Critical Lens Experts #2

One of the passages called Revisions, rememories, and exorcisms talks about how slavery was and is a controversial topic to write about  and how Beloved relates to that. The author says “On a personal level, Morrison explores the power and limitations of the story-making process as an individual experience is edited and codified into narrative. In Beloved, characters define themselves by relating and explaining their experiences.” This is true about the characters, they never just sit down and tell the reader what their personalities are like, they are shaped through their past experiences. You can see this a lot in Paul D. His experiences being a slave have caused him to never show his true emotions. In Beloved it say “...in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where his red heart used to be.” Paul D’s past experiences has caused him to keep him emotions locked away and you can see some of those emotions let out when he meets Sehte again. The author also says “The power of storytelling also has it’s limits, for life-supporting fictions can easily be destroyed by facts which shatter the protective formulations.” It then goes on to mention how historical events and places represent the past and the future. For Baby Suggs it is the Ohio river that divides her experiences as a slave and as a free person. And for Stamp Paid it is the Civil War “the Civil War promised to end the threats associated with slavery...” Morrison uses historical events to help deepen the understanding of the characters. In the second part of the paper the author says “What Toni Morrison does in Beloved is to escape from limitations of the traditional slave narrative by using modernist techniques…” Morrison uses a different style of writing to convey the story of Sethe and slavery. She does not use a generic style of writing, using flashbacks often helps you understand what the characters went through at Sweet Home and it helps you understand what slavery was like during and after slavery was abolished. It makes you feel as if you were there and went through the same experiences as Sethe and the other characters.