Beloved CaseSection 1:Toni Morrisons Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved has received praise all across the globe academically and publically. The Pulitzer Prize is one of many other prizes this book has received such as the Frederic G. Melcher Book Award and the New York Times best work of fiction in the last 25 years. Because Beloved is so popular it has had many papers and articles written about it, but in this paper I will be discussing eight of those scholarly papers and articles in depth to come up with themes in which I will discuss the similarities and differences within them.
First, I will discuss what Nancy Jesser argues in her essay; how the memory of the characters in the novel Beloved change a simple space into a place. A space is simply an area, geographically speaking, where as a place is also a space but filled with memories that give it that sentimental value, like it cannot be replaced. She then goes more in depth and separates place into hard and soft. In her words, 124 Bluestone (before Sethe kills her children with the handsaw) is much more of a softened place because it was a place where the members of the African-American community could meet and greet and also eat. Then she goes on and says that after the horrible massacre of the children by Sethe, 124 Bluestone immediately becomes a hardened place (Jesser 326). A soft place is where common memories happen, where as a hard place is often where more specific, often very traumatizing memories happen. Jesser does a good job of comparing the four significant places in the novel: Sweet home, Georgia, the Clearing, and 124 Bluestone. In each section of her article she discusses how the memories have transformed those four places from a space to a place, and how they have become hardened or softened places. Specifically, she describes Georgia as being a hardened place and goes on by telling the significance of Paul Ds escape from there, “a place hardened in the extreme by violence and objectification.” (Jesser 330) she is referring to Paul Ds time in prison.
Secondly, I am going to discuss how Evelyn Jaffe Schreiber focuses on the effects of these said memories on the family in his article “Shared Memory”. Schreiber describes the effects of Sethes memories by telling us that Sethe suffers from feelings of abandonment and her mothers physical pain and death is lodged in her psyche (Schreiber 35). She later talks about those memories and points out the abandonment Sethe felt as a child from her mother are passed on to her daughter Denver (Schreiber 36). Schreiber goes on to say that those said memories are what caused Sethe to murder her child. By saying memories are reactivated when a person is exposed to a situation similar to the one when the original memory was stored, “Schoolteachers appearance triggers Sethes violent response” (Schreiber 37). She then begins
In regards to the negative effects of Sethe’s own psychological problems, as described above, Schreiber states that Sethe can have problems. He shows us by showing that Sethe is forced to hide from a psychologist. Sethe is told by his girlfriend that he is an unreliable narrator and that if he has negative feelings, he should not make up his mind. Then he goes on to state he loves her for being with his wife and she’s good at talking. He goes on to add her family is strong in her case and she helped her father escape from prison when the murder of her son occurred.
The second important issue Schreiber states is his family problems. His family is told his father has the personality disorder called F.D.A., and he has trouble with his friends. The family is convinced that Sethe is lying to them, that he has bipolar disorder, and does not want his family to be in any danger. This leads Sethe to make bad decisions, and sometimes bad, decisions. The family believes that Sethe is in a bad emotional state and that this will cause problems in his family (Schreiber 37). To this, the psychologist suggests the following:
In our society when we think of an individual we associate certain concepts with others. We associate the feelings of guilt or anger against others with this person. We associate emotions with a person who has a different view on what makes the person who we think is a bad character.
Settinghed writes:
Many people are told that Sethes are emotionally abusive, and that they are a burden. In order to understand what makes a person who we think is a burden, we must begin with a person that we think is a good type of person. We must first understand that Sethes are emotionally abusive. We are told that they are often very abusive and they often become violent or aggressive. However, if we understand both Sethes’ and the psychopath’s mental health needs, we end up understanding why we are a burden to them “Schoolteachers appearance.
The psychologist begins with Sethes describing two events about Sethe that have happened to him that he has had to fight over and that he has suffered in some way from. The psychological pain that Sethe feels like is not the cause of his anger, but rather is in his control of emotions. He begins by claiming that he was abused by his mother. While in the bathtub with his child, the psychologist asks him to remove his shoes from the bath. Sethes reveals that he knows he is doing it because he has gone to the bathroom a short time previously. The psychologist then reveals that there is no pain in Sethes because he does not know this pain. Then Sethes shows his therapist the room and asks her how he handles himself. Sethes tells the therapist that he is only caring for his children, he loves them. Sethes goes on to describe that his mother was emotionally abusive and she had to keep him at the same level with his wife every night. Sethes then states:
Now that his wife has put an end to her abusive relationship with Sethea he can take a step back and look at the