Can We Truly Forget The Past?
In the last chapter Toni Morrison's novel Beloved insists that “it was not a story to pass on” (Morrison 323). In addition to this repeated phrase the final chapter states, “So they forgot her. Like an unpleasant dream during a troubling sleep” (Morrison 324). However I find it hard to believe that anyone, especially Sethe, managed to utterly forget Beloved simply because she told herself it was not something that should be passed on.
Throughout the book memory and rememory come up as a central theme. At one point Sethe even says, herself, that “nothing ever dies” (Morrison 43). This statement proved true throughout the narrative in that Beloved, a ghost baby, remained forever present in the personality of the 124 house. Her persistence in the life of Sethe and Denver represents the fact that no matter what happens in the future (for example the potential of living a full and happy life in a family with Paul D.) the past still alters the present. This fact not only haunts the psyche of Sethe and Denver in the form of Beloved throughout the book, but also symbolizes the horrors of slavery. The slave trade killed millions of people and its history is still deeply rooted in not only into the past of United States, but also the discrimination that persists today.
Early in the book Morrison tells us that, “To Sethe, the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay” (Morrison 51). However, throughout the book Sethe’s attempts to keep the past at bay only backfire on her. When she omitted her past from Paul D., Beloved’s ghost grew stronger in its attempts to push him and the future away. And it was only when Paul D. fully processed Sethe’s decision to kill her child that he fully committed to a future with her, appreciating how she pulled all of his pieces back together (Morrison 321). The past, present, and future pieces of Paul D. were previously scattered as he wandered from town to town with a rusted shut tobacco tin in his chest, but Sethe and Beloved alike helped him reconcile the different parts of himself. The first step to his reconciliation was opening both his past and Sethe’s past to fully understand it. Only after this painful process, could Paul D. talk of building a future with Sethe and Denver in the last chapter.
Although Sethe’s attempts to keep the past at bay were futile, she also fell too deep into her past at certain points. Especially in chapter 26, when she completely succumbs to Beloved, becoming weak and hungry while overfeeding the parasite Beloved had become and ignoring her living daughter, Denver. Similarly when Paul D. finds himself sleeping in a cold cellar drowning from the inside turmoil of his overflowing tobacco tin, for the first time in many years, he is overcome by grief and pain triggered by Beloved.
In the end, I think Beloved’s message shows that a precarious balance between acknowledging and healing from the past must be attained in order to live the present to its fullest, and therefore the brightest future. This concept appears in the juxtaposition of the wording in the final chapter, which both says not to pass on the memory of Beloved and ends the entire novel with the single word “Beloved," signaling the remaining importance of her memory and its indelible presence. In short, the past can and should not be forgotten. Though Beloved's name and precise story may no longer haunt Blue Stone Road in the same form, the consequences of the Fugitive Slave Law will forever endure in the history and chains of (often horrifying) events that founded the American society we live in today and will live in tomorrow.
Work cited
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Vintage Classics, 2007.
This was such an interesting blog to read! You underline a really important part of this book and I think you brought in a great point in the end. The form of the pain may change, but its lasting presence continues through generations. This presence is hard to visualize, so Morrison introduced Beloved, a physical representation of those painful memories that seem impossible to ever resolve. The concept of rememory also ties into this idea. Future generations will still have new experiences of learning of the pain---although not even close to the same extent---and its presence continues on. Though, I am still not sure what the last chapter means by "this is not a story to pass on" since it seems to contradict their being an importance to rememory, of which I interpreted this book to encourage... Great post!
ReplyDeleteThere is an ambiguity in the phrase "This was not a story to pass on": it suggests that the story should not be told and "passed on" to future generations, but also that it can't be "passed on" as in "skipped" or "ignored." (I didn't notice this ambiguity myself--I read it somewhere.) Morrison clearly believes that the story of Sethe and Beloved SHOULD be passed on in the sense of told and retold--she tells and retells it multiple times over the course of the novel. There's also ambiguity in what "forgetting Beloved" means here: forgetting the ghost/zombie character named "Beloved" who occupies 124 and nearly drains Sethe of her life-force? Or forgetting the *baby* and the "Misery" at 124 itself--what "Beloved" the zombie represents? The ending of the novel is future-focused, and we get the sense that to survive as a damaged couple who can support each other, Paul and Sethe shouldn't *dwell* on the past or be "haunted" by it, like Sethe is at the start of the novel. But I agree with you: how could this NOT be a core part of both of their memories, and even something that should be acknowledged and memorialized?
ReplyDeleteEven though Beloved left 124 and theoretically freed Sethe, Denver, and Paul D. from her hauntings, she will never truly let her grasp go of them. Rememory will always have a hold on Sethe and she will consistently be forced to relive the traumatized memory of the past. I like how you discussed in the beginning that however much Sethe wants to forget and says she will, realistically everything will be with her forever and she will remain trapped.
ReplyDeleteI think this question is one of the core themes of the book. The past is a never ending nightmare for the formerly enslaved, and nobody in modern society can really understand what that pain must have been like. I don't think anybody can forget something as traumatic as slavery, especially with the case of Sethe and what she did to Beloved.
ReplyDeleteI think the point of the book is not about forgetting the past, but coming to terms with it. Had Sethe never faced her demons, Denver would likely not have ended up attending college, for example. The past in my opinion isn't portrayed as something to be forgotten, but revered and understood, while not dwelling so deep in it that you cannot move forward.
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