Importance of Rememory in Beloved
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 it difficult for us readers to even immediately realize that we are taken into a different time of the character's life. The frequency of rememory also makes it more complicated because even the little things triggers a character's rememory, such as how Paul D's rememory of Sixo was triggered by not being able to light a fire.
Sethe's rememory also helps act as a bridge between her past and her future. An example of this is when she goes to the carnival with Paul D and Denver. While walking to the carnival, Sethe observes how "the shadows that shot out of their feet to the left held hands" and "on the way home, though leading them now, the shadows of three people still held hands." (57, 59) In this description, Sethe sees a transition from her past to her future, from being a follower to one that leads Paul D and Denver. Rather than scaring away from her memories and her past, Sethe chooses to lean in towards the future with Denver and Paul D.
The constant bombarding of memories that Sethe feels is partly what causes Sethe to murder Beloved as a baby. Remembering and reliving her gruesome slavery experiences in Sweet Home ignites a feeling of fear within Sethe - fear that her children will go through the same thing. Remembering this past and wanting to protect her children from feeling what she felt is what pushes Sethe to go to the extreme. She believes that the only way to protect her children is so make sure they never have to experience slavery and the only way to make sure of that is if they aren't even alive. When Sethe says "That's how come I had to get all my children out," she is referring to her rememories of slavery and the abuse she dealt with under the schoolteacher with the word "that's".
When Beloved came back later in the novel, I connected this back to rememory because it reminded me of when Sethe explained how rememory can't be destroyed. Sethe explains how when a house burns down, the picture of the place stays not only in her rememory but also out in the world. This definition of rememory is somewhat fitting for Beloved's character because she was never really gone. After Sethe killed her as a baby, she became a ghost that wandered around 124 until she finally manifested back to life. Since the rememory her Sweet Home is what pushed Sethe into killing Beloved and that memory will never be gone, it seemed fitting that Beloved was also never really gone.
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 it difficult for us readers to even immediately realize that we are taken into a different time of the character's life. The frequency of rememory also makes it more complicated because even the little things triggers a character's rememory, such as how Paul D's rememory of Sixo was triggered by not being able to light a fire.
Sethe's rememory also helps act as a bridge between her past and her future. An example of this is when she goes to the carnival with Paul D and Denver. While walking to the carnival, Sethe observes how "the shadows that shot out of their feet to the left held hands" and "on the way home, though leading them now, the shadows of three people still held hands." (57, 59) In this description, Sethe sees a transition from her past to her future, from being a follower to one that leads Paul D and Denver. Rather than scaring away from her memories and her past, Sethe chooses to lean in towards the future with Denver and Paul D.
The constant bombarding of memories that Sethe feels is partly what causes Sethe to murder Beloved as a baby. Remembering and reliving her gruesome slavery experiences in Sweet Home ignites a feeling of fear within Sethe - fear that her children will go through the same thing. Remembering this past and wanting to protect her children from feeling what she felt is what pushes Sethe to go to the extreme. She believes that the only way to protect her children is so make sure they never have to experience slavery and the only way to make sure of that is if they aren't even alive. When Sethe says "That's how come I had to get all my children out," she is referring to her rememories of slavery and the abuse she dealt with under the schoolteacher with the word "that's".
When Beloved came back later in the novel, I connected this back to rememory because it reminded me of when Sethe explained how rememory can't be destroyed. Sethe explains how when a house burns down, the picture of the place stays not only in her rememory but also out in the world. This definition of rememory is somewhat fitting for Beloved's character because she was never really gone. After Sethe killed her as a baby, she became a ghost that wandered around 124 until she finally manifested back to life. Since the rememory her Sweet Home is what pushed Sethe into killing Beloved and that memory will never be gone, it seemed fitting that Beloved was also never really gone.
Remomory is one of the most important themes of the book, but we dont hear as much rememory from Sethe of the unfortunate day. I would expect somehting as traumatic as a death to come back in someone's mind. I like the idea you bring up of rememory driving Sethe to the murder. I suppose I'm just wondering how that event effected Sethe's rememory.
ReplyDeleteI think rememory is a wonderful concept to have in 2019. Now that we've learned about it, i keep seeing it pop up in different contexts. Slavery repercussions to politics, slurs, etc. in 2019
ReplyDeleteRememory is Beloved and Beloved is rememory. I think the single most crucial take away from this novel is the persistience of the past into the present. Sethe can never seem to escape the haunting of her past, and others like Paul D similarly can't let go. Beloved herself is a physical manifestation of memory.
ReplyDeleteOne thing in the back of my mind when reading Beloved, was how it applies to the real world. I think that rememory is a perfect example of how the aftereffects of slavery can linger in the minds of Sethe and the other characters, despite being free. I think its important to realize how slavery didn't really end after the slaves were free; it took generations for the horrors of slavery to be diluted.
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