Responding and reflecting #2

Jealousy game

Jealousy is everywhere, it haunts us and sometimes even controls our actions. Jealousy comes from not receiving enough attention or desiring the attention of someone else. Its a strange feeling that everyone has experienced in their lives In the book we see jealousy play out as Beloved asked Denver to drive away Paul D because she doesn't like him. In reality Beloved is jealous of Paul D and all the attention he receives from Sethe. Beloved desires that attention from Sethe because she feels like she loves her more and deserves her more. She craves this attention  because she never got in through the 18 years she was left alone and motherless. She is trying to make up for lost time. This is the reason why she can't stand him. Beloved wants him out of the picture, as she can possibly plan for something sinister in the future. For a while Beloved gets what she wants, Pauly D leaves once he finds out that Sethe had killed her baby, words that Paul D couldn't believe and comprehend. Beloved won Sethe, but not for too long

In addition ,beloved is not the only character that shows jealousy, Denver also somehow wanders into that category. As beloved becomes closer with Sethe, she is also becoming closer to Denver. Something Denver loves. She sees Beloved as a sister she never wants to lose. So far that, "she keeps beloved by her side," (142) from the moment Sethe leaves to work and comes back. Denver has no control of being able to hang out with beloved when Sethe comes back from work because Beloved is all around her.(143) Denver enjoys being seen be beloved, she loves it, because she is also receiving the attention she believes she needs. The attention from the sister she never had. In a way she is completely obsessed with Beloved, making that relationship unhealthy, and denver seem more like a lunatic. Denver hopes to be with Beloved forever, regardless of anything else, thats her plan. Shes in love with beloved.

Being jealous makes you angry and i know exactly how that feels. When i was smaller my little brother Alexis was born and my mom of course gave him all the attention. This made me angry because i was a spoiled little kid and my mom used to give me all the attention. I loved her attention. With my little brother in the picture that was going away. I wanted him gone, but i wasn't evil, so i wasn't going to cause anything. I just got closer to my mom by giving her my time . She responded negatively and told me to stop being annoying and to grow up. Even though at the time it was cruel to hear that i learned later that she was right. Its not okay to have jealous. It destroys you inside, and makes you do things you would never imagine yourself doing. That's precisely what's occurring in Beloved, this jealousy this is going to end up driving her crazy.

Responding and reflecting

Reflecting on desires

The novel Beloved holds many themes and events that jump out of you. Its such a deep and graphic novel that reading it is truly an adventure in its own.  One of the things that i learned came right after chapter 1, where we see Paul D try his best to win the heart of Sethe, and he does. But after years of staying with her and dealing with her he sees her as a disappointment and grows tired of her. Her beautiful scars that he used to kiss so tenderly are no longer beautiful, he sees her as a burden, and ugly. It was funny to think that he used to have so much motivation to see Sethe and care for her. Where has it gone? Or was there other hidden intentions behind Paul D’s conquest of her. Paul D didn't really actually love Sethe or care for her, he wanted her for what she could offer him. (Her body) He didn't really want her, he wanted to use her, and now that he has her, he's no longer contempt he wants more, and something different. Paul D is the type of person who thinks he likes something but in reality he does not. He is a confused person, and is now enrolled with a person that he sees in disgust. So now he's stuck and well see this situation play out throughout the novel. In addition, he even ends up cheating on sethe with beloved, "she moved him"(134) and not in a good way. She changed him and ends up regretting sleeping with her. Even after that he still portrays Beloved as his mysterious lover. So obviously hes confused, yet that confusion is what draws him to her.  

With this in mind I open my eyes and see that things in life are temporary if you don't really actually push for it, or truly want it. Its confusing figuring out what you desire when a person changes themselves everyday. I see that just because you think you desire something doesn't mean you should go out and get it, because more than likely that desire is gonna go away. Which will not turn out well for me if i spent so much time and effort focusing on the thing I'm not passionate about. For example, i may want to study engineering, but years later want to try out a job in business. It would be really difficult for me to change that if i had already spent money and time on it, yet i can switch but there's always that thought that it might not work out. But at the same time I've seen that change can be a good thing, because change can make you happy, even if it's temporary it will make you happy and happiness is key to life. That's how i see it.

Morrison's Secret Mother-Daughter Messages: the "Aje"

Toni Morrison, the author of Beloved, doesn't feel like the majority of the criticism and analysis on her literature truly speaks to her original intentions and messages she was trying to get across. She would prefer getting criticism based on Morrison's own "art, culture, language, worldview, and milieu". The critical essay "The Mother-Daughter Aje Relationship in Toni Morrison's Beloved", uses the "Africana" perspective to interpret the relationships built throughout Beloved, specifically between Sethe and other female characters Denver and Beloved.

The "Aje" is described as a spiritual type of woman raised within Africana culture. They can be regarded as "owners and controllers of everything on Earth". They are also overseen as controlling creation, destruction, divination, healing, and the power of word. This type of powerful woman are mostly inherited and are genetically passed from mother to daughter. These types of women are known for leading their families and communities. Although the Aje have spouses or partners to keep "complementary balance", women tend to be the dominant characters due to the absence of a prominent male figure.

The "Aje" Africana people also have a reputation for needing a "safe or sacret space" to be comfortable with their spiritual selfs. Similarly, this seems to be a constant theme throughout Beloved. When Sethe comes to 124, she automatically emphasizes the comfort and love that Baby Suggs gave to her, possibly because Suggs recognizes the "Aje" that needed healing in Sethe. Baby Suggs also has a "safe" space, which also happens to be the place where she preaches for groups of people looking for a spiritual experience. She has her "safe space" in what is known as The Clearing, which is a beautiful spot in nature where people commonly feel at peace. All of these areas that create "comfortable" spaces for characters throughout Beloved create another tie to compare the "Aje" spirituality with the overall characterization of Sethe, Denver, Paul D, and Beloved.

Responding and Reflecting #2

Reading Beloved has been different from any other books I have read using the New Historical lens. It give me different perspectives on slavery, it made me really think about what life was like before and after slavery. It goes into a personal perspective on what Sehte went through while she was in slavery. It makes you think about what it was really like back in that time. Before reading Beloved I had never really thought about what it was like being a slave, when ever we talked about slavery we told about things that happened but, it never made me really think about what happened to former slaves after slavery was abolished. In Beloved it shows how much slaves were affected by slavery. It also made me think about how bad some slaves were treated. Sethe had some bad things happen to her, but it made me think that some slaves probably were treated worse than Sehte or the other slaves at Sweet Home. Other slaves probably had worse experiences that left them scarred for life and after they were freed left them always thinking about the past and unable to live their life normally because of their past experiences. It kind of makes me think about war veterans with PTSD, like some former slaves are never able to recover from being a slave, they can’t recover from what happened to them. Reading Beloved also made me think if other slaves had to kill one or more of their children to keep them for being captured or because they did not want to be slaves. Sethe did it so she would not be captured and not life her life being a slave, it somewhat makes sense but it is a pretty drastic measure to make sure that your children don't become slaves.

Gated Gender

"The Bonds of Love and Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison's Beloved" analyzes how the domination and objectification of slavery has impacted motherhood and the relationships between the main characters. People define themselves by existing and relating to others: mutual recognition. Sethe, Denver, and Beloved seek to connect with each other, but the shells they have to prevent them from society also obstruct connections. Those boundaries are threatened to be brought down along with self in the all-consuming need for connection caused by a lack of validation in childhood. Paul D is the outsider who has the power to disrupt the dangerous dynamic between the women in that household. Self-love is what frees Denver from needing her mother or sister. Morrison doesn't confine a nurturing nature to women; Paul D strengthens Sethe with his love and care.

The author, Barbara Shapiro, mentions how, because Paul D is ultimately the most successful nurturer out of all the characters, gender-typical traits are not consigned to their typical gender by Morrison. I believe this is also true for the character Baby Suggs. She did nurture people by preaching self-worth, but her character seemed to be defined by the fact that she was a leader. She spiritually directed people and was even martyred in a way that is almost an allusion to Jesus Christ. In fact, one could argue that Morrison is intentionally recreating Jesus Christ in the body of an old, female, African American woman. With this statement, Morrison is coming down as believing the gender of Christ--of God--as irrelevant, the potential for what they were and are open for any gender. That is a very progressive and controversial stance to take.

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.

Close Reading #2

“I was about to turn around and keep on my way to where the muslin was, when I heard him say, “No, no. That’s not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right. And dont forget to line them up.”(228)

This is one passage from page 228. In this passage Sethe is talking about what schoolteacher was like, and how he treated the slaves at Sweet Home like animals. You can see this the most when he says to put her “animal characteristics” on the right side of her. This happened a lot back then when there were slaves, they were not treated like human beings, instead they were treated like animals. It is hard to believe now that there were actually people like this back then, it is hard to imagine treating someone like they are animals and not feeling some sort of sympathy for them. This is what schoolteacher and his nephews treated the slaves at Sweet Home, he thought of them as animals that had no right to be in his presence. You can see this in Beloved when the schoolteacher watches as his nephews “steal Sethes milk.” He stands there and watches as if what they are doing is ok because she is not a human being. Treating slaves poorly is what happened a lot back when slavery was still allowed. Slaves were constantly being treated as lower people or sometimes not even as people at all. An example of this in Beloved is when Sethe is talking to Mrs. Garner about how she wants to get married to Halle and Sethe ask if there could be a wedding and Mrs. Garner just laughs at her. Mrs. Garner did not think Sehte deserved a wedding because she was a slave, she did not see Sethe as equal or near equal to herself. This is another example of slaves being treated as animals, they were not able to do anything, they were basically on leashes and had to do what they were told. Schoolteacher was the biggest violator of the slaves at Sweet Home. He treated the slaves like farm animals, her told them what to do and where to go and if they did not do that he would punish them, whether that was getting whipped like Sethe or getting a bit put in their mouth like Paul D.