Grief has an unusually physical presence in Beloved, manifesting in the character of a house that “wept, sighed, trembled, and fell into fits” (p.35). On page 47 and 48, the passage “124 was so full…. bread ain’t greasy” reveals the development of grief by illustrating how Sethe and Paul D have been impacted by the trauma of their past, and how their union allows them to revive what that trauma had not previously made space for.
In the introductory line “124 was so full of strong feeling perhaps she was oblivious to the loss of anything at all”, the word “full” provides an image of a house devoid of visitors because anyone who forced their way in would make it overflow - a house without space. In this house, both the burden of expressing grief and the ability to notice loss is taken from Sethe. However, as the phrase “there was a time” implies, this process of numbness was not immediate. There was a time Sethe would stand at an open window, head cocked in the way a dog’s head tilts when in wait, scanning the road for the boys who had …show more content…
This hopeful woman is a sharp contrast to the numbness portrayed in the Sethe of the narrative present. “Little by little” Sethe has forgotten her boys …show more content…
His life prior to stepping within 124’s walls was one where he was unable to be still, where he shut off the part of him that pondered and instead ran on autopilot, literally ran - from state to state, women to women, life to life, never staying long enough to let his reality register. When he arrives at 124 he takes this disquiet with him, immediately throwing the house into chaos “making room, shifting it, moving it over to someplace else” but this movement, which disturbed the house and whooshed it’s enchantment away, is followed by stillness: Paul D standing in the place he has made, ready to catch Sethe when she
In the introductory line “124 was so full of strong feeling perhaps she was oblivious to the loss of anything at all”, the word “full” provides an image of a house devoid of visitors because anyone who forced their way in would make it overflow - a house without space. In this house, both the burden of expressing grief and the ability to notice loss is taken from Sethe. However, as the phrase “there was a time” implies, this process of numbness was not immediate. There was a time Sethe would stand at an open window, head cocked in the way a dog’s head tilts when in wait, scanning the road for the boys who had …show more content…
This hopeful woman is a sharp contrast to the numbness portrayed in the Sethe of the narrative present. “Little by little” Sethe has forgotten her boys …show more content…
His life prior to stepping within 124’s walls was one where he was unable to be still, where he shut off the part of him that pondered and instead ran on autopilot, literally ran - from state to state, women to women, life to life, never staying long enough to let his reality register. When he arrives at 124 he takes this disquiet with him, immediately throwing the house into chaos “making room, shifting it, moving it over to someplace else” but this movement, which disturbed the house and whooshed it’s enchantment away, is followed by stillness: Paul D standing in the place he has made, ready to catch Sethe when she