Destruction of Self and Rememory - Beloved
Throughout Morrison's Beloved, we see the effects of slavery and the toll it takes on the characters in the book. Even after Sethe has escaped slavery and the brutal horrors associated with it, she still suffers mentally and emotionally. Even the ghost of Beloved itself is a disturbing memory of slavery and Sethe's guilt for killing her children.
Rememory is an interesting concept in which we see the devastating effects that slavery has on Sethe's psychological state. Sethe explains this concept of rememory in the way that "if a house burns down, it's gone, but the place--the picture of it--stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world" (Morrison 43). In the same way, the baby that Sethe killed (as a result of her resilience to the idea of a life of slavery) never really died. It's still out there in the world and eventually this memory physically manifests itself under the name "Beloved." The guilt of killing her baby haunts Sethe and although the baby is dead, these memories and the emotional toll is very real. No matter where she goes in her life, her past will always cling to her. Sethe also mentions the idea of a person's rememory being shared with others and in this way, a previously dead past can come to life and interact with people that had little relation to that past event. The past is always cycling back to haunt the characters in this book.
This process of rememory not only brings up the past but can also exacerbate its effects. An example of this is shown on page 44 where Denver pushes Sethe to relive her past slave life. Sethe goes on to talk about schoolteacher and her past life while Denver listens intently. Eventually, Sethe stops and Denver realizes that "Sethe had reached the point beyond which she would not go" (Morrison 45). While Beloved is the physical manifestation of Sethe's guilt, her memories in slavery can also physically manifest themselves, providing traumatic rememories from which Sethe cannot escape. The scars on her back and the bruising on her body is a physical indication of her memories. She cannot forget the past just as she cannot remove the scars from her body. To Sethe, her past is not leaving enough time for her present and in this way, Beloved exists simultaneously in the past and the present.
Hi Arya, great post! I think you're right when you say that even after Sethe has escaped, everything she endures can never go away. And we really saw that throughout the novel when as you mention characters like Denver who wasn't even born at Sweet Home triggers Sethe's memory of the past.
ReplyDeleteI really like the point you make about Beloved being "the physical manifestation of Sethe's guilt", and it reminds me of one moment in the book where Denver (I think? I can't quite remember or find it again) says that Beloved is somehow more than just the baby who had died. When Beloved "comes back", she's not quite the same person as the baby had been, because like you said, she is also this physical representation of Sethe's memories in a way that the original baby never was. I also think the decision not to call the baby by her actual given name, but instead Beloved, the word Sethe had carved on her gravestone, reinforces this idea that Beloved is made more of parts of *Sethe* than parts of the original baby.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Arya! I like your point about the physical manifestation of the trauma in the book. Sethe's scars are something she will have to carry for the rest of her life, just like her memories. I never thought about how similar that is to Beloved's reappearance, and how she is a physical manifestation just like the scars.
ReplyDeleteNice post Arya. I think Beloved being a manifestation of Sethe's guilt is a really interesting idea. To compare it to the scars on her body seems weird at the surface, but actually makes a lot of sense. It seems that even though she left Sweet Home, it always stays with her in one form or another. Good job!
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