« Kindred | Main | Is Sethe a murderer? »
April 02, 2007
Sethe's Time
I found Sethe's take on time to be very interesting. I apologize for the long quotation, but I feel the entire philosophy is important. Sethe explains:
I was talking about time. It's so hard for me to believe in it. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place--the picture of it--stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don't think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place of where it happened (43).
This concept of time is very interesting to me. She speaks of time almost as if it was a religion. You either are a believer or a non-believer. But even if you don't believe, you are still encompassed by it. Time lingers on in the form of memories and pictures, although physical evidence may be gone. It is something in which Sethe must stay away. She talks about her beliefs on experiencing rememories and time being the reason she killed off her children (seemed kind of crazy to me). However, I am having trouble understanding her theory. It seems like memories, although a possession, are something that need to be closely guarded (according to Sethe). I can understand her disdain in returning to the past, but why does she protect others so much? They have not gone through the same experiences she did. If she is so guarded about the past, why does she open up to beloved?
Posted by dlalonde at April 2, 2007 11:23 PM