Beloved ideas Flashcards
(12 cards)
Metallic imagery
‘tabacco tin’ ‘rusted’ metaphor for Paul D’s heart ‘lodged’ in his chest
- connotes the unyielding nature of metal composed and hard shelled promoting an idea of emotional withdrawal.
‘the iron bit’ ‘hand forged’ chains
symbol of water
- cyclical and ever flowing like the generational trauma Morrison is portraying as a 20th century African American women.
floriography (Compare to Dorian)
The ‘tree’ on Sethe’s back in Beloved demonstrates a natural image of scarring that can’t be masked by floral codes like in Dorian Gray
Sethe’s eyes
the ‘whites’ that ‘disappeared’ from Sethe’s eyes making her look ‘blind’ is a metaphorically reversed image of racial suppression.
Aims of the authors
Whilst Wilde is motivated by an aesthetic desire to reproach the moralisation of art for art’s sake, Morrisons political expression is much more subtle.
Beloved as vampire
- the colour red which connotes to danger, sex and blood-foreshadow how blood is going to be involved either because exchanging fluids or because a murder
- female demon and nightmare figure that sexually assaults male sleepers and drains them of semen.
- African American folklore in the form of shape shifting witches who “ride” their terrified victims in night which embodies Beloved herself.
- Beloved drains Paul D of semen and Sethe of vitality.
- . The vampire or parasite aspect of Beloved is amplified to the extent of considering a foetus as a parasite to the mother as it attaches and its sucks life from the mother’s uterus and nourishes its body by gleaning the nutrients from the mother’s body.
Differences in class (comparison with Dorian)
Sethe hasn’t got the money to spare her actions and she is later judged by Paul D when he knows about the infanticide, “You got two feet, Sethe, not four,” This contrasts with how Dorian gets the chance to hide his secret as his has the money to hide the portrait in a room, to hire someone to place it there and to bribe someone. The differences in class and financial need between them show how Dorian hasn’t dealt with the consequences of his actions and perhaps has never fully considered the damage that they might have had on other people whilst Sethe has had to pay for it going to prison and dealing with it every day.
Narrative style/temporal distortion
integration of memory and its presence when retelling story of Denver’s birth ‘Stepped into the old story and that lay before her’.
- use of dynamic, non finite verb ‘stepped’ holding a semantic of ease and simplicity= transcendence of tine and intertwining of past/present.
- Further emulated in idea that is ‘lay before her’ Sethe showing ease of slipping into past.
Romanticised image of Sweet Home ‘rolling, rolling, rolling out before her eyes’
- repetition creates vivid imagery
-utilised by Morrison as part of her temporal distortion style
-placement of recapture (most traumatic, climatic moment) in middle of book.
- Structure reflects rememory but also an oral-storytelling style find in folklore
Names and indentity
Garner on Baby Suggs, who had labelled her Jenny. It is only once Baby Suggs has been freed from physical captivation that we see her lack of social identity, the woman she comes to work with being named ‘Janey’, Morrison uses phonic similarities here to suggest the importance of names both individually and socially, in addition to the expectation of freed peoples to associate themselves with the values of the white population.
- Garner names all slaves after him
Masculinity
Morrison almost subverts the masculine role within Sethe seeing as she occupies 124, is employed and is perceived as a more robust character than her male counterparts, the ‘iron’ in her eyes being more resilient than Paul D’s ‘tobacco tin’. Whilst Paul D is the ‘kind of man who could walk into a house and make women cry’, it is the lack of control he wields as not being ‘head’ of the family that drives him away.
Community
- Community doesn’t support in time of need eg when Schoolteacher comes to get Sethe.
-Community return and start singing to exercise oppressive figure - represents trauma as something you have to acknowledge and face.
Gothic
- reminds us of fears we must face in order to move on.
- Engages with the gothic through ghost- folklore accepted magic and supernatural and therefore often discredited due to the fact black people believed in it
