BelovedWater Motif
In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison writes about the life of former slaves of Sweet Home. Sethe, one of the main characters, was once a slave to a man and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Garner. After Garner’s sudden death, schoolteacher comes to Sweet Home and takes control of the slaves. His treatment of all the slaves forced them to run away. Fearing that her children would be sold, Sethe sent her two boys and her baby girl ahead to her mother-in-law. On the way to freedom, a white girl named Amy Denver helped Sethe deliver her daughter, who she later names Denver. About a month after Sethe escapes slavery, schoolteacher found her and tried to bring her back. In fear that her children would be brought back into slavery, Sethe killed her older daughter and attempted to kill Denver and her boys. Sethe, along with Denver, was sent to prison and spent three months there. Buglar and Howard, her two sons, eventually ran away. After about eighteen years, another ex-slave from Sweet Home, Paul D., came to live with Sethe and Denver. A few days later, while coming home from a carnival, Sethe, Paul D., and Denver found a young woman of about twenty on their porch. She claimed her name is Beloved. They took her in
and she lived with them. Throughout the novel, Morrison uses many symbols and imagery to express her thoughts and to help us better understand the characters. Morrison uses the motif of water throughout the novel to represent birth, re-birth, and escape to freedom. Through her usage of water as a motif, Morrison expresses her feelings and helps us to better understand the novel. Water comes to represent birth, re-birth, and freedom and escape from slavery. There is also a deeper meaning to all of this. Water also comes to represent a sort of life force for Beloved. When she just appears for the first time, she comes out of the water. But she also needs to drink a vast amount of water. It seems as though she needs the water to survive. For Sethe, water comes to mean both a sort of re-awakening and a symbol of freedom. This is apparent through her actions and emotions when she was bathed by Baby Suggs. Water also represents freedom for Paul D. This is because he escaped due to the mud created by the water. The motif of water is well used throughout the book to come to signify many things to the characters. Morrison also uses the motif of water to represent freedom and escape from slavery. For Paul D., water was an essential part of obtaining his freedom from the prison camps in Alfred, Georgia. “It rained. In the boxes the men heard the water rise in the trench and looked out for cottonmouths. They squatted in muddy water, slept above it, peed in it…it happened so quick he had no time to ponder…one by one, from Hi Man back on down the like, thy dove. Down through the mud under the bars, blind, groping” (p. 110). In this passage, Paul D. is at a prison camp in Alfred, Georgia. All of the prisoners were locked up and chained. One day it started raining and did not stop. It rained so much that all the dirt under the bars of the “cells” turned to soft mud. At this point, the prisoners decided to escape. The dove through the mud and ran away to safety and freedom. If it weren’t for water, the dirt would not have turned to dirt and Paul D. would never have escaped form the prison camp. Throughout her novel, Toni Morrison also uses the motif of water to signify re-birth. When we fir
Some common words found in the essay are:
Sethe Amy, Sweet Home, Alfred Georgia, Baby Suggs, Beloved Beloved, Paul Denver, Ohio River, Amy Denver, Beloved Morrison, Suggs Water, sweet home, motif water, morrison motif, water throughout, baby suggs, water represents, water motif, water comes, morrison motif water, throughout novel, sweet home sethe, baby suggs’, water represents freedom, water comes represent, freedom escape slavery,
Approximate Word count = 1526
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
