Rememory in Toni Morrisons Beloved Essay - 1242 Words

Rememory in Toni Morrisons Beloved To survive, one must depend on the acceptance and integration of what is past and what is present. In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison carefully constructs events that parallel the way the human mind functions; this serves as a means by which the reader can understand the activity of memory. Rememory enables Sethe, the novels protagonist, to reconstruct her past realities. The vividness that Sethe brings to every moment through recurring images characterizes her understanding of herself. Through rememory, Morrison is able to carry Sethe on a journey from being a woman who identifies herself only with motherhood, to a woman who begins to identify herself as a human being. Morrison†¦show more content†¦Morrison uses the voices of two people, lost from each other in remembrance, and brings them together by juxtaposing memory against memory until finally their recollections converge in the same episode. After a sexual encounter, Sethe and Paul D reflect on their shared exp eriences in slavery at the Sweet Home plantation. It is against this backdrop that both characters struggle to tackle their feelings of inadequacy. Although Sethe and Paul D share their memories, there is only so much that they are willing to divulge since [s]aying more might push them both to a place they couldnt get back from (Morrison 72). While Pauls coping mechanism is to place all of his painful memories in the tobacco tin buried in his chest, Sethes coping mechanism is prevention. The characterizations of Sethe, Paul D, and Sethes daughter Denver continue through the use of flashbacks. By juxtaposing memory with scenes from the present, Morrison offers a better understanding of Denver and her reaction to Paul D. Lonely and troubled, she finds solace inside her own small world and connection to the memories her mother has shared with her regarding her birth. Denver feeds her hunger through these memories as well as through perfume and the boxwood arbor. It is in this f irst trimester that Morrison begins to connect imagery with the retrieval of past events. For all, the baby ghost acts as a catalyst for remembering the past.Show MoreRelatedToni Morrison and Historical Memory5014 Words   |  21 PagesNational amnesia of minority history cannot be tolerated. Toni Morrison is a minority writer has risen to the challenge of preventing national amnesia through educating African-Americans by remembering their past and rewriting their history. In her trilogy, Beloved, Jazz and Paradise, and in her other works, Morrison has succeeded in creating literature for African-Americans that enables them to remember their history from slavery to the present. 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