1. Warming up with Morrison's dedication and our old friend, Foster:
"If we only understand Beloved on the surface level, Sethe's act of killing her daughter becomes so repugnant that sympathy for her is nearly impossible. If we lived next to her, for instance, one of us would have to move. But her action carries symbolic significance; we understand it not only as the literal action of a single, momentarily deranged woman but as an action that speaks for the experience of a face at a certain horrific moment in history, as a gesture explained by whip scars on her back that take the form of a tree, as the product of the sort of terrible choice that only characters in our great mythic stories--a Jocasta, a Dido, a Medea--are driven to make. Sethe isn't a mere woman next door but a mythic creature, one of the great tragic heroines." (Foster 91)
Take a look at the shifts in point of view in Chapters 16, 17 and 18.
- How would you describe the point of view(s) in each chapter?
- Why do you think Morrison structures it this way? What's the purpose of each chapter?
- Other ways of thinking about the above question: Why not just tell the story from Sethe's point of view? How is the story being filtered?
- How does the point of view affect the way you perceive Sethe? Does your perception shift throughout these chapters? Do you agree with Foster that Sethe comes across as a great tragic heroine?
2. Engaging in a Socratic seminar on Beloved, Chapters 13-18
3. Wrapping up with questions, epiphanies and kudos
HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Select your poem from the metacognitive. If you type, you will need to paste the poem and author at the top of your Google doc; if you handwrite, you will need to staple your poem to the front of your metacognitive.
2. For MONDAY: Please finish your metacognitive if you did not finish in class.
3. For TUESDAY: Read the first two chapters of Part 2 in Beloved and prepare for Socratic with a reading ticket.
3. Wrapping up with questions, epiphanies and kudos
HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Select your poem from the metacognitive. If you type, you will need to paste the poem and author at the top of your Google doc; if you handwrite, you will need to staple your poem to the front of your metacognitive.
2. For MONDAY: Please finish your metacognitive if you did not finish in class.
3. For TUESDAY: Read the first two chapters of Part 2 in Beloved and prepare for Socratic with a reading ticket.
Thanks, Kai, for scribing! Here are the first half of the notes:
ReplyDeleteWhen Beloved is in the shed and she mentions the darkness being her own face (in chapter 12), how does this relate back to her own death in the shed?
-She is seeing the young version of herself kind of tucked away in a coffin of darkness, as well as seeing something that Denver isn’t
-It’s the exact spot she died in in the shed
What did Paul D. mean when he mentioned the “young woman that stole his manhood” (pg 149)? Was it a reference to Beloved? It was happening when he was going to talk to Sethe, so why did this one girl bother him enough to go talk to Sethe?
-It was Beloved, that’s why he was weirded out. You can’t put a lock on Beloved because her character is super ambiguous and not fully human
-The part where he said Red Heart a bunch, makes it seem like they have had a past at one point.
When Beloved saw someone in the dark, two questions were asked- what do you see, who’s face?
-Did she actually see Sethe rather than herself, especially considering how much Beloved pays attention to Sethe’s face
-It possibly had something to do with the fact that Sethe killed her out of love and not wanting Beloved to go through the horrors that Sethe herself went through.
-Beloved was to young to understand why Sethe did what she did when Beloved was killed,
-The opposite idea: when Beloved lost a tooth, it was described as a small white tooth, and a slave girl wouldn’t have teeth like that. Maybe Beloved coming back was her way of giving Sethe closure and peace and her own way of saying that she understands what Sethe does and she forgives her.
-But the idea that Beloved sleeps with Paul D. and the way she continuously takes from Sethe and has such an infatuation with her doesn’t seem like it is possible for Beloved to have any goodness about her
-When you loose a tooth in a dream it usually shows that you feel like youre loosing control in life in general, so by Beloved loosing her tooth, she is loosing control over Sethe and everything that is happening
-By losing a tooth, it seems like Morrison is trying to get us to have a little bit of sympathy for Beloved and make her seem like there isn’t all that much wrong with her. This goes along with the way Sethe was protrayed as borderline demonic after killing Beloved. But this could also be a trick?
-Beloved was crawling around really quickly, trying to run around and go up the stairs super fast, she had a lot of life to offer, and when Sethe came in and killed her she took that all away. This might be part of the reason why Beloved came back is so she could experience life again.
What is Beloved, how are you interrupting her?
-Fosters chapter on vampirism ties back to Beloved loosing a tooth. Beloved in a way is a vampire and she is feeding from some unknown source. What is the source of Beloved’s “power”?
-Sethe’s attention is her power. She starts acting really weird when Sethe isn’t always giving her attention.
That should have read, "Here IS the first half," not "here are." Sorry! Anyways, here is the second half of the notes:
ReplyDelete-Sethe was the one who wronged and killed her, yet Beloved still craves her attention. The motif of love and hate through her family and the lack of hate is really interesting. She wants to be loved by Sethe. But there is a spiteful force with her.
-Sethe is willingly feeding her, so what is the affect on Sethe?
-Beloved is coming in the form of a human so everyone is a lot more comfortable with her. The ghost was scary, the person is a lot easier to be around
-Beloved wants to be united with her mother, but she is unsure if she wants it to be in life or death.
-Beloved’s most direct want is to be loved, but because of her immaturity and childishness makes it seem like she genuinely wants more of an eye for an eye situation.
-Why is there so much emphasis on Beloved when there are two run away children? Along with that, why was Beloved the one that she killed first rather than the other boys that were already a bit older?
-Both boys were lying on the ground bleeding, and Sethe killed Beloved, she was also holding the infant by the ankles and holding him against the wall. Stamp was the one that saved Denver.
-Beloved is the one that died. The two boys still lived and still had the CHOICE of living. Beloved is coming back because she was the only one that had the choice completely taken away from them. Did the boys actually understand what happened to them?
-Denver later talks about being scared of Sethe and is worried about her changing her mind.
-Sethe trying to protect her family really just tore the family apart.
-Beloved is a reincarnation of herself as a baby, but this form is fleeting/fading
Paul D. very much thinks about loving things in small ways, where as Sethe talks about love as a go big or go home type thing. Why does he tell Sethe that she had 2 feet not 4?
-Connects back to humanity vs. being a beast/animal/monster.
-What Sethe did is really barbaric, and in her acting like that proves that she deserves to be treated like an animal.
-Paul D. talks about sleeping with cows at some point, then he finds out Sethe acted so animalistic, and now he feels like she doesn’t deserve he respect that he has been trying to give
-Just because she was treated like an animal doesn’t mean that she actually is an animal.
-Morrison is trying to figure out how to make us look at Sethe, because the perspective is all very different
-Sethe was charged of distruction of property not murder.
Wrap Up:
-Following the motif of circles. Circles came up a lot during these chapters. What is the midpoint of the circle? Beloved is possibly the center of the circle
-The motif of slaughter, the slaughterhouse, animals, animalistic tendencies, the way Seth treated her own children, the four horsemen and their hunt, then Sethe finishes the hunt for them
-What is the purpose of the name Garner? Maybe Morrison was trying to show the idea of property and this story is Garner’s property
-Biblical references, and the references of three tied back to the holy trinity.
-Is Sethe justified killing Beloved?