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March 30, 2007
The Forward
When presented with a "Prologue" or "Forward", it is tempting for a reader to skim its contents, or skip it entirely and begin with the "real" story. Readers should avoid this mistake when reading Toni Morrison's Beloved.
When I first starting reading the forward, I was confused, not with what she was saying, but why she was saying it: "There would be no lobby into this house, and there would be no 'introduction' innto it or into the novel. I wanted the reader to be kidnapped, thrown ruthlessly into an alien environment" (XVIII). This suggests to the reader that when the story "starts", they are going to be confused, and this is to make the reader feel like they are in "an alien environment" (XVIII).
If Morrison warns her readers, doesn't that defeat the purpose of confusing them? Apparently not. Even with the warning, I found myself rereading passages many times before I had any idea of what was going on. Without the forward, I would have thought I missed something, or maybe the book was beyond my comprehension. Instead, I realized, strange as it may sound, my confusion will help me better understand the story.
Posted by carliner at March 30, 2007 08:09 PM