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April 17, 2007
Beloved
I was wondering what people thought of the fact that the chapter that starts on page 242 contained many different voice changes and the really long paragraphs. This writing style had a very creepy feel. Even the opening paragraph starts off with a very disturbing tone when Denver says, "Beloved is my sister. I swallowed her blood right along with my mother's milk" (242). I tried to think of reasons why Toni Morrison would add this literary style to her story. I think maybe it would be to give the impression of an unstable mental state, maybe the same sort of unstable mental state that Sethe had when she started killing her children. The whole event reminds me of those women you hear about that kill their children "in order to save them," when the women are really suffering from postpardom depression. This may be insightful as to why Sethe felt this way, although it could just be a moment of pure insanity that was brought on by the stress of slavery. Sadly, there was a parallel of this in real life today in the instance of the shootings at Virginia Tech. Why does anyone have the ability to kill others? Was this college student triggered by the stresses in his life until he finally snapped into a moment of pure insanity, or was he suffering from some sort of mental problem? These issues of the story as well as in life are a cause for debate. It's always nice to hear other people's points of view, so feel free to comment. I'd love to hear other opinions.
Posted by hlfish at April 17, 2007 12:58 AM