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
would never have escaped form the prison camp. Through her usage of water as a motif, Morrison expresses her feelings and helps us to better understand the novel. Water is again used as a motif that signifies re-birth later on in the novel, but this time for Sethe. Sethe crawled into a boat that soon began to fill with water. When Beloved first appears at Sethe’s house, Sethe leans in to look at the woman’s face. Water also represents freedom for Paul D. Four times Denver filled it, and four times the woman drank as though she had crossed a desert” (p. When Sethe was running away form Sweet Home, she was pregnant. Also, Denver is actually born in the water because the boat that Sethe was in was filled up with water. This is like a re-birth for Sethe because not only does she feel refreshed and anew, but this also signifies her freedom from Sweet Home.
Common topics in this essay:
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Alfred Georgia,
Baby Suggs,
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Acceptance Essays
