In Beloved, Toni Morrison explores the haunting past of slavery through Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman attempting to rebuild her life while constantly hindered by her past. Toni Morrison uses the idea of “rememory” in her novel to quite literally bring Sethe’s struggle to move forward to live. Morrison iconically describes rememory as “Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it’s not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place—the picture of it—stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world” (Morrison 36). In this quote, Sethe uses the term “rememory” to describe how the past is not just something that happened and is gone but instead something that can recur and come back. This idea demonstrates how trauma like Sethe’s can remain in a person’s life and hold them back.
In Sethe’s case, Beloved is the literal embodiment of Sethe’s “rememory.” If you hopefully read the novel it is apparent that Sethe’s trauma comes from slavery. Specifically, her attempt for her and her children to escape School Teacher. After escaping the plantation of Sweet Home to freedom across the Ohio River she is tracked down by School Teacher under the Fugitive Slave Act. His arrival at Sethe’s home triggered her traumatic experiences from slavery, resulting in her attempt to kill her children and herself. She is only able to kill Beloved but this murder scares School Teacher away. Obviously, this moment becomes a troubling part of Sethe’s past. Years later, Beloved returns as a young woman at the steps of Sethe’s door. Beloved’s return forces Sethe to relive this trauma: her presence becomes a physical manifestation of the guilt. Beloved makes escaping Sethe’s past impossible as she is stopped by her most unbearable memories. Sethe has been trying to forget her past but she must face her past to fully move past it. Constantly wanting more of Sethe’s attention, she takes Sethe deeper into her “rememory” of her past as Sethe begs for forgiveness of her past actions. Morrison uses “rememory” as a tool to blur the lines between Sethe’s memory and reality.
This idea of “rememory” is representative of more than just Sethe’s own experience. This concept is representative of post-slavery America. In an interview with Maya Jaggi, Morrison says “I’m not suggesting the past haunts us, but until one comes to terms with it, the past will be a haunting—something you can’t shake. It’s particularly true in the United States because most of its history was erasure” (https://brickmag.com/an-interview-with-toni-morrison/). In this quote Morrison is referring to the idea that attempting to change or forget the past results in haunting: as seen in Beloved. Specifically, she is referring to the attempt of the United States to forget its past of slavery during Reconstruction. Furthermore, she addresses the idea that you cannot move on until you face your past. This notion is directly present in Beloved through Sethe’s rememory of Beloved. Through Beloved, Morrison suggests that the past cannot be escaped because it continues to remain in people and places: forcing you to confront it. The return of Beloved serves as an analogy for how the history of slavery refuses to disappear and requires acknowledgement. Morrison’s Beloved is a refusal to let the horrors of slavery remain buried.
This is an interesting take on the entire concept that is rememory in Beloved. I agree 100% that the book as a whole was to keep the horrors of slavery known and alive, contrary to the Beloved law that we discussed in class. The haunting of Beloved is the haunting of all the known and unspoken of trauma throughout the history of slavery.
ReplyDeleteI love that quote from Morrison--thanks for including it! Not all authors are the most insightful when writing or speaking about their own work, but I've always found Morrison to be an exceptionally good critic and commentator on her novels, and here she's clearly referring to _Beloved._ Her commentary here could be a great rebuttal to a state legislature (especially the legislature of a former slave state) looking to limit conversations about slaver and its aftermath in the classroom because of its potential to be "divisive." Morrison suggests that this nation is plenty divided as it is, and simplifying and sanitizing our history is not going to do anything to nullify the lingering effects. And her novel directly addresses the sanitization of the Reconstruction period in particular, with all its hints about the limitations on "freedom" north of the Ohio River and after Emancipation in part 3.
ReplyDeleteBeloved really forces its readers, especially its American readers, to confront the history of the country they inhabit from a completely different perspective. It's easy to think of slavery being in the past, but Beloved makes readers see the residual effects of slavery in a more direct way by using allegories of ghost stories as literally "haunting" the people living in the present. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Ross! We can also see rememory, or an effort to avoid it, with Baby Suggs during her final days focusing on colors. She distinctly avoids the color red, as it supposedly reminds her of blood and will stir up rememories of the traumas she experienced during and after slavery. Every former slave in Cincinnati (Sethe, Baby Suggs, Stamp Paid, Ella) has trauma that haunts them, and this novel is story of facing those traumas.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate the inclusion of the Morrison interview; it adds additional context to the story and confirms notions discussed in class. Like you said, Beloved is the embodiment of rememory---a reincarnated ghost of the past returning to hold Sethe accountable for her actions and ensure that her actions are never forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI like how much you elaborate on the idea of rememory. The point of Beloved is not to show that individual past trauma is the singular cause of rememory, but instead the collective horrors and suffering caused by the institution of slavery. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteI like how Beloved forces us to explore the history of slavery, and the amount of pain that it inflicted on people. I feel like we often neglect how bad slavery was. Of course, we all agree that it was bad but sometimes, I feel like we toss it aside as something that only happened in the past. I think it is important to learn about it and see how bad it was and Beloved does a great job at doing that.
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