For this post, choose one quotation from this section of the novel (156-195) and share it (with citation), along with your thoughts on its significance to the novel, to the world, or to the art of letters as a whole (your response will be assessed in terms of its clarity, thoughtfulness, and adherence to conventions).
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“‘Your love is too thick,’ he said, thinking, that bitch is looking at me; she is right over my head looking down through the floor at me …‘You got two feet, Sethe, not four,’ he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; trackless and quiet” (Morrison, 193-194).
ReplyDeleteThe quotation marks a crucial point in the novel when the readers see how Sethe’s actions forever effected the relationships she had with others around 124. Paul D has just realized Sethe is the women he was shown in the town paper who attempted to kill her children, and partially succeeded. After he hears the story is true from the perpetrator herself, he does what all the others have done to her; Paul D leaves. A “forest” or divide too thick to be overcome separates Sethe from the rest of the society. Based on this, the reader can infer that this is what always happens when people, black or white, learn the truth about Sethe that the reaction is always the same, and she ends up alone. No one wants to try to reach out or get through the “forest”. Stating that Sethe is not a woman but an animal, she as two feet not four, is also a common reaction. To others, she behaved in a way no civilized person would. Sethe at that moment was what “whitepeople” refer to black slaves as and that is animals. She proved them, the whites, right and that makes her a disgrace to her people. Paul D also makes the point of stating that the love Sethe has for her children, dead or alive, is too thick or strong. This raises the question of, how much love is too much. Even between family members, is there a point when you would hurt them to save them? Sethe killed her children to avoid them being put into slavery where she thought they would be killed anyway. As a mother she wanted to protect them and keep them safe her own way and that horrific way was the only way she saw fit. While her actions were horrifying I understand deep down she was doing what so many mothers do, trying to give her children a better life than her own. Personally, I feel this type of action proves her love was too thick like Paul D states. How could you love something so much you would be willing to kill? When is death ever the answer to a problem? I do not know the answer to that question, never being able to imagine life as a slave, but Sethe felt it was the only way.
"He knew exactly what she meant: to get to a place where you could love anything you chose-not to need permission for desire-well now, that* was freedom." (Morrison 191)
ReplyDeleteThis passage really stood out to me because it's still really hard for me to understand exactly what the characters and their peers had to go through. Throughout this entire novel, most of my focus has been on trying to understand the significance and depth of the heartbreak in the lives of these people. I read this passage and the paragraph proceeding it and something clicked. To have one's freedom so stripped away that one feels wrong even choosing what to love seems to me to be the bottom of what i previously thought was a bottomless pit of torture that slaves went through. The author is incredible at making realizations so subtle that they are able to seep into you when your guard is down and you least expect it.
*The word "that" is italicized in the book.
“So Stamp Paid didn’t say it at all. Instead he took a breath and leaned toward the mouth that was not hers and slowly read the words Paul D couldn’t. And when he finished, Paul D said with a vigor fresher than the first time, ‘I’m sorry, Stamp. It’s a mistake somewhere ‘cause that ain’t her mouth’” (Morrison, 186). This quotation illustrates Paul D’s initial denial when Stamp Paid first shows him the newspaper article from eighteen years ago which explains how Sethe killed her daughter. Stamp Paid shows Paul D Sethe’s picture from the newspaper clipping, but he refuses to believe it is actually Sethe. He insists that while the woman might look like Sethe, the woman does not have Sethe’s mouth. Even after Stamp reads the article to Paul D, he is still in denial. Paul D’s reaction mirrors how many people in our current world react to bad news. Even when people are presented with all the facts, and reality is staring them in the face, they refuse to believe the truth. People don’t want to deal with sadness. For example, many times when loved ones are told that their sons or daughters have died while serving over seas, they insist that there was a mistake. It is only after time and through reasoning that they can accept what has actually occurred. Such is the case with Paul D. Once he thought logically and had time to mull the facts over, he was able to process the truth. His reaction to this new information was to leave Sethe and 124, and take residence in a nearby church’s basement.
ReplyDelete"Next she felt a knocking in her chest and discovered something else new; her own heartbeat. Had it been there all along? This pounding thing? She felt like a fool and began to laugh out loud. Mr. Garner looked over his shoulder at her with wide brown eyes and smiled himself. 'What's funny, Jenny?' She couldn't stop laughing. 'My heart's beating,'she said. And it was true. (166)".
ReplyDeleteIn a novel like this one, it can be hard to sympathize with the characters. Especially when it comes to matters that I personally, have never dealt with. However, Toni Morrison does a phenomenal job of helping her audience understand the pains of slavery. In this passage, she captures the feelings of Baby Suggs as she gains her freedom. By suggesting that while working at Sweet Home, Baby Suggs didn't even own her own heartbeat, she creates a very clear image.
Your heartbeat is an extremely personal thing. It's yours and yours alone. To infer that it didn't belong to Baby Suggs helps the audience to empathize with the characters in the story. This passage is a prime example of the author making the story relatable, which is what makes Toni Morrison so superb.
“The sky was blue and clear. Not one touch of death in the definite green of the leaves. She could hear birds and, faintly, the stream way down in the meadow. The puppy, Here Boy, was burying the last bones from yesterday’s party. From somewhere at the side of the house came voices of Buglar, Howard, and the crawling girl. Nothing seemed amiss - yet this smell of disapproval was sharp” (Morrison, 162).
ReplyDeleteMorrison’s main theme throughout the novel reflects pain. Whether it is physical or emotional, in the form of angst or fear, each plot event includes a form of suffering. This quote illustrates this suggestion quite vividly. The image is of something calm, beautiful, and ‘normal’ yet there is something wrong; an uncomfortable feeling. Morrison’s message: no matter how good you think things are, something can (and will) go wrong.
“Sethe knew that the circle she was making around the room, him, the subject, would remain one. That she could never close in, pin it down for anybody who had to ask. If they didn’t get it right off---she could never explain. Because the truth was simple, not a long drawn-out record of flowered shifts, tree cages, selfishness, ankle ropes and wells. Simple: she was squatting in the garden and when she saw them coming and recognized school teacher’s hat, she heard wings…And if she thought anything, it was No. No. Nono. Nonono. Simple.” (Morrison, 192)
ReplyDeleteThis quote marks a major point in the novel where Sethe’s passion for her children is expressed greatly. Sethe saw her decision to kill her children as “simple”. She felt that the safety of her children lied in the afterlife than back at Sweet Home with schoolteacher. Sethe always viewed her children as all the “good parts” of her life therefore in her mind, to allow schoolteacher to take her precious children away from her was like allowing him to take all the good inside of her. Many readers may think that Sethe is insane to kill her own child, however, I believe this quote demonstrates the forces that slavery has over those who are enslaved by allowing a mother’s love for her child turn into murder; this impulsive act of violence instead shows Sethe’s deep love for her children.
"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." ( 192)
ReplyDelete>>In this point in the novel the truth of the past is revealed: Sethe murdered her children. Sethe she kept this secret to herself in hopes in forgetting the past; yet the memories are unbearable. Many would think her actions were unjust, but in reality what were her options?
>>Experiencing and witnessing the cruelties of slavery, Sethe refused to put her children through that and accomplished this by from Sweet Home. We see that Sethe took the initiative in offering a better life for herself and her children, but when everything seemed perfect something went wrong.
>>This quote explains Sethe's thought when she recognized the school teacher's hat; Sethe repeats, "No. No. Nono. Nonono" (192), as she sees both her children's life flash before her eyes.
>>One may think: how could she have possibly loved her children! But there is not a doubt she loved them unconditionally. In this passage Sethe refers to her children as "precious and fine and beautiful", showing that she dearly cared for their well-being. In Sethe's perspective, she regrets what she did, but in a way knows she did the right thing. The only way to reassure the best for her children was to drag "them through the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt them." (192). (referring to death and heaven, where there is no pain or suffering)
>>... I believe that this type of love is hard to understand, but in a twisted way it's the definition of a mother's love for her children
"You've got two feet, Sethe, not four," he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; trackless and quiet (194).
ReplyDeleteMorrison writes like a poet, that clearly, by this time in the novel, has already been established. It’s expressed so simply, and so beautifully, that Sethe cannot act in the manner she chose to, because she is not a common animal. She’s a person, and we’ve got some kind of responsibility for the unconditional safety of our children. And then, as soon as it’s said, as soon as Paul D comments on Sethe’s feet, they’ve been torn apart—which, I might add, is wholly unfair. (Though, I had to know from the start that this was not a love story—their ‘falling-in-love’ bit happened much too fast for that to be the main focus of the novel.)
Is it fair for Paul D to get up and leave Sethe as quickly as he came? Put simply, yes. But looking at it more critically, no. He doesn’t understand, he can’t understand where Sethe was at that moment in time. He doesn’t feel her fear, he doesn’t know what it would have meant to go back to Sweet Home after all that time spent on the escape. He could, maybe if he gave it a moment; he’s probably the only one left alive—or sane enough—to understand, but he won’t. On the same note, it’s not fair that Stamp Paid got to decide Sethe’s fate in this one. Who is he, even? As a character? Didn’t we just meet him a handful of pages ago? How is he significant, at all?
Personally, I think she did the right thing. And maybe that’s terrible. But, considering the alternative? I can justify her act of horror. I can’t say that I’d do the same—the consequences of such are far more severe and wouldn’t necessarily outweigh the bad in with today’s laws. And I don’t fancy myself a killer. And ultimately? It’s not my decision. If what she did was wrong or not. Sethe’s the only one who can decide that. The character’s in this novel have forgotten that.
"When she got back from the jail house, she was glad the fence was gone. That's where they had hitched their horses-where she saw, floating above the railing as she squatted in the garden, schoolteacher's hat. By the time she faced him, looked him dead in the eye, she had something in her arms that stopped him in his tracks. He took a backward step with each jump of the baby heart until finally there were none" (192-93).
ReplyDeleteIn this part of the novel, Morrison reveals the truth of how Beloved died. Sethe killed her baby to protect her from the Schoolteacher and Sweet Home. Sethe did not want her children to experience Sweet Home and the pain she went through. I think that it was the right thing and that it was strong for Sethe to make that hard decision. Many people might see the killing of Sethe's baby to be wrong and not loving, but I feel that it was loving and showed that Sethe loved her children.
In the quote, Sethe mentions that she is pleased that the fence is gone. For the fence to be gone, it let her forget that awful moment when she saw the Schoolteacher standing there.
Sethe knew that her desicion to kill her child was simple because she could not see Sweet Home taking them away from her and making them go through what she went through.
I think the book will open up more now since the reader knows the secret behind Beloved. I do think that the book will become more complicated since the truth is now revealed.
"I stopped them," she said, staring at the place where the fence used to be. "I took my and put my babies where they'd be safe." The roaring in Paul D's head did not prevent him from hearing the pat she gave to the last word, and it occurred to him that what she wanted for her children was exactly what was missing in 124: safety." (Morrison 193)
ReplyDeleteSethe at this point has now, in a way, realized that she was the one who ended Beloved's life. She still, however, has yet to come to terms with it and accept the fact that she was the one who tried to kill her own children and is responsible for Beloved's appearance now in a rather amnesiac state and her awkward behavior.
Morrison obviously makes it clear that Sethe didn't carry out her murderous actions in a state of hatred or rage. She rather her children have died than go back to Sweet Home and face the extremely abusive discipline that Schoolteacher exercised on her slaves. Sethe, a kind-hearted soul, would never wish the scars she received to be transferred to her offspring as well, and thus chose to mercifully end the youngest of her children.
Sethe also gave a 'pat' on the last of her words when explaining to Paul D, hoping that he would realize her reasons and believe that she wanted only one thing for her family: safety. Something that was almost never given to her.
Now that the wall that blocked the links between Sethe and Beloved is broken, I think that Sethe's daughter will be explored even more. The complications are surely set to begin now that there's no more mystery as to who the ghost was.
“‘Your love is too thick,’ he said, thinking, That bitch is looking at me; she is right over my head looking down through the floor at me.
ReplyDelete‘Too thick?’ she said, thinking of the Clearing where Baby Suggs’ commands knocked the pods off horse chestnuts. ‘Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.’” (page 193-194)
This passage is a great summary of Sethe’s personality. When she loves something, she loves it with every fiber in her being. People always tell her that slaves shouldn’t ever love anything too much, but she never listens. She loves her children to an inhumane extent and would do anything to protect them, even if that means trying to kill them to protect them from the dangers of slavery. She would rather be ignorant about where the rest of her family is than to find out that they are dead. When a strange girl arrives at 124, Sethe greets her with open arms because the girl reminds her of her deceased child. When Paul D questions Sethe’s love for her children, she has no problem just saying “so long” to him. She could never love Paul like she loves her family and when he offends her for loving her family; she lets him go out of her life. Her love for Paul D was thin and therefore was no love at all.
"'Your love is too thick,' he said thinking, That bitch looking at me; she is right over my head looking down through the floor at me. 'Too thick?' she said thinking of the Clearing where Baby Suggs' commands knocked the pods off horse chestnuts. 'Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't no love at all.'...'You got two feet, Sethe, not four he said. " (193-194)
ReplyDeleteLearning that someone close to you has killed their child is a lot to take in at a time, especially for someone who isn't a parent. Trying to explain love to a person who hasn't loved like they did is an almost impossible task. At this point in the novel, a lot is already learned about Sethe, especially about her past and how her past has affected her present and the daily struggles because of it.
Because Sethe has been through so much, she knows what life is, or at least her life. She imagines that her children must go through the same struggles and decides that real love is letting go and doing something difficult in order to help them. Killing so that they don't have to face the same things is the only way she knows how to love. To Sethe, there is no shades of love; love is or isn't. Either kill or keep alive. There's no half killing involved and there's no half loving.
Paul D can not understand this. Telling her that she has two legs and not four is him telling her that her behavior was that of an animal and that she isn't an animal in the least bit. However, she must move from that mindset. Sethe is unwilling to do so.
“Sethe smiled then, at the memory of it. The smile broke in two and became a sudden suck of air, but she did not shudder or close her eyes. She wheeled” (Morrison 188).
ReplyDeleteThis entire novel is centered around Sethe and her memories, as it is filled with flashbacks of her past and new experiences that are constantly changing her life, and will soon become memories. Once events in her life become a memory, she is able to smile at the thought of her experience, but the “suck of air” reminds her that it was, at one point and in its own way, painful. Both the good and the bad memories are painful: the good because all of that good she can no longer relish in, and the bad because she can feel, once again, the pain that she felt at one point. She knows, however, that she cannot dwell on the pain that her memories bring because life continues to progress, and her past has only caused her to grow as a person.
This definitely relates to the world and the way people deal with their pasts. Many could relate to Sethe and how she is always looking back on her past, feeling the pain that she once felt, or wishing she could re-experience the joy she once had. We are all guilty of dwelling on the past and wishing we could have what we used to have, but it is true that we have to “break our smiles in two” and realize that we must move on and look ahead to the future.