Take
a look at the questions and post your own questions or discussion points for
this novel in the comments below.
Questions
- How does Toni Morrison connect the idea of slavery and the idea of haunting? Is America haunted?
- The novel is a narrative about trauma and recovery. What does it mean to recover from trauma? How does Sethe recover?
- This novel is about the relationships between mothers and daughters. What kinds of relationships do the characters have? How do they change over the course of the novel?
- Is the ghost real?
Due to a scheduling conflict, I won't be able to attend the Donnelly discussion group, so I'll just post my 2-cents worth here.
ReplyDeleteI'm not enjoying this book. Not because it deals w/the difficult subjects of slavery, racism, & brutality, but because I can't stand Morrison's writing. I'm not a huge fan of magical realism to start with, & Morrison's style is too disjointed for me to become immersed in the story. I'll finish the book, because that's what I do. But it's a bit of a slog.
I've not yet finished the book, so I ca't speak to any healing that happens. But as far as the mother-daughter relationship thing? There really isn't much. It's more about the relationship between Paul D & Sethe than about Denver & Sethe. And as for Beloved? Well, is she a daughter or the gauze of grief & trauma that keeps Sethe from intimacy with either Paul D or Denver? Sethe seems to have a pretty vague relationship w/Beloved...I mean, she doesn't even snap to the fact of the headstone marker & the young woman's name being the same? In the meantime, Denver, who has a much stronger relationship w/Beloved, is afraid of losing her, while Beloved fears dissolution...which of course would happen if she's simply a re-memory as Denver grows up & fills her world w/other longings, fears, & regrets.
If this is a repeat message (I couldn't find my original one), keep the better of the two & delete the other. Thanks