Toni Morrison writes a book set in 1873 in which it describes the hardships a mother, by the name of Sethe, faces after having previously killed her own infant child in an attempt to protect it from the miseries of slavery. In Morrison’s book, Beloved, she uses flashbacks to create multiple themes, such as isolation and family, to elaborate on the torment Sethe and her family have undergone and continue to experience.
Hurt from their past as slaves, Paul D and Sethe, continuously attempt to repress horrific memories they share, isolating themselves from the rest of the world in their home, 124. As Paul D recounts having been a member of the chain gang in Georgia, witnessing his friend Halle fall apart after being an onlooker of his wife’s rape, and recalling that Mister, the rooster, …show more content…
“For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous…”, shows how risky, even in that period of time, getting attached was. Sethe, however, managed to use memories of Baby Suggs as a stabilizing force in her life. Remembering how Baby Suggs received her and her kids after escaping from Sweet Home, remembering how she aided her and baby Denver when they freshly arrived, and keeping the memory of Halle alive, Sethe was able to find a place she could call “home”. Sethe was able to try to find her role as a mother despite not having known what that really was like, or what it was like to play the role of a breadwinner having only been a slave in her life.
In Beloved by Toni Morrison, she creates the themes of isolation and family through the use of flashbacks from primarily Sethe and Paul D. Through fear, and agony, they attempt to make a life for themselves despite the damage they have gone through both physically and mentally while they were slaves, and use themselves and other characters as a method of healing the wounds that never stopped
Hurt from their past as slaves, Paul D and Sethe, continuously attempt to repress horrific memories they share, isolating themselves from the rest of the world in their home, 124. As Paul D recounts having been a member of the chain gang in Georgia, witnessing his friend Halle fall apart after being an onlooker of his wife’s rape, and recalling that Mister, the rooster, …show more content…
“For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous…”, shows how risky, even in that period of time, getting attached was. Sethe, however, managed to use memories of Baby Suggs as a stabilizing force in her life. Remembering how Baby Suggs received her and her kids after escaping from Sweet Home, remembering how she aided her and baby Denver when they freshly arrived, and keeping the memory of Halle alive, Sethe was able to find a place she could call “home”. Sethe was able to try to find her role as a mother despite not having known what that really was like, or what it was like to play the role of a breadwinner having only been a slave in her life.
In Beloved by Toni Morrison, she creates the themes of isolation and family through the use of flashbacks from primarily Sethe and Paul D. Through fear, and agony, they attempt to make a life for themselves despite the damage they have gone through both physically and mentally while they were slaves, and use themselves and other characters as a method of healing the wounds that never stopped