African-American Literature

Throughout the novel of Beloved, Morrison's idea of rememory plays a significant role in Sethe's journey of reliving every detail from Sweet Home that she repressed. This is crucial to the development of the story because Morrison chooses to write the novel in an unorthodox way by not starting from the beginning. Since the beginning of the novel is essentially the middle of the storyline, the act of rememory is Morrison's way of letting readers (and other characters) learn about the past events leading up to the present. Morrison further complicates the narration of the story by not only jumping to the past but also to the future. One of the main reasons why rememory is such an important experience to Sethe is because it is her way of remembering everything from her time in Sweet Home that she repressed. The most compelling aspect of Sethe'e rememory is that it makes it seem like we are living in the present with her. The sudden jumping back and forth sometimes makes ...

Of the three books that we have read so far, I think Their Eyes Were Watching God  falls on a different spectrum that Native Son  and Invisible Man  because the focus of the book is different. As we mentioned in class, the emphasis of race is minimal and not a central theme of Their Eyes Were Watching God . While race still plays a role in the novel, especially with the character of Ms. Turner, Hurston's general goal of the novel is to depict love and how it relates to one's identity. I think Hurston's deviation from the "traditional" discussion of race through an African-American main character explains Wright's criticism of the novel. Wright is unable to comprehend that a story can still be good even if it doesn't follow the story of a black man who discovers his identity through learning about his race. This is the main fault in Wright's review of the novel because he only sees it as a superficial love story that has no deeper meaning. If Wright h...