[1]

• Zach Korman
• Ben Randol
• Lexi Reck

A key aspect of this particular paragraph is embodied in the passage, "The future was sunset; the past was something to leave behind. And if it didn't stay behind, well, you might have to stomp it out."(256) An issue in these lines, and similarly throughout the novel, is the question of whether or not it is ever possible to move past tragedy or horror into a 'sunset'-the descending course of life. In this paragraph, Ella adamantly declares that the realms of the past and present are two that must be maintained as distinct. In her eyes, grappling with the horros of the past merely serves as a hindrance in a world where even the future holds uncertainty and the possibility for more upheaval. In the case of Sethe hersewlf, the ramifications of her past were too powerful to be reconciled in this manner. The reality lies with the fact that the manipulation of memory is not necessarily a matter of choice, but rather a permanent component of the individual which may either serve as an obstacle or a motivation for action.

"My terible traumatic memories will never leave me. Everything is still very much alive in me."(testimony of Judith Jaegermann-http://remember.org/witness/jaegermann.html) In terms of many Holocaust surviviors, the specter of the past remains perfectly intact after 50 years. "Do I want to remember?..No, I don't want to remember, but I can never forget...I have to remember"(http://remember. org/witness/kimel2.html) Likewise, Alexander Kimel recognized that although the past may never be abandoned, it must serve as a haunting symbol that future generations must avoid at all costs. The notion of a linear progression through the course of one's life is ultimately forfeited by an event of this magnitude. "But her brain was not interested in the future. Loaded with the past and hungry for more, it left her no room to imagine, let alone plan for, the next day."(70) In the life of Sethe, the past of Beloved becomes the present/future, where it must be recognized for the sake of her own life.

Morrison forms the past in the shape of Beloved, a figure bloated and pregnant with history and "rememories" Beloved enters Sethe's world to haunt her, to propel her, to force her to ressurect those memories she stores in the recesses of her heart and mind. Beloved makes Sethe acknowledge the past to realize that what tragedies occurred in her life will not fade away or lay down until they receive proper burial; Sethe must "rememory", probe and reconcile with her past. Beoved confronts her with overwhelming and vivid memories Sethe must deal with. Sethe becomes consumed by them, for Beloved is swallowing her whole. As Beloved grows, Sethe slowly dies. Until Beloved is harnessed, Sethe will dwindle under her power. Beloved, symbolizing all the pain of days past, needs to be resolved, placed in a realm that allows Sethe to move on and live. Her past cannot go on haunting her forever.

A great deal of Beloved involves possession and the role of memory. Morrison writes on page 256 that "Ella didn't like the idea of past errors taking possession of the present." This sentence raises the following question: can you remember the past without its taking "possession" of you -- indeed inflicting pain on you? Perhaps more fundamentally, are we a product of our experiences/actions, painful though they may be? If the human brain can purge itself of past experiences, then this question would be resolved. It is obvious that certain experiences are so insignificant that they remain isolated and forgotten. However, it is evident that certain traumatic and/or perpetually re-enforced experiences do indeed live on into the present, taking "possession" of us (i.e. influencing the way we think/act). Like ghosts, these experiences/actions haunt us daily. Victims of slavery and of the Holocost were and, in some cases, are possessed by the past (as Sethe so clearly is). Coping with past demons remains an important personal/human delemma in real life, as in Beloved.

[2]

• Patrick Ball
• Cleveland Lawrence III

This passage clearly illuminates upon the recurring theme of visual imagery bringing the pain of past, buried experiences to ones current conscioussness, and perhaps providing a better understanding of those experiences or allowing a coming to grips with the horrors of the past. The "thouhght pictures" that Sethe talks about clearly bring back the painful "rememories" of the experiences of her past - for her, despite the fact that she is hundreds of miles north from where they occured, the$ place will always be " real". A major portion of the novel deals with her, as well as characters such as Paul D and even Baby Suggs, deals with the characters coming to grips with these experiences, accepting and recognizing them in their consciousness, and moving forward. A number of the Nagasaki accounts deal with the same idea of visual imagery bringing the "realness" of the past tragedy to light and how the survivors have dealt with it and moved forward in their lives.

One such account reads:

8/25/95
So many older Americans have a sense of shame about the Bomb, even though only a few men, now dead, participated in the decision to pursue this course.

Katherine Wilkins, 35, librarian/archivist

Of course, Katherine was not alive at the time of this event, but yet, she still feels the effects of it. This is a manifestation of what is being said when Sethe says: "The picture is still there and what's more, if you go there--you who was never there--if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again." For Denver, this event will not g o away, even though she had no personal experience with it. For the historical place, the event will always be an element of history.

This seems to be the experience behind this account:

7/31/95
My name is Amy Hashimoto and I am a 25 year old neisei. I grew up in the U.S. but lived in Japan for a summer in 1989. One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Park. I had read up on the atomic bomb and its effects on the people of Hiroshima before I went. The most touching and memorable exhibit was the drawings made by the Hiroshima victims, depicting the events after the bombing. Most were simplistic, but all were very horrifying to me. Having visited other museums, such as the Holocaust Museum in D.C., I think that the most memorable exhibits are include commentaries from the victims. What struck me as particularly sad about the Peace Park was the indifference of some of the visitors. It concerned me that children could not understand the suffering that had occurred, and the very possibility of such an event occurring again.

In conclusion, the point that Sethe is making in the passage is that memories, which become rememories, will never go away. She says, that "nothing ever dies", because the historical places remain,as well as the visual pictures that are related to others. The bitter sweetness of memories is that althoughthey help to guard against the physical events happening again, they happen again for both the person with the memory, and the person who has the rememory.

[3]

• Grace Slattery
• John McGowan
• Meghan Cunningham

As Denver tells of her fear of the memories and rememories, she is also speaking of her need and desire to know what those memories truely do hold.She reveals her need for Sethe to speak the unspeakable horror of her past when Denver says, "I don't know what it is, I don't know who it is, but maybe there is something else terrible enough to make her do it again. I need to know what that thing might be, but I don't want to." Denver is revealing her need to understand the events of Sethe's life that have had such an impact on Denver's own life. Sethe has to understand that the effects of her past are not limited to her life, but also define much of who Denver is. Denver therefore feels a strong need to understand this past. It is not enough for her to know the objective facts of the past, she has got to go beyond that to understanding. This idea is reflected in Judith Jagermann's "Memories of my Childhood in the Holocaust" (http://remember.org/witness/jagermann.html). Ms. Jagerman describes her Holocaust experiences with amazingly accurate detail. However, despite her excellent memory of the events, she does not now and did not then understand the reasons for the Holocaust. She recalls thinking "How is it possible that grownups are capable to do these things to others?". Where is Justice and why do we deserve this?" Both this Holocaust memory and Denver's plea show us the need to speak the unspeakable. But, when this dialogue does occur it cannot be a simple recounting. It has to be aimed at understanding.

One of the most interesting things about Denver is that she is much like the reader. She does not know the whole truth, as Sethe does, and just as the reader discovers more about the past as time goes on, so does Denver. It is through her eyes that one sees how the past is told, how those who did not live it find out what happened, and how both knowledge and ignorance influence the present.

Part of the past is known to Denver, and that knowledge scares her into doing certain things. "All the time I'm afraid that thing that happened that made it all right for my mother to kill my sister could happen again. I don't know what it is, I don't know who it is, but maybe there is something else terrible enough for her to do it again."(p.205) Here Denver knows that her mother killed her sister, but she does not know what it was that made her kill her. Over the years Denver has heard bits of the truth, but it was so horrific, that no one ever sat down and told her the whole story. This is a common theme in much of the holocaust literature. Events so terrible that those who experienced them may talk amongst themselves, but the stories are past on only in bits and pieces to younger generations. In the following piece Ann Levy, who's interview is on the Louisiana Holocaust Survivors Website, describes both her experience of hearing stories from her parents and also in telling the stories to her children.

AL
(laugh) For a long time, I think we found that with our parents, the older survivors, they had really hard time talking about it even to their children so we lived for the last thirty years of so, we lived really in silence, you know, and whatever we may overheard the adults speaking among themselves is what the kids would pick up. You want me to hold it?

PR
No, actually, but I see a problem developing with this hand.

AL
Oh, OK. But, ah, so you know they never discussed it with the children. So it was just bits and pieces that the kids would pick up, as youngsters at home but with myself there was a lot that I remembered, I didn't have to be told because I was old enough to remember so and yet it wasn't something that we discussed or we talked about or once and a while. And I guess I did the same thing with my children, really didn't go into detail, I didn't sit them down and say let me tell you a story of you know how it was. It was I guess by drips and draps. It came out.

[4]

• Virginia
• Mike
• Patrick

In this passage, Morrison touches upon the concepts of memory and remomroy relating them to the repression so ften found in victims of horrible events and tragedy. In the moments before Sethe touches Paul D's knee, he relates some of the most painful memories he has of Sweet Home to her. Unable to take in all that she is hearing, Sethe stops his narration with the slow methodical movements that characterize her methodical repression of the painful past. Both Sethe and Paul D work to keep the past tucked away inside the "tabacco tin" inside them where the personal pain of the past resides. They both believe in the concept of "remomory" and fear that confronting the past "might push them both to a place they couldn't get back from." Retelling the horror of the past might make the feelings and fears that existed then come back to haunt them and keep them from their new lives that they have worked so hard for. Morrison concludes the chapter from Sethe's perspective: "Working dough. Working, working dough. Nothing better than that to start that day's serious work of beating back the past." Sethe fears the things that reside within her memory for she fears the rememories that might surface and destroy the calm she has found. However, this passage marks the end of the first significant step away from repression of memory. It marks the first discussion of the past that might lead to healing by spreading the pain and sharing the story with others who lived through the event, making it less dangerous and more relevant to the entire community.

The relationship between storytelling and desire is an important theme in Beloved. Storytelling serves an important function as a way to communicate communal memory. As such, it becomes a communal experience, in which the role of the listener is as significant as that of the teller. Our passage clearly illustrates this, as Sethe uses her authority as a listener to block the telling of Paul D's story. As Paul D thinks to himself after Sethe places her hand on his knee to silence him, "Just as well. Just as well. Saying more might push them both to a place they couldn't get back from." (p. 72)Paul D questions his ability to face the past which he has locked up in his heart, and certainly Sethe does not desire to hear what Paul D has to say. When memory is the property of the whole community, the community must consent to the act of remembering. The desire to remember can only come when both the teller of and the listener to the past feel prepared to face it. Sethe chooses to continue, "beating back the past," (p. 73) which makes the process of communal remembering unwanted. The story of Ann Levy's family silence shows that this phenomenon is not limited to victims of slavery, but is common to all communities that suffer unspeakable horrors.

The passage which begins on the bottom of p. 72 and continues to the end of the chapter illustrates the typical psychological response to a horrifying event: repression. Paul D has quite simply taken the terrible experience of the bit and locked in "that tobacco tin buried in his chest." The memory of the bit and the rooster, and by extension Paul's entire slave experience, is too much for him to bear. In order to survive it, he has had to harden himself- to the memory, and to life in general. Paul has cut himself off from the pain of emotion, from the risk of hope, and as a result, "no red heart bright as Mister's comb" beats in him. However, in the presence of Sethe, who shared much of Paul's experience, he is able to relase some of his repressed feelings and memories. Of course, this process of remembering is slow and fraught with psychological peril. If Paul and Sethe take it too fast, if the floodgates of the past are unchecked and everything rushes out in a uncontrollable wave, a mental breakdown could be the result. They could very well end up in "a place they couldn't get back from." Too much pain can do that, even to the strongest of people. In the same way the novel takes a cautious and indirect approach to remembering the central atrocity of Beloved's murder, and the various atrocites inflicted upon the Sweet Home group, so too do Sethe and Paul approach thier own memories. Even the most tightly rusted tobacco tin and the largest mass of unworked dough can't beat back the past forever.

[5]

• Tyler Moynihan
• Mary Ferguson
• Judd Spray
• Nicole Bostick

One theme from the memory section sources addresses the notion of the "insurmountable guilt" that holocaust survivors experience. It seems there are two types of guilt in "Beloved." There are those who experience guilt as a result of actions they committed in the face of injustice (those who challenge injustice) and those who turn away from injustice (those who do nothing). These different reactions to injustice cause guilt but this guilt is manifested in different ways. Sethe's murder of her child as a reaction to the injustice of the "men without skin" caused her severe pain that was tangibly confronted by the manifestation of her daughter in Beloved. In contrast, Stamp Paid felt guilt because he did not confront the injustice of the white owner's relations with his wife. The two men were able to laugh about Sethe's experiences partly because they did not understand the immense suffering of Sethe due to her confrontation of injustice.

The passage on page 265 also conveys the message that sometimes when something is so horrible, the human mind can use humor as a way of dealing with pain. Paul D and Stamp Paid made a joke out of Sethe's attempt at murdering the white man who came to the house. Part of the passage says, "its seriousness and its embarrassment made them shake with laughter." This line exemplifies the fear they both felt and how through a joke they could try to cope with their emotions.

When reading through testimonies of witnesses of the Holocaust, I came across a testimony of a woman who was sent to Auschwitz during World War II with her family. She said that when they arrived at the camp all the women were immediately shaven all over their bodies. She said that when all the hair was removed they all looked like monkeys. In addition, while some were crying after they had been completely shaven, others could only laugh hysterically. I felt that this passage supports the passage on page 256 as once again sometimes humor or laughter is used to deal with pain that one feels when it is so great.

While it almost seems insane for people to laugh at traumatic or horrifying experiences, maybe laughter is what prevents people from really going crazy. Paul D loved Sethe and Stamp Paid I believe also had an attachment to her. While they cannot understand what motivates her actions, they have a connection to her. Her action against the white man they could not understand. Humor could make the pain and the confusion of the situation into a better understanding.

Finally, this passage seems to be concerned with the difference between the perspectives of men and women. The idea that the mens' laughter was "rusty at first" conjures the image of the tin box into which Paul D has put his memories. Men, or at least Paul D in this book, can open and close their boxes at will, and while it can be painful to do that, the option is theirs. Sethe, on the other hand, is haunted by her worst memory, and so powerful is it that it takes on a human form. There is no hiding from the past for her, at least not until the end of the book.

The fact that the two men can sit on the steps and laugh at Sethe's mental imbalance is a least a little jarring in this book. There are relatively few light-hearted moments, and it is odd that one of them occurs between the two men characters, especially the two who put their heads together to destroy Paul D and Sethe's relationship earlier in the book. After reminding Sethe of how many feet she has, it seems inappropriate for Paul D to laugh uncontrollably at her. Perhaps he can do this because he does not feel the depth to which the decision to kill her children touched Sethe, and can only see the action as wrong. It is either inhuman or so wrong that it becomes funny. Baby Suggs would never joke about Sethe this way.

I just wanted to briefly expand on some points made by Tyler, Mary, and Judd in their Beloved essay regarding the passage on p262. Yes, I agree there is an opposing method of dealing with memories between the men and women of the novel. As was mentioned, Paul D. has the ability to open or shut his "tin box". He makes a conscious decision to permanently seal the lid on his painful and tragic past. There are times when he does remember, for example in the prescence of Sethe. But I gather though difficult, this is an active decision on his part to do so. The same can be said of Stamp Paid, another male character of the story. Like Paul D., Stamp acknowledges the past at his own volition. For example, memories for him are emboddied in the red ribbon that he cherishes, that he exudes from his pocket as he feels is necessary. Or consider when he makes the decision to bring up the past, Sethe's past in fact, to Paul D. Obviously the males of the novel are somewhat in control of their past, of their memories. And when theirs past do attempt to dominate them these men simply walk away from it. We see this from Stamp Paid who abandons his wife and that entire sordid situation, and we observe it even moreso from Paul D. who migrates all over the US in an effort to forget his past.

Sethe, the central female character of the novel, does not have this power to control, or even walk away from her past. In fact she is brutally confronted by it over and over again. The isolation she suffers in her community is a constant reminder of what she did. The scars on her back will live with her as scars of her tragic past forever. These kinds of reminders perhaps are bearable for Sethe. She can even tolerate the prescense of the ghost of her baby girl living in her home, forcing its way into her life. However, both Paul D. and Beloved enter her home as horrible harbingers of mermory. Pauld D. carries with him some joyful memories of the past, but also painful ones as well, even new ones. He tells Sethe of the fate of her husband Halle, of him seeing what happened to her and consequently going insane with the knowledge of it. Beloved brings an even more hurtful past with her as the reincarnation, the human form of Sethe's baby girl; for with her, Beloved also carries guilt.

[6]

• Dan Cohen
• Rachel Luttio
• Tomoko Yamazaki

In the passage on page 251, Sethe reduces her universe of fears into the statement that "anybody white could...not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you...Whites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing...the part of her that was clean." In this statement, Sethe admits for the first time that the reason she killed her child was to avoid that dirtying--the complete loss of self-worth and the worse thing that came out of slavery in Sethe's opinion. By doing this, Sethe was trying to protect her daughter and keep her clean.

This finalizes the theme of protection that has run throughout the book. First, on page 42 Sethe explains that the job she "had of keeping [Denver] from the past that was still waiting for her was all that mattered." Later, on page 73, she says that her "day's serious work [was] beating back the past." Though the first quote involves Denver and not Beloved, it is clear that she feels the same way about the latter because it is the very reason she kills her. Protection, then, and the use of story-telling and "rememory," are essential components of the novel.

Protection from the past is also a serious component of the trials and tribulations of Holocaust survivors. In fact, one tale by a survivor is almost entirely parallel to this particular theme. When speaking about her experiences, Judith Jagermann remarks that upon entering the train that would take her family to Auschwitz, "the continuous fear of the unknown, or that we would be torn apart, was hell for me and almost unbearable, though it seems that one can suffer worse; a person can be humiliated to such an extent, as if he were just some disgusting animal" (http://remember.org/witness/jagermann.html). Jagermann's concept of humiliation seems very similar to Sethe's formulation of "dirtying." Both examples involve the complete loss of self-esteem through humiliation, both author's claim they are among the worst feelings in the world, and both are worthy of protecting one's youth from.

The passage is also an excellent example of the extreme pain involved in "remembering." In the passage, Sethe struggles with the fear of Beloved leaving before she can explain the reasons behind her slaying. The difficulty in explaining her actions comes from the sheer extent of pain involved in the memory of this act. Try as she might, Sethe will never be able to explain to Beloved the measure of her agony in killing her. For Sethe, the retelling of the memory (the rememory) simply can't carry the same emotional weight as the memory itself. Similarly, in one of the Nagasaki accounts (www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/memories/amemory2.html), the daughter comments that her mother described the atomic bombing as sort of a "minor car accident." Clearly, the mother's rememory does not accurately communicate the full extent of the emotions involved with the memory. In both these examples, then, the question remains: How does one express the full weight of a memory in the act of rememory? If a full explanation is impossible, how can one get closer?

Story telling is another theme of great importance that is stressed in this passage and it is clear that this telling influences all of the major characters. First, it is important to note that it is only through the story telling that Denver comes to understand her mother and can begin to go on with her own life. Although she had heard stories before, it is only here that Denver learns of her mother's reasonings and no longer fears that Sethe will kill her at some point. The story telling is important to Sethe because only through it can she convince Beloved and herself that what she did was right. Therefore, it is at this point of the novel that the act of story telling unites Sethe, Denver, and Beloved. The narrator says, "This and much more Denver heard [Sethe] say from her corner chair, trying to persuade Beloved, the one and only person she felt she had to convince, that what she had done was right because it came from true love." Thus, story telling not only serves the purpose of letting the readers know about the past lives of the characters, but it also becomes the "bridge" that ties together all of the characters and events and the "reasons for those events that had to happen."

The same Nagasaki account also involves story telling and its ability or, at least, attempt to explain the past. The mother, though drastically misrepresenting the enormity of the event, still is speaking to her daughter about it. Here, then, story telling plays a huge roll. Also, tying into the first theme we discussed, her misrepresentation of the fact (just a car accident) could be seen as an attempt to protect her daughter form the horrors of the event.

[7]

• Aaron Davis
• Allision Tepley
• Sarah Toner
• Virginia Hamner

In this passage, Morrison touches upon the concepts of memory and remomroy relating them to the repression so often found in victims of horrible events and tragedy. In the moments before Sethe touches Paul D's knee, he relates some of the most painful memories he has of Sweet Home to her. Unable to take in all that she is hearing, Sethe stops his narration with the slow methodical movements that characterize her methodical repression of the painful past. Both Sethe and Paul D work to keep the past tucked away inside the "tabacco tin" inside them where the personal pain of the past resides. They both believe in the concept of "remomory" and fear that confronting the past "might push them both to a place they couldn't get back from." Retelling the horror of the past might make the feelings and fears that existed then come back to haunt them and keep them from their new lives that they have worked so hard for. Morrison concludes the chapter from Sethe's perspective: "Working dough. Working, working dough. Nothing better than that to start that day's serious work of beating back the past." Sethe fears the things that reside within her memory for she fears the rememories that might surface and destroy the calm she has found. However, this passage marks the end of the first significant step away from repression of memory. It marks the first discussion of the past that might lead to healing by spreading the pain and sharing the story with others who lived through the event, making it less dangerous and more relevant to the entire community.

The healing of escape.

Later, the passage of Sethe in the Clearing shows her newly acquired ability to express her feelings and to allow her terrible memories to be shared with other people. Sethe had to break from the dominated life of a slave to understand herself. All of the feelings that she suppressed had the freedom to come out, when Sethe herself gained freedom. The complications of escape, however, made Sethe's road more difficult. For the first month of her freedom, Sethe had to look down the road for the white men who might someday find her. When the white men came and Sethe killed her daughter to avoid capture, Sethe had to spend the rest of her life freeing herself from slavery and murder. She could escape the physical limitations of slavery, but in this scene on Baby Sugg's rock, she can not escape the impressions of slavery on her heart.

An interesting link to Sethe's escape comes in the story of two Jews who escaped from Auschwitz during the Holocaust (http://remember.org/witness/wit.res.esc.html). These two men planned carefully their escape and made it to Slovakia. Like Sethe, they must have always looked behind them for pursuers. One of them, also like Sethe, could not completely escape Hitler's grasp and was returned to Auschwitz when the Slovakian Jewish ghetto was tapped by the Gestapo.

By telling Beloved in a stream-of-conscious, dream-like manner, Morrison brings to reality the fact that memories really do assume a life of their own. She uses this fact as a tool throughout the novel to bring a new set of themes to a particular situation, or to either support or add other dimensions to old themes. In the paragraphs surrounding the scene at The Clearing with Beloved, Sethe, and Denver, Baby Suggs massages Sethe's soreback (and sore soul) trying to calm her unruly 'rememories'. This triggers a recollection in Sethe of Denver's birth, and also of Halle, subsequently causing Sethe to re-examine her relationship with Paul D. In this instance, memories actually guide the path of the narrative, directing the novel back to the house at 124, where Sethe decides to cook a dinner for Paul D and herself that will "launch her newer, stronger life with a tender man".(p.99) Morrison here has successfully used Sethe's rememories to connect her trip to the the Clearing to her situation with Paul D. Through allowing the past and its ramifications control of the narrative, Morrison can tell us more about who the characters are than we chould ever gain through observing their actions.

The beloved memories of Sethe and Paul D become bearable only becuase they can be shared. It may be Denver (that can only reconstruct the meaning of these memories) who may be the worse off. Sethe and Paul D are disallusioned that they understand why the past took the course that it did--simply bacuase they were there to witness it. It is the issolated confusion of Denver, fueled by the presence of Beloved, that allows us to observe the destructive presence of these memories in 124.

[8]

• Antonio Oliver

The 'Jim Crow' laws, along with other legislative measures, were the methods used by the racist whites in power to prolong the Negroes' suffering, while, in the eyes of some, 'raising' their standard of living by declaring the African-American race 'separate but equal'. Such an illogical statement shocks our generation, making it hard to believe that our land of opportunity not only oppressed the Negroes during slavery, but also under freedom. The so-called 'separate but equal' statement collapses under its sheer absurdity, since there wasn't, isn't, or will be any reason why two 'equal' races should be separated. If no differences exist between the two, there can be no justification of a systematic procedure barring their co-existences. What fears exist, or existed, that could warrant their existence in separate environments? Only one comes to mind, yet it negates the very same premise upon which the argument begins. The white man's belief that the races are not equal, as witnessed by the divergent condition of the train accommodations for coloreds and non-colored, as well as by the insistence of die-hard racists to keep the African race prey of of its ignorance by denying schooling to blacks are but two examples of the true belief of the white man: the races are not equal. Morrison briefly mentions the latter example on p.102 of Beloved, when she mentions Lady Jones' illegal and immoral actions (according to white standards) of providing education to colored people. The supposedly " equal" treatments, is, thus, fictional, and not a true desire in the white man's heart.

As stated above, the racist faction of the American people sought to lengthen the deplorable living condition of the black population under a mask of equality. Thanks to the course of history, important figures such as MLK and other African-American leaders, and narratives such as Beloved, today's view of 19th century bigotry is no longer tainted by a white eye that seeks to obscure the truth. Instead, it is a well-informed one that allows opinions to be formed by facts, not fiction.

[9]

• Colin Edgerton
• Nicole Bostick
• Leah Marcus

After Dachau, I burned my uniform in a vain attempt to rid myself of the death smell. It's still with me, fifty years later. Only recently have I begun talking about the Holocaust. One reason is because I read that as many as seventeen percent of Americans recently polled expressed some doubts that it happened at all. The greatest tragedy in modern times. And some doubt it happened. Others compare the Holocaust with special interests, to fight this or that cause. Political groups even compare each other to Nazis, which I find ridiculous.

The above passage is from an American soldier reflecting upon his role in liberating the Nazi concentration camps.

It was some time before he could put Alfred, Georgia, Sixo, schoolteacher, Halle, his brothers, Sethe, Mister, the taste of iron, the sight of butter, the smell of hickory, notebook paper, one by one, into the tobacco tin lodged in chest. By the time he got to 124 nothing in this world could pry it open.

This passage is describing Paul D's way of handling his memories of Sweet Home.

Both accounts deal with the terrible necessity of memories. No matter how much he labored to get rid of the "stench of death" from his uniform, the soldier could not take it from his mind. No matter how hard Paul D tried to keep his "tin box" closed, it was always opening, and the "wind" was swirling the memories about, causing him to recall the painful realities of his past. The difference between the soldier and Paul D is that the soldier realizes that he must confront his memories and speak of them in order to insure that they cannot happen again and that the truth of history is known. Whereas, Paul D might admit to the memories and even voice them out of necessity, but does not feel a sense of duty to recount them.

The soldier in the first passage also seems to note the responsibility that he has to communicate the the world the first-hand knowledge that he possesses concerning the concentration camps. His reference to the polling, which indicates that 17% of Americans do not believe that the holocaust happened, functions as a reminder both to himself and to the reader that memories of important, yet painful events must be actively communicated to the world lest they be forgotten. As Toni Morrison said in her interview which we watched in class (paraphrased) we must develop an intimate relationship with the past, because the past is valuable information. Paul D. fails to realize that his past will only make sense to him if he can link it with the larger reality of black slavery. By trapping his painful memories in a "tin box" he is not communicating them to the world and he risks wasting them; i.e. not sharing them with the community so that the horror and deprivation of slavery can be realized and fought against.

[10]

• Toni Tileva
• Cathy Bellafronto
• Libby Tuerk

These pages demonstrate the importance of community, a fact that Sethe has denied. This community came to the aid of Sethe, an outcast, to destroy Beloved. The way in which she was destroyed clarifies her existence. Beloved was the concentration and embodiment of grief, guilt, pride and pain Sethe carried inside herself. Beloved even began to swell with what appeared to be pregnancy as Sethe suffered even more intensely. Only at the moment that Sethe joined the women and dispersed her grief and suffered her shame with the community did Beloved explode. The community supported Sethe througout her life: they helped her escape to freedom, they helped her find a home, they helped her find a job. Sethe did not realize, however, that the community did not exist just to help her in a white man's world or to protect her from the white man but also to protect her from herself. That is what they did by gathering her up into the "hill of black people"(262). The community exists to share in joy and shame. Beloved was Sethe's shame that was too painful for her to bear alone. Just at her breaking point, the community arrived to save her.

[10]

• Trent Davol
• Jessica Vianes

An important element of the passage is the reactions of Sethe's surviving children after Beloved's murder. Howard and Buglar were emotionally scarred after their sister's death, "...[they] were all right but wouldn't let go of each other's hands. Played that way: stayed that way especially in their sleep (183)." Denver's scars transcend the passage on page 183 and are illuminated through the entire novel as she says, "I love my mother but I know she killed one of her own daughters, and tender as she is with me, I'm scared of her because of it (205)." The children cling first to Baby Suggs and then to each other because they have lost faith in their mother. Sethe's children attempt to grapple with the unspeakable. They are removed by a generation so they cannot completely comprehend the reason for or the horror of Beloved's death,but they still must deal with the ramifications on a daily basis. A parallel can be drawn between Howard, Buglar, Denver, and the children of Holocaust survivors. The children must be sympathetic to their parent's pain and at the same time deal with their own overwhelming sense of loss. Such tragedies are firmly engrained in the family legacy. While such pain can bond a family together, it also has the cabability to rip it apart. Sethe's family was destroyed after Beloved, the boys escaped, "...Baby Suggs' heart collapsed...(183)," and Denver and Sethe were denied happiness because they were haunted by the past and rememories.

The Cybrary of the Holocaust (http://remember.org/) has a section specifically for Children of Survivors. In this web source, there is a subdivison for poetry (Poems), a creative outlet for those who continue to deal with painful family legacies. Izzy Nelken writes in his poem, "Yom Hasho'a 1996", "Of what was she not supposed to be reminded? What was the secret that was so well guarded?" Although Sethe's children were only too well aware of her secret, these lines of poetry serve to convey the pain Howard, Buglar, and Denver had to endure while growing up with Sethe. The well guarded secret became a burden they all had to carry. The children had to be sensitive to Sethe's pain while they had no outlet of their own, much like a reversal of the parent - child roles.

On page 183 Sethe comes to a very bold conclusion about the murder of Beloved. She says, "I don't have to remember nothing. I don't even have to explain. She understands it all." For years Sethe has lived a life ostracized from society. While the community has shaped it's perception of Sethe, she has suppressed her memory. But with the return of Paul D she is forced to confront her past and produce an answer to justify what she did, not for others but for herself. Before she can move on and really come to terms with what she has done, she must justify her actions to herself. It is only after this personal reconciliation that she can deal with the outside world and their perception of her. At the end of the passage, she says, "How bad is the scar?" She seems to be saying, now that I have come to terms with what I have done I can now look upon myself and out at others and see how much has been affected.

In the Holocaust Cybrary Web Page (http://remember.org/witness/kimel2.html) there is a quote by Alexander Kimel following his poem "The Creed of a Holocaust Survivor". It reads,"People who cannot face their past, cannot adapt for the future." These words can easily be applied to anyone who has endured such tragedy as the Holocaust, the bombings, or slavery. Before moving forward into the future, there must be a self-reconciliation of what has taken place.