ever dies is relevant, and true. This idea can be relatable to real life scenarios as well. People die and although their physical body may no longer be in our presence their spirit continues to live with us. That is what Sethe is experiencing. Even though she killed her daughter, her daughter came back to life but in a ghost form, known as beloved. Because Sethe is living in the house with beloved she is constantly reminded that anything dead coming back to life hurts. This situation can be represented as memory and history in the novel.
ReplyDeleteThe idea Sethe has about "nothing ever dies" and "anything coming back to life hurts" seems to be a reoccurring theme upon this book. It is shown that past events or people have a way of reoccurring/ returning. This is shown with her daughter's ghost beloved, but also metaphorically with allot of Sethes' relationships. One most currently demonstrated was with Paul D. They tried rekindling something from the past, but realized the fantasy was too good to be true because of their traumatic past history they remind each other of.
ReplyDeleteI think that "nothing ever dies" corresponds with the fact that Beloved is still haunting Sethe even though she is dead, Sethe believes that she isn't really dead. Also I think that Sethe is saying this in correlation with the fact that she is still emotional scarred from slavery and that emotional scar will never die.
ReplyDeleteBeloved, both the ghost and the character don't have actual names to identify themselves, just more of a symbol for the reader to realize that they are there. I think that Toni Morrison does this in order to personify what really isn't there. It gives the readers a deeper understanding of the real characters such as Sethe and Denver. This is supposed to reflect on what the real characters are going through emotionally from an outside perspective.
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