A compilation of ideas and questions from the first reading ticket:
What exactly is the connection between the woman Beloved and the Beloved mentioned in connection with the headstone? The tree scar on Sethe’s back/trees in general might be important. Are the supernatural events all imagines? Milk might be a motif. Are references to characters eating others’ eyes significant? What is the purpose of all the nicknames? The tobacco tin metaphor was interesting. Beloved seems to be a foil to Denver. The velvet Amy mentions might be significant. The hens and roosters might be symbolic of the hardships of the past.
And topics of interest from the last discussion:
Details about/the nature of Sweet Home Dynamics of relationships – Sethe, Paul D, Denver, Beloved
Sam said: Wednesday February 27th 2008: Today in class we began our first discussion of Beloved. There was obvious confussion throughout the first part of this novel since Morrison really did not make the first part to to clear. We began with discussing how the house was haunted and what the real significance of what that was. There were a lot of questions of significance, but not many answers. The class had questions about who Paul D and Baby Suggs were and what that represented. Numerous symbols were brought up such as the scars on Sethe's back, the nature elements, and also the roses. Doug brought up the point of perhaps Beloved is just a character trait rather than a real person. Rob was wondering about the behavior as a whole in then beginning of the novel with questions of morality, i.e. sex with cows. Questions of how nature completely parrallels with the characters lives were also of discussion. At the end of the discussion we all said what we wanted to talk about for the next discussion. We will be talking about the different characters as well as symbolism.
March 4 the discussion mainly revolved around the scene with Beloved and Paul D in the shed. Ideas were bought up that Sethe and Paul D only have a physical relationship, but Beloved is able to open the "tobacco tin" in Paul D's heart. It was also brought up that Beloved, if she is the baby, may be trying to make herself more of a physical form rather than a ghostly one. The idea of an "Incubus" was also mentioned in the discussion, and whether the scene was a dream of Paul D's or not. The significance of the phrase "red heart" was also brought up, though no conclusions were really made. There were still a few questions about the scene at the end of the discussion, but it was concluded that we should accept the symbolic logic instead of what would make sense in reality and that we should not necessarily try to make conclusions until later.
For the discussion today, we split it three ways and I took notes specifically during the last ten minutes of our discussion. In these last ten minutes, we posed the question: Will Sethe be able to redeem herself in the end and is this Morrison's purpose in writing the book? Rob suggested Morrison is disproving the positive effects of talk therapy because the main characters are so disturbed when talking about their experiences and remembering them (Sethe and Paul D). When asked if Sethe seems to be better off, most agreed. Consensus seemed to say that Sethe was simply "going through the motions" of life at Sweet Farm and wasn't unhappy, but wasn't quite happy. We reviewed/clarified that Sethe was shunned after she murdered the crawling already? baby and this is why folks stopped coming by 124. It was made clear that Denver stays at home in order to prevent her mom from feeling she needs to kill her to protect her. We left still unsure about the "hot thing," but it was suggested to be a slave ship.
For the March 12th Beloved discussion I committed to blogging about the opening ten minutes of discussion. Initiating the conversation was spurred by the questioning Mrs. Garner and her condition. It was determined that she got sick due to the school teacher giving her some form of horse medication. Then Mr. Garner was brought into discussion, it was decided that his death was either due to a stroke or possibly taking a bullet to the ear although no firm conclusion was formed about either. Next, the conversation moved on to Stamp Paid and general details about him. Through discussion it was discerned that he was an African American that helped the family and numerous others cross the river thus creating many connections with other black families. Moreover he bought his freedom and changed his name to Stamp Paid because he had paid his way out of slavery. Additional conversation was provoked by the topic of ghosts and exactly what they are. General agreement was that they were figures that were unaware that they were dead or hung about due to unfinished business. Lastly school teacher was questioned yet conversation merely brought forth ambiguity upon his role within Sethe's life and his behavior.
On friday, we discussed the second half of part two. We talked about the hot thing maybe being hell,or some sort of passion. then we talked about Sethe possibly being dual personality of Beloved, or a ghost. Paul D could maybe be a foil to Beloved. Then we discussed Stampede. We re visited Sweet Home and found out in detail why Sethe killed her kids, and all of the past of all three Pauls. We talked about Sixo and the thirty mile women. There are still a lot of questions. Though some explitaion of Beloved were explained.
6 comments:
A compilation of ideas and questions from the first reading ticket:
What exactly is the connection between the woman Beloved and the Beloved mentioned in connection with the headstone?
The tree scar on Sethe’s back/trees in general might be important.
Are the supernatural events all imagines?
Milk might be a motif.
Are references to characters eating others’ eyes significant?
What is the purpose of all the nicknames?
The tobacco tin metaphor was interesting.
Beloved seems to be a foil to Denver.
The velvet Amy mentions might be significant.
The hens and roosters might be symbolic of the hardships of the past.
And topics of interest from the last discussion:
Details about/the nature of Sweet Home
Dynamics of relationships – Sethe, Paul D, Denver, Beloved
Sam said:
Wednesday February 27th 2008: Today in class we began our first discussion of Beloved. There was obvious confussion throughout the first part of this novel since Morrison really did not make the first part to to clear. We began with discussing how the house was haunted and what the real significance of what that was. There were a lot of questions of significance, but not many answers. The class had questions about who Paul D and Baby Suggs were and what that represented. Numerous symbols were brought up such as the scars on Sethe's back, the nature elements, and also the roses. Doug brought up the point of perhaps Beloved is just a character trait rather than a real person. Rob was wondering about the behavior as a whole in then beginning of the novel with questions of morality, i.e. sex with cows. Questions of how nature completely parrallels with the characters lives were also of discussion. At the end of the discussion we all said what we wanted to talk about for the next discussion. We will be talking about the different characters as well as symbolism.
March 4 the discussion mainly revolved around the scene with Beloved and Paul D in the shed. Ideas were bought up that Sethe and Paul D only have a physical relationship, but Beloved is able to open the "tobacco tin" in Paul D's heart. It was also brought up that Beloved, if she is the baby, may be trying to make herself more of a physical form rather than a ghostly one. The idea of an "Incubus" was also mentioned in the discussion, and whether the scene was a dream of Paul D's or not. The significance of the phrase "red heart" was also brought up, though no conclusions were really made. There were still a few questions about the scene at the end of the discussion, but it was concluded that we should accept the symbolic logic instead of what would make sense in reality and that we should not necessarily try to make conclusions until later.
For the discussion today, we split it three ways and I took notes specifically during the last ten minutes of our discussion. In these last ten minutes, we posed the question: Will Sethe be able to redeem herself in the end and is this Morrison's purpose in writing the book? Rob suggested Morrison is disproving the positive effects of talk therapy because the main characters are so disturbed when talking about their experiences and remembering them (Sethe and Paul D). When asked if Sethe seems to be better off, most agreed. Consensus seemed to say that Sethe was simply "going through the motions" of life at Sweet Farm and wasn't unhappy, but wasn't quite happy. We reviewed/clarified that Sethe was shunned after she murdered the crawling already? baby and this is why folks stopped coming by 124. It was made clear that Denver stays at home in order to prevent her mom from feeling she needs to kill her to protect her. We left still unsure about the "hot thing," but it was suggested to be a slave ship.
For the March 12th Beloved discussion I committed to blogging about the opening ten minutes of discussion. Initiating the conversation was spurred by the questioning Mrs. Garner and her condition. It was determined that she got sick due to the school teacher giving her some form of horse medication. Then Mr. Garner was brought into discussion, it was decided that his death was either due to a stroke or possibly taking a bullet to the ear although no firm conclusion was formed about either. Next, the conversation moved on to Stamp Paid and general details about him. Through discussion it was discerned that he was an African American that helped the family and numerous others cross the river thus creating many connections with other black families. Moreover he bought his freedom and changed his name to Stamp Paid because he had paid his way out of slavery. Additional conversation was provoked by the topic of ghosts and exactly what they are. General agreement was that they were figures that were unaware that they were dead or hung about due to unfinished business. Lastly school teacher was questioned yet conversation merely brought forth ambiguity upon his role within Sethe's life and his behavior.
On friday, we discussed the second half of part two. We talked about the hot thing maybe being hell,or some sort of passion. then we talked about Sethe possibly being dual personality of Beloved, or a ghost. Paul D could maybe be a foil to Beloved. Then we discussed Stampede. We re visited Sweet Home and found out in detail why Sethe killed her kids, and all of the past of all three Pauls. We talked about Sixo and the thirty mile women. There are still a lot of questions. Though some explitaion of Beloved were explained.
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