And This is My Beloved

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script type="text/javascript" src="http://hb.lycos.com/hb.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ratings.lycos.com/ratings/lycosRating.js.php"></script> <script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[//><!]]></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://scripts.lycos.com/catman/init.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-start.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-middle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-end.js"></script> <noscript> <img src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/img/common/ot_noscript.gif?rand=531937" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  <iframe frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" width="728" height="90" src="http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90&section=209094"></iframe>  </noscript> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="06c085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>The David Kaye Web Site</b></FONT><B>    </b><B> |     </b><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The David Kaye Web Site"><U><B>home</b></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Backstreet Boys"><U>Backstreet Boys</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Closet"><U>The Closet</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cobbler"><U>Cobbler</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Descartes Contributions to Contemporary "><U>Descartes' Contributions to Contemporary Mathematics</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eoanthropus dawsonii"><U>Eoanthropus dawsonii</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gays in the Military"><U>Gays in the Military</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Gonads of Leibniz"><U>The Gonads of Leibniz</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gooey Eyes"><U>Gooey Eyes</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Nice Try"><U>A Nice Try</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Old Things"><U>Old Things</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Person"><U>Person</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Positive/Negative"><U>Positive/Negative</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Sermon on Masturbation"><U>A Sermon on Masturbation</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Stratfords 1999 West Side Story"><U>Stratford's 1999 West Side Story</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Sysiphean Predicament"><U>The Sysiphean Predicament</U></A>   |   <B>And This is My Beloved</b>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What Would Jesus Do?"><U>What Would Jesus Do?</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Womens Fashions"><U>Women's Fashions</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="06dd2e83.jpg"> <div> David Aaron Kaye</div> <div> August 23, 1999</div> <div> Introduction to African American Literature</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:dakaye@yahoo.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:dakaye@yahoo.com"><U>dakaye@yahoo.com</U></A></div> <div> Sean Christian</div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>And This is My Beloved</I></div> <div> Judging by the ratings of movie critics and its lack of success in the box office, the 1998 film <I>Beloved</I> was a complete flop.<I> Beloved</I> is based on the novel of the same name by Toni Morrison and stars Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. The movie is a potent piece of African-American literature and proves to be far too complex for the average theatre-goer to appreciate. However, the richness of the symbolism the story uses and the inclusion of the surreal character Beloved demonstrates why Toni Morrison received the Nobel Prize in Literature. </div> <bR> <div> The story starts on the outskirts of Cincinnati in 1865, when the kitchen of a black woman, Sethe, a former slave, is ravaged by a ghost, injuring a dog and driving away her two sons. Eight years later, a man named Paul D, also a slave on her old plantation, visits her. Much to the discontent of her daughter, Denver, Sethe takes Paul D in as a lover. Upon arriving back from a fair, the three meet a young woman, unconscious and covered in bugs, on their front lawn. They take the woman in, and though they find that her motor and social skills are very poor, she tells them that her name is Beloved. </div> <bR> <div> Beloved takes to sleeping a lot and wetting her bed. She gradually becames more and more capable both physically and mentally, although she commonly throws violent temper tantrums. She seems to be tormented whenever Sethe and Paul D have sex. While Denver comes to appreciate Beloved, both she and Paul D have a sense that Beloved is destroying the lives of Sethe, Paul D, and Denver. Beloved manipulates Paul D into having sex with her, and unknowingly becomes pregnant. Paul D can no longer take living with Beloved and seeing what she is doing to Sethe, moves out. </div> <bR> <div> Sethe figures out that Beloved is actually the resurrection of the daughter she killed in order to keep her from becoming a slave. With this knowledge, she disregards her job and decides to spend all her saved money on a celebration of Beloved's return. Since Beloved is pregnant, she craves sweets and throws a destructive temper tantrum when she finds that there are none. </div> <bR> <div> Denver decides to get a job in the city and confesses to a coworker about Beloved. Beloved is far along in her pregnancy, and Sethe has become insane. Women from the city come to the house to pray for Sethe. She and the naked Beloved come to the porch. Sethe leaves Beloved alone on the porch during all the chaos in order to chase away a man she hallucinates is her old slave master, and Beloved vanishes. </div> <bR> <div> After seeing this movie twice, I am still trying to understand everything. While the story takes place within an African American Reconstructionist context, the conventions used go far beyond that. </div> <bR> <div> Symbols abound in <I>Beloved</I>. Beloved emerges from a swamp and is found covered in bugs. I believe this represent the womb, and the bugs represent the afterbirth. She is finely dressed. This represents that Beloved was without flaws upon leaving the womb. Upon discovering Beloved, Sethe has to urinate very badly. This represents the water breaking. Paul D and Beloved have sex in a shed in which there is a spring. The flowing of the water represents life and fertility, and hence foreshadows Beloved's pregnancy. </div> <bR> <div> When I discussed <I>Beloved</I> with a friend, we entertained the question "Was Beloved evil?" Beloved seemed very intent on breaking up the family, and indeed she had that effect. She also was very violent and destroyed most everything in the house. She was extremely demanding and seemed to have no sense that she was causing Sethe to become insane. On the other hand, since she had the mental age of a small child, she was simply acting as small children do. The violent temper-tantrums were only more violent because Beloved was larger and stronger. Also, as small children do, she seems only concerned with herself. </div> <bR> <div> Throughout all this, there was one character who consoled all. While Baby Sooks, an old woman who died seven years earlier, was not present, her highly nurturing and grandmother like personality left them all with an ability to nurture themselves. Denver had gone so far as to hallucinate about Baby Sooks comforting her and giving her guidance. </div> <bR> <div> There are two obvious themes that run throughout. A violent ghost haunts the house, but Sethe refuses to leave. Her experience of running away from her childhood home, a plantation known as Sweet Home, brings about a strong desire never to run away from anything again. Since her house is far from others, and few visitors wish to deal with the ghost, Setha becomes somewhat antisocial. The other theme is the complete opposite. Denver grew up in a house that drives everyone away. She longs for affiliation with others. She is desperate to leave the house. </div> <bR> <div> Tony Morrison does not use time linearly. She starts the story in 1865, jumps to 1873, and continues to jump in between 1873 and 1855, the time of Beloved's death. The film ends in 1855 with Baby Sooks giving a sermon in a forest. Her discontinuation of time strengthens the story's surreal effect. </div> <div> African American Literature consists of art forms that depict the emotions and/or experiences of black people in the United States. This includes poetry, novels, novellas, sermons, folk-tales, music, dance, paintings, fashion, sculptures, architecture, and film. African American Literature does not have to be created by an African American, but must use African American themes in an artistic manner. </div> <bR> <div> Any attempt to review Toni Morrison's <I>Beloved</I> in four pages is doomed to only shallow interpretations. However, Morrison's literary genius and appreciation for African American experiences is well portrayed in postmodern style. Indeed, she will be read for generations to come. </div> </td> </tr></table></body>