Images of "The Saved and the Drowned" in Toni Morrison's Beloved
In Toni Morrison's Beloved, the horrors of slavery are compararble to those of the Holocaust in that millions suffered and died as they were forced to live inhuman lives. Morrison alludes to the "six million jews" that died during the Holocaust on a blank page before the book begins. The page reads: "Sixty Million and More." As Doug Boin, Cleveland Lawrence III, and Patrick Ball point out in their essay response (see response #8), she conciously brings the issue of slavery into the same light as the Holocaust. Both are tragedies, and both must always be guarded against so that they never happen again.
Since the novel is set up to reflect the Holocaust in many ways, logically there are character representations of Primo Levi's "saved and drowned." Though the distinctions between these characters is more hazy due to the different nature of the experiences endured in Beloved, the distinctions still exist; they serve to illuminate the complex struggles the characters face and help explain why each character succumbs or endures.
The most prominent character that exemplifies Levi's "saved" is Paul D. Paul D survived the worst slavery and racism had to offer throughout his life. He was subjected to every indignity that whites could heap upon. Robbed of his manhood and dignity by the inhumane nature of salvery, he still endured. He survived though he watched his brothers and friends die at the hands of men that abused them. He believes that all he has endured has given him strength:
"[H]e was a man and a man could do what he would: be still for six hours in a dry well while night dropped; fight raccoon with his hands and win; watch another man, whom he loved better than his brothers, roast without a tear just to the roasters would know what a man was like." (page 126)
However, though he has endured these things, he cannot deal with them and locks them up in the "tobacco tin" with all of the painful memories that he doesn't want to remember but cannot forget.
The essay response (see response #9) that refers to the following passage involving Paul D's repression also deals with the memories of an American soldier involved in liberating Dachau:
"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 his chest. By the time he got to 124 nothing in this world could pry it open." (page 113)
The soldier says of his experience at Dachau:
"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."
Both of these men witnessed and were part of something that cannot be forgotten. They do not want to deal with the pain of what they experienced; however, they cannot forget the horrors that they witnessed or experienced.
As one of the saved, Paul D must live with the painful memories of watching those he loved die. He must live with the guilt of the survivor and yet he must try to overcome this pain so that he might continue to live. By the end of the novel, Paul D has come to terms with hie loss of dignity, his feelings of guilt, and his emotional confusion. He has moved past the state of the merely "saved" and emotionally moved back into the world of the living where good and evil are distinctions that matter.
In contrast to Paul D is Baby Suggs. Though she survived the horrors of slavery that robbed her of her children and her dignity, she cannot keep up the fight. Throughout her life she stood as a model of the saved--getting to freedom and helping bring spirit back to the spiritless in her clearing. Her house was the center of the black community in her area; and yet on the day that the schoolteacher came to 124 her soul was broken and she entered the world of the drowned.
"Baby Suggs grew tired, went to bed and stayed there until her big old heart quit. Except for an occasional request for color she said practically nothing--until the afternoon of the last day of her life when she got out of bed, skipped slowly to the door of the keeping room and announced to Sethe and Denver the lesson she had learned from her sixty years a slave and ten years free: that there was no bad luck in this world but whitepeople. "They don't know when to stop," she said, and returned to her bed, pulled up the quilt and left them to hold that thought forever." (page 104)
As she resigns herself to die, Baby Suggs realizes that she cannot withstand the force of the whites that keeps her down and destroys her dignity, and the dignity of those she loves, at every turn. She cannot continue to survive with the memories of the pain of slavery after she has witnessed the horror that the fear of slavery drives Sethe to. She becomes one of the drowned, giving up her fight to be one of the saved.
The most perplexing character of the novel is Sethe. On the day that schoolteacher came to find her at 124, she was prepared to kill her children and herself in order to keep them all from going back into slavery. However, she fails to kill herself and all but one of her children. Though her act preserves her freedom and the freedom of her children, noone can understand what she has done or why. Much like the stories of survivors who tell of taking clothes from dead bodies to preserve themselves, in the world that does not only distinguish between the saved and the drowned, Sethe's act cannot be understood. In the student response written by Trent and Jessica (see response #10), the issue of others dealing with Sethe's act is addressed. Those who are not in her position do not understand; she knows this and must reconcile her act to herself before she can attempt to move on into the future--away from the pain of the past.
At the end of the novel, Sethe has resigned herself as Baby Suggs did to the keeping room bed. She is "tired" and ready to enter the world of the drowned. Paul D tries to make her understand that she must reamin in the world of the saved--she must learn to live with the living again. However, Sethe's last words in the book are cryptic: "Me? Me?" These words might signify the beginning of a realization in Sethe; they might be the beginning of her recovery. By finally coming to terms with herself, she might be able to return to life with Paul D. However, these words are questions. Whether she knows who she is or even what the concept of herself is anymore remains unclear.
The last chapter of the book fails to clarify whether Sethe saves herself or loses herself becoming one of the drowned. Purposefully ambiguous, the final paragraphs can be interpreted as referring to Sethe or Beloved, leaving both possibilities open for Sethe.