I was going to put some Faulkner in here because I suspect that that is why I’m disappointed in Morrison’s use of it. It just doesn’t appear to further story, nor provide useful insight into the characters, even with this next short chapter where all three, Beloved, Sethe, and Denver appear to have a "meeting of minds."
Tell me the truth. Didn’t you come from the other side? Yes. I was on the other side. You came back because of me? Yes. You rememory me? Yes. I remember you. You never forgot me? Your face is mine. Do you forgive me? Will you stay? You safe here now. Where are the men without skin? Out there. Way off. (p.215)
The conversation repeats the visuals of earrings, clouds, iron circle, round basket, water, face and smile, which have already been (to me) beaten to death. This segment does, however, show an understanding of the three of Beloved’s identity, and a plea for unity.
It does seem odd that Beloved’s memory is one so strongly of attachment to Sethe without having any of the questions one would normally have of their murderer, nor of the feelings of the death itself as Morrison had presented to us in the opening story:
Who would have thought that a little old baby could harbor so much rage? Rutting among the stones under the eyes of the engraver’s son was not enough. Not only did she have to live out her years in a house palsied by the baby’s fury at having its throat cut… (p. 5)
The above was about Sethe, and in the dialogue following, she suggested to her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, that "We could move."
There is an obvious change in Sethe as she comes to face what she’s preferred to forget–her murder of Beloved in the belief of keeping her children free–but it doesn’t quite ring true to character with this woman. She has never, as Baby Suggs has, not given full love to her children because of the likelihood of their been sold away or killed. She thinks of her two boys constantly, and of her baby girl (Beloved) and yet is annoyed by her ghost, and doesn’t show any more than a connection of caring for Beloved when she returns to the house as a "real" young woman.
I think that while the concept of really getting into the heads of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved is good and well-timed, it’s just not as well done as Faulkner might have done it, nor what I have come to expect from Toni Morrison herself. There was an opportunity here to really hit home with the pain that these characters, as well as too many in history, have suffered, but for me, it fell flat.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
I guess I’d have to read it to understand this commentary.