Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the Aspect of “Rememory”

            In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, we are introduced to a somewhat unique way of narration: “rememory.” Every novel we have read in class so far has followed the general framework of either a frame narrative or an ordinary chronological timeline. But Morrison, while including aspects of this chronological timeline, presents the reader with very significant (and at times lengthy) flashbacks and memories from several of the main characters’ pasts. These flashbacks fill crucial gaps in book’s plot, and add a whole other level to the story. As we know, Morrison begins the novel in the home of Sethe and Denver, house 124 on Bluestone Road, Ohio. Just a few pages in we encounter Paul D, a crucial character in the story both plot wise and to serving to spur this process of rememory. We learn Paul D and Sethe became friends on the Sweet Home plantation before they escaped the harsh life of slavery, and so his coming back after 18 years brings back old memories for Sethe. Paul D serves almost as a trigger or spark causing this intense remembering for Sethe once she sees a familiar face from her time at Sweet Home and learns of new information he has brought to light. What’s interesting is that Paul D brings back memories of the horrific woodshed scene, but he himself still has no idea it ever happened. In a way Paul D and the reader are alike, both familiar with the character of Sethe but unfamiliar to a crucial scene in her past.

            The concept of rememory is an overarching theme throughout the novel, and by including this theme and giving it such significance in the story, Morrison almost forces the reader to question her choice of writing the novel in this way. Several times in the book, we encounter the idea of a memory being everlasting. Sethe cannot seem to forget the harsh memories she experienced at Sweet Home and as some would argue that she is the main character of the novel, this aspect of her character brings a lot to the story. On one occasion, after hearing that Halle was in the barn in which her milk was stolen and witnessed the entire incident, her mind cannot stop itself from dwelling on the past “Her brain was not interested in the future. Loaded with the past and hungry for more, it left her no room to imagine.” In my perspective, Morrison focuses so much of her novel on the past because of how deeply each character was shaped by it. The previous events of each character’s life is constantly coming back to “haunt them” (especially for Sethe) and as more and more is revealed, we begin to understand the full picture. Additionally, by putting so much focus on the past, Morrison is able to weave the character of Beloved into the story without losing too much realism in the novel.

At the beginning of the novel we get glimpses of a ghost, but this is completely normal for Sethe and Denver. The reader might question this at the start, but its not as important until Beloved shows up. Morrison, after Beloved has been introduced as a character, brings the reader back to the woodshed scene, and explains the situation to the reader. For me, once I knew about the woodshed scene, Beloved made sense to me. Although I had been somewhat suspicious of Beloved when she first approached Sethe and Denver, now that her presence was somewhat logical and meaningful, I saw her virtually in the same way I saw every other character in the story. By playing such a significant role in the story, I also think she served to reinforce the theme of memories never dying, because she herself was essentially a memory. Overall, by writing the novel in the way he did, Morrison accomplishes not only this unique writing style centered on remembrance, but an aspect of realism despite her somewhat questionable inclusion of a ghost.

The Ending of The White Boy Shuffle

As we discussed the ending of the book in class today and the very dark/depressing development it took, I found myself thinking about how great of a change the story had taken in comparison to the beginning of the book or even just a few chapters before. Like we said in class, it seemed like Gunnar was leading a generally happy and successful life with basketball, poetry, and his friendships with Scoby, Psycho Loco and Yoshiko. As we near the end of the novel, Beatty portrays the idea of the racism Gunnar sees and experiences being so much greater than him, almost to the point that its overwhelming. Gunnar feels powerless in the greater scheme of society and its inherent racist qualities, the only success (“win”) being suicide and not giving “them” the satisfaction. As we analyzed this final part of the book and began to realize the greater theme Beatty is portraying through the novel, I noticed a few similarities it shared with Invisible Man and the ever-changing identity and realization of the narrator.

Like we have mentioned before, both novels begin with a narrator having already experienced most of his life, telling his story to the reader. In both stories, we see a gradual progression of an underlying idea of the individual being powerless (or invisible) to society and unable to make an impact. Throughout Invisible Man, the narrator thinks he is making a difference and changing his identity, but by the end of the book, has realized he is completely invisible and is just a small part of a greater, unchangeable, racist system. Gunnar, although his realization is less gradual and much more prominent towards the end of the novel, also begins to realize the blatant racism in society (especially among his peers at the many high schools he attended as well as college and the groups/extracurricular activities he participated in), and by the end, he too is “tired of thrashing around in the muck and not getting anywhere.” In a way, each character’s “solution” to the problem they have realized is also somewhat similar as well. The narrator of Invisible Man feels that by secluding himself from society, he is able to escape the racism and identity society places upon him, and as long as he stays there, he is “free.” Gunnar sees the dynamic more as a win or lose situation, but would most likely agree that society is the problem and the only escape is getting away from it. He has been “losing” his entire life, and the only way to “win” is to give them no pleasure and commit suicide, putting him “out of his misery.”

One additional thing to note is the time period in which each book was written. Invisible Man published in the 1950s, and The White Boy Shuffle, published very recently in 1996 sharing this similarity of the deeper theme of racism in society serves to show that this problem is ever present and most likely will be continue to be present for a while still. Beatty even mentions the Rodney King incident and Gunnar’s reaction of shock and complete surprise to its result as a reference to this problem in society. This inclusion sort of hints at the fact that it would seem like something should have changed by then, but really hadn’t.

            

A Few Thoughts on Richard Wright’s Critique

            As we discussed in class earlier this week, following the publication of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Richard Wright became one of the most prominent critiques, mentioning several aspects of Hurston’s writing in his own article “Between Laughter and Tears.” Wright criticized Hurston in writing, saying that “Hurston can write, but her prose is cloaked in that facile sensuality that has dogged the Negro expression since the days of Phillis Wheatley.” He goes on to say “Her dialogue manages to catch the psychological movements of the Negro folk-mind in their pure simplicity, but that’s as far as it goes.” Wright seemed to dislike the fact that Hurston’s writing included very little about protest and social commentary, which in his perspective, was “proper” and “necessary” for black literature (at the time). He comments on the fact that her dialogue only adds to the flowery, idealistic setting and goes no further than that. In my perspective, while some of Wrights points hold value, I think he overgeneralized black writing in that it all had to be protest literature. However, it does seem like Hurston avoided making her novel about protest altogether, purposefully or not, making Wright partly correct.

            As Mr. Mitchell assigned the ten minute writing prompt in class asking our opinion on Wright’s critique, like I mentioned before, I held a sort of neutral stance.

In my point of view, its true that protest was not the largest point Hurston was trying to get across, instead, she focused more on the strong character of Janie and her many marriages as well as capturing the general setting of the small southern town of Eatonville and the dynamic there. Hurston included the character of Ms. Tyler and other minor events that seemed related to protest and a social commentary of the time, but we know after finishing the book, that these events were very much in the minority. In this aspect, Wright is accurate in identifying that compared to his novel Native Son and other black literature of the time such as Invisible Man, Their Eyes Were Watching God doesn’t focus on protest as much.

However, I think there is a line to how much of Wrights critique is valid. In Wrights perspective, the non-inclusion of protest is a problem and a fault in Hurston’s novel. While the inclusion of protest is in fact minor, by no means does this suggest a fault in Hurston’s writing. Hurston has a seemingly different point to make than Wright, and in my perspective, this doesn’t make the book any worse. Additionally, Hurston may very well have had protest in mind when writing her novel, just not the same emphasis on racial protest Wright focuses on in his novels. Using a strong independent woman as the main character that chooses what to do on her own --concerning her many marriages and actions in general-- is itself a protest to traditional literature at the time and could have been the “deeper theme” Hurston was trying to make in her novel. It’s also possible that Hurston had no “deeper meaning” about protest to make and instead wanted to write a novel capturing the realistic Southern lifestyle of the town, which she went in such detail to describe. Either way, even though Wright is correct in some of his assumptions, some of his larger points about the inclusion of protest in my point of view aren’t valid.

Looking Back Having Finished Invisible Man

When Mr. Mitchell first assigned us Invisible Man at the start of the year, like other books we have read and analyzed in English classes at Uni, I hadn’t really heard of it before. The first week, we were assigned to start the book and read the prologue. After reading the prologue, I had a few initial reactions. Firstly, I saw the narrator as a somewhat odd and questionable character whose story seemed … interesting, to say the least. In my mind, over the course of the novel I imagined this character telling the reader about his life and how he got to where he was, or describing some specific period that had an impact on his life. And although I was right to assume this was the general outline of the story, I was completely unprepared for what Ellison had in mind.

The fact that Ellison filled his chapters with so much detail and metaphor was itself unexpected. Like we have discussed in class, each chapter seemed like a story on its own, and I had never really encountered this. I remember thinking to myself “Am I on the right chapter? Did I skip some pages? How did the scene change so fast?” Already my view of the novel was changing, and I had barely read a few chapters. Having finished the book, it makes sense why Ellison needed to describe each scene so quickly, since he wanted to cover the majority narrator’s life in one book. But I have realized that even though he did make each chapter so separated from the last, there was no detail lost and no idea left behind. Ellison managed to keep up with the ideas he was trying to convey while maintaining a steady description of the narrator’s life. We witnessed the development of the narrator’s quest to find his identity and discover his invisibility as well as his progress towards the version of himself we witnessed in the prologue. All of which being ideas that occurred throughout the entirety of the book. Additionally, as we finished the book, I realized how much commentary Ellison was able to include through the narrator’s own realizations. Of course after reading the prologue, I assumed there would be some deeper theme Ellison would portray, but the amount of detail and variety Ellison included in his social commentary was much greater than I had expected.

Looking back to the start of the book, I’m not sure what I pictured Ellison would do with the character of the narrator Invisible Man in terms of his discovery about life. I imagined the narrator having similar experiences to Bigger Thomas –in that the character was constantly finding new ideas to grapple with, specifically identity – or experiences very much in contrast to Bigger, since his character was portrayed as more intelligent and somewhat more logical in his actions. Either way, I have realized that Ellison went beyond the narrator’s own realizations and implied that these ideas were applicable to everyone (not just the narrator or a single individual), even in today’s society.

           

Has the Invisible Man Become the Character We See in the Prologue

Throughout this weeks reading, we have seen the narrator progress more and more towards the version of him we see in the prologue. Many times before we have noticed a significant event or moment that impacts the narrator and leaves him changed, for example when he reads the letter Bledsoe sent to his “Acquaintances” in Harlem or during the operation in the paint factory hospital. In Chapter 23, the narrator discovers Rineheart and his many identities as well as the idea of invisibility and the “power it holds.” Ellison explicitly depicts the narrator’s epiphany about invisibility occurring and makes it seem as though it was something right in front of him the whole time. While we discussed the idea of this scene as a fundamental turning point for the narrators character, I also want to explore a scene one chapter back that I think is also important and leads up to this discovery.

At the end of Chapter 22, the narrator has just ended the meeting with Jack and the Brotherhood committee, which focused on the events that happened during Clifton’s murder and funeral. As we know, the Brotherhood is angry with the narrator and decides he must be disciplined. The idea of discipline is ridiculous to the narrator and he is appalled at their decision. Near the end of the meeting, the narrator begins to realize that he is actually invisible to Jack and the other members: “So that is the meaning of discipline, I thought, sacrifice, … yes, and blindness; he doesn’t see me. He doesn’t even see me.” Here we see the continuous theme of invisibility prevalent throughout the story but now, the narrator fully acknowledges its presence. After the meeting has adjourned the narrator realizes that although the he is not quite sure what to do about his findings, he knows things will be different from then on: “I would never be the same. Never. After tonight I wouldn’t ever look the same, or feel the same.” The narrator’s thoughts about invisibility further support the dynamic nature of his character and give yet another example of a changing moment in his life. This scene of realization leads to the discovery of Rineheart and the narrator ultimately confronting the idea of invisibility and fully “committing” to it.

The narrator has become increasingly close to the character we see in the prologue, but in my perspective, he hasn’t reached him quite yet. The character in the prologue has no ties to the brotherhood, or anyone for that matter, and lives how he likes, not caring for the cause he once fought for. After chapters 22 and 23, although the narrator is straying from the Brotherhood and its ideals, he hasn’t physically left, and he still believes he should make a difference in the Harlem community and make a difference in the world. While we can see major changes in the narrator’s character caused by the events of the meeting, and a fundamental change in the narrator’s perspective, I think there is still change to be made before the narrator can become “fully invisible,” as we seem him in the prologue.