Circling Through Beloved

Circling Through Beloved

Throughout Beloved, this symbol of a circle is scattered throughout the book within different scenes and sequences of events.  A strategy that is also a popular a characteristic in many African American folklores, something Morrison believes should have a more popular role in novels.  The book itself is a circle in that it begins with a story, a message that is carried from character to character and is ultimately brought back around to the reader to create their own interpretations.  In that way, as said in the article, the reader is the co- author of Beloved.  The content itself also features many examples of circles holding great significance, none other than the overarching theme of overcoming the past.  This overarching theme is portrayed within both Paul D. and Sethe and in their attempts to not only overcome their past but defeat the ghosts of their pasts haunting them.  So it makes sense that in order to conquer their present that is troubled by their past, both characters must conquer their past in order to ease the problems of the present: the ghost and Beloved.  Not only does the article talk about circularity, but also the paradoxes and lessons from the book itself.  One of the lessons mentioned in the article is the lesson of ownership, and the tangle that is created when everyone in 124 Bluestone tries to take ownership over another.  This can be related to the most extreme of ownership, slavery, and how any form of ownership in general is wrong.  An example of one of the paradoxes is at the conclusion of the book, once all the characters are able to face their own past.  After doing this, the narrator says that the story is one to not be passed down.  This is in its own a paradox because the narrator had just retold the whole story even though she believes it is one not to be told.  

The biggest problem I had when analyzing Beloved is that I kept finding myself zooming in to narrowly; I wasn’t able to look at the book as a whole.  This article, though, pushed me to be able to connect the thoughts that I had that were zoomed in, and zoomed them out and related them to the book as a whole. In doing this so, it allowed me to expand my point of view and my perspective and see much more bigger picture.  For example, the thought about Paul D. and Sethe being haunted by their past and the only way for them to be able to defeat this ghost is to be able to face that past is a thought that has a lot of symbolism to because of what their past entailed.  It is symbolic that Paul D. and Sethe’s past is resisting them from defeating this ghost, because Paul D. and Sethe had fought for freedom once, and the only way to attain freedom from the ghost is to face this same past.