Focus: Analyzing the climax, resolution, and structure of Beloved
1. Announcements! Return timed writings (2 sets) and collect metacognitive writings
2. Warm-up: Revisiting the first and final page of Beloved
a. How do the first pages set up all of the novel's central tensions/problems?
b. How do the final pages respond to/resolve these tensions/problems?
3. Final Socratic seminar: The ending of Beloved
HW: Compose your big question entry for Beloved.
Metaphorical Babies
ReplyDelete• Stream footprints come and go. A story not to pass on. Why would Morrison say that?
• Memory vs Rememory – characters have to shut it away, all handled Beloved differently, but in the end had to shut her away
• This is not a story to pass on
• Slavery memories still a struggle
• Beloved never seemed all the way real
• People forgot her because she was not really there, more Sethe’s imagination
• Passing on – or dying
• Don’t let story die it should be remembered
• Conclusion good, then last 2 pages ignoring the past and moving on in a way that seemed unsettling
• It is ok to forget because the characters lived it and now it is time for tomorrow
• What is it that allows Paul D to come back and for Sethe to heal?
• Denver going into community, no more isolation
• In community people comparing her to Baby Suggs, not Sethe, turns out they feel bad for Denver
• Why does Beloved leave after the women come to sing and pray?
• Somewhat anticlimactic
Past keeps Beloved alive, present drives her away
• Sethe easily lets go of Beloved’s hand
• Tries to stab Mr. Bodwin
• End of isolation
• Painful to relive past
• Strength of community coming together to move forward
• Gives Sethe strength, forgiveness
• What is Beloved Pregnant with?
• Sethe’s spirit
• Bloated with power
• Paul D’s baby
• Naked pregnant woman = vulnerable
• Belly is breaking her from Sethe
• Comes out of water in clothing, disappears naked
• What is Beloved?
• All stories fit, not just Sethe’s, it is everyone’s struggle with the past
• Need community to move on
• Slaveship, womb, spirit
• 30 women at 3 in the afternoon.
• Denver is now accepting of Paul D and her father
• Sethe is not a whole person without her past
• Will problems go away with Beloved gone?
• Door closing
• We are haunted by a past and we have to face it, message to reader
• Hard to come to resolutions, but we have to accept something