Beloved And Sethe's Relationship Analysis

is a firm believer that too much love is bad for a person. In order to keep his brutal past behind him, he believes that one should only love a little. After Sweet Home, Paul D. attempts to kill his new owner and is forced into a chain-gang in which he is performs oral sex on white men. He realizes that even a rooster has more importance than him to white men. He has trouble committing to a woman who offers him shelter and eventually finds himself at 124, where he discovers Sethe’s overwhelming love and madness and Beloved’s presence. He keeps his memories and feelings in a rusted tobacco tin. When Beloved has sex with him, possibly in a vision or dream, the past comes rushing back to him. “He didn’t hear the whisper that the flakes of rust made either as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave he didn’t know it. What he knew was that when he reached the inside part he was saying, ‘Red heart. Red heart,’ over and over again” and then wakes himself up with his screaming (138). Beloved is both Sethe’s daughter and a symbol for the past generations of slaves. She opens Paul D. to love again, a cruelty in an already cruel world. Keeping love at bay has helped Paul D. and others like Ella feel safe from their pasts. At the end of the novel, when Beloved is gone, Paul D. goes back to 124 to help Sethe. Morrison shows the human capacity to love after so much has been taken or removed from the human

To Paul D, the biggest violation is that they beat Sethe while she was pregnant. However, through physical contact he is able to learn her story and further understand what she has been through. "...he held his breasts in the palms of his hands. He rubbed his cheek on her back and learned that way her sorrow, the roots of it; its wide truck and intricate branches." Paul D found a way to learn what she had been through, and feel what she has felt, by physical connection with parts of her which had been damaged, and more specifically, her scars. In this way, scars fulfill not only a storytelling role, but serve also as a means of connection. In the passion of the moment, Paul D sees her scars as a beautiful part of Sethe's person, on page 20 he refers to her scars as a "wrought-iron maze" which he wants to explore and to know. "He saw the sculpture her back had become, like the decorative work of an ironsmith too passionate for display. " Paul D has no real words to express his emotions at that time except for "Aw, Lord, girl", but on page 18 he shows his desire to heal Sethe and make things better in another way. "He would have no peace until he had touched every ridge and leaf of it with his mouth, none of which Sethe could feel because her back skin had been dead for years. What she knew was that the responsibility for her breasts, at last, was in someone else's hands." Again, the true communication and interpersonal connection

Paul D, a fellow ex-member of Sweet Home, the same place Sethe was stationed in during her slavery years, is a character who was a victim of cruelty done by a society and a communtiy and was forced to act cruely himself. Schoolteacher, the man who represents slavery, hurts Paul D by making him realize that he has less worth than a rooster named Mister. This makes Paul D question how much exactly he is worth, and where he belongs as can be seen as he travels the states based on the advice of a Cherokee member. Paul D eventualy finds that place in 124, with Sethe. One of the most obvious scenes of Paul D committing a cruel deed is when he

to her. Amy Denver saves Sethe. Amy is a white girl who came to Sethes

When Sethe first meets Beloved, she welcomes her with a suspiciously large magnitude. Furthermore, it is clear that Sethe never revealed her past experiences to Denver, yet the moment Beloved asks about her lost earrings, it was “the first time she had heard anything about her(Sethe’s) mother’s mother”(61). This proves that Beloved, and not anyone else, is pulling Sethe to the past, by making her recollect of her days as a slave. In addition,“it is clear why she holds on to you(Sethe), but I just can’t see why you holding on to her,” Paul mentioned(67). This shows how Paul realizes that Sethe has taken in Beloved without much reasoning, and when Beloved hums a song that Sethe happened to make up, Sethe fully but blindly embraces Beloved as family. In fact, she “had gone to bed smiling,” anxious to “unravel the proof for the conclusion she had already leapt to”(181). This shows how consumed by Beloved she is.

Sethe expresses content knowing that the murder prevented their capture by schoolteacher. Sethe is resolute in her belief that her act of mercy killing worked. As she tells Paul D, it kept them all away from schoolteacher and away from Sweet Home. When Paul D protests, Sethe explains: "It ain't my job to know what's worse. It's my job to know what is and to keep them away from what I know is terrible. I did that" (Beloved p.202)

It is shown that after the act of taking the life of Beloved and attempting the life taking of Denver, Howard, and Buglar, that Sethe truly does love her children. The way Sethe tried to go about saving her children seems unethical and horrible, but there did not seem to be all too many options for Sethe to save her children from the slave life. Howard and Buglar left Sethe and Denver to get away from Sethe, they had even warned Denver about what she had attempted to do to them. Although Howard and Buglar ran from Sethe and there was the attempted murder in the barn, Sethe still thinks of them because they are her children. Denver was tossed as an infant that day in the barn, and she clearly survives. Even after all the events and situations created from the presence of Beloved there is still a strong bond of love between Sethe and Denver. Sethe loves Denver very much, she is her one surviving child that is still with her.

Sethe kills Beloved because she wants to protect her from a vicious life of slavery. Moreover, Sethe sees killing Beloved as an act of love because she saved Beloved from a strenuous life of enslavement. Sethe thinks that death is better than a life of bondage. Paul D cannot understand her reasoning and leaves her after he finds out the truth. He wonders, “This here Sethe talked about safety with a handsaw. This here new Sethe didn’t know where the world stopped and began” (193). This illustrates a contrast between men and women in the novel since Paul D lacks the maternal instincts that Sethe possesses. Paul D is incapable of being a mother and experiencing that bond, so he cannot quite come to terms with Sethe’s choice. However, one can argue that Sethe’s choice is based on rationality and logic, instead of emotions, which would be the stereotypical response of a woman. Paul D actually experiences this womanly response because he responds emotionally to Sethe’s murder. Therefore, Paul D responds in a traditional feminine way and Sethe responds in a traditional masculine way, which demonstrates a reversal of conventional gender

Lester Horton has been named, as one of the many founders of modern dance, whose style continues to be used in present day choreography. Although Hortons’ early technique was impacted by his interest in various cultures; his style eventually shifted towards a more theatrical technique. Horton used his versatile dance background and interests to develop the sub genre under modern dance, more formally known as choreodramas. His technique seen in earlier pieces and choreodramas such as “The Beloved” and “Salome” were effective in displaying the purpose of Horton’s style. Horton integrated his background in dance, props, costumes, and choreography to emphasize contemporary ideas and display the new genre of choreodramas.

Beloved is seen as the resemblance of Sethe’s dead baby. Beloved is portrayed as a teenage girl, however she is different from other black teenager, “…and younger than her clothes suggested – good lace at the throat, and a rich woman’s hat. Her skin was flawless except for three vertical scratches on her forehead so fine and thin they seemed at first like hair, baby hair before it bloomed and roped into the masses of black yarn under her hat.” (Morrison 62). Beloved unexpectedly came to 124, the house where Sethe, Denver, and Paul D lived. However, Sethe became attracted to her, “Sethe was deeply touched by her sweet name; the remembrance of glittering headstone made her feel especially kindly toward her. Denver, however, was shaking. She looked at this sleepy beauty and wanted more.” (Morrison 63) represent Sethe’s fascination towards Beloved, because she made Sethe recall her dead baby, which also has the word Beloved engraved in the gravestone. The name Beloved itself makes Sethe sentimental from

Sethe and her friends and family both witness and experience the atrocious institutionalized wrongs and unethical societal norms of slave culture. However, Sethe eventually escapes Sweet Home plantation, hoping to provide a better life for her and her children. She finds a home at 124 Bluestone Road with her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs. Like Sethe, Paul D escapes Sweet Home, but he subsequently suffers jail time and further mistreatment. Morrison explains how slavery destroyed Paul D’s ability to love and express himself, “Saying more might push them both to a place they couldn’t get back from. He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be. Its lid rusted shut” (Morrison 86). The metaphorical replacement of Paul D’s heart with a rusted tobacco tin illustrates how slavery removed a human quality from him, almost giving him attributes of a machine rather than a person. Slave owners, Mr. Garner and Schoolteacher, reduced Paul D to a worker without a heart. However, Paul D finds an escape from this with Sethe at

hand. With the other he touches her face, ‘You your best thing, Sethe. You are.’ His holding fingers are holding hers. ‘Me? Me?’” (273). Paul D helps Sethe realize that she needs become fixated on how she can move on from Beloved—the invader. The phrase, “we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow” is Paul D’s acknowledgement of their tortuous past, and their need to create a future. The line convinces Sethe to overcome the freezing of time she experiences. Most importantly, Paul D’s claim that Sethe is her “best thing”, not Beloved, is what ultimately continues time for Sethe. Before Paul D, Sethe sacrificed her entire livelihood for Beloved. Denver even claims that she could no longer tell the difference between the

Paul D. and Sethe share a similar past full of misery and his arrival makes it imperative to use a dialog to access the freedom they long for. Toni Morrison uses Paul D.’s journey to represent the return to the past. He is coming from the North and is heading toward the South, which was the first “home” of slaves when they reach America. At the same time, seeing Paul D. again was a return to the past for Sethe. The dialog can start with Paul D since Sethe is not surrounded by a little girl and the souvenir of a mute Baby Suggs. Eventually, their path is perceived as a mean to make peace with the past. The dialog between Paul D. and Sethe is the symbolic confrontation of their

In Beloved, Toni Morrison frequently alternates between telling stories from Sethe's past, to telling events in the present. Morrison introduces Beloved, who serves as the link between Sethe and Paul D's past at "Sweet Home" as slaves, and the present, living in Ohio as a free family of three: Sethe, Paul D. and Denver. The character of Beloved allows Morrison to explain the experiences and characteristics of the three characters, and how they are reactions to their pasts. Up to Beloved's arrival, Sethe and Denver lived in a "spiteful house.", which created a state of uneasiness. The ghost of Beloved had driven off Sethe's two sons, yet the mother and daughter continued to live at 124. With the arrival of Paul D., some of Sethe's

With Beloved’s arrival and back into Seth’s life, Sethe also feels the need of going back into the memory of Baby Suggs, her mother in law. Baby Suggs held religious gatherings at a place called the clearing, where she taught her followers to love their voices, bodies and minds. However, after Sethe’s act of infanticide, Baby Suggs stops preaching and retreats to a sick bed to die. Accompanied by Denver and Beloved, Sethe feels the need to go to the clearing where Baby Suggs used to preach. “Baby Suggs’ long distance love was equal to any skin- close love she had known. The desire, let alone the gesture, to meet her needs was good enough to lift her spirits to the place where she could take the next step (pg 112).” In this section the memory of Baby Suggs also comes onto the surface, making Sethe want to remember her death by the presence of Beloved.