One major motif in the novel is that of scars. Which characters bear scars? What kinds of scars do they carry? What do these scars mean for them, for their lives, and how do they deal with these scars? Are these scars only negative, or do they have any positive meanings or outcomes?Overall, what role do scars play in the novel? How are they used symbolically? How do scars play a similar role in
our own lives and the world around us?
There are two different types of scares: mental and physical. I do believe that every African American in the story at least has a mental scar from their past slavery. You can tell by all the flashbacks and how vividly they are stained into their minds.
ReplyDeleteAs far as physical scars go, first there’s Sethe. She has a huge scar that looks like a tree on her back. The desire to have a tree etched into her back like that was definitely not why it is there. It’s a physical reminder that she was a slave and she did mess up bad enough to get a whipping. Then there is Beloved’s scar on her neck right near the “goochie goo” I think the book calls it. This scar proves a point that Beloved is in fact Sethe’s daughter. It’s a reminder that Sethe did try to kill her as well. I think it more scars Sethe to see it than it does bother Beloved. It makes Sethe feel as if she has to make things up to Beloved.
Not all scars are bad. Scars are more or less a reminder more than a mark on your skin. To spin off that it’s like memories in general; some are bad and others are good. Mentally it could be something that you see at a young age that ruins or changes your thoughts for the rest of your life. Such as seeing your parents put presents under the tree at Christmas time and realizing Santa Clause isn’t real. Or maybe on a good note, you could have mentally scarred on your mind where you first met your significant other for the first time. Physically the only way to get a scar is through pain of some sorts. Now that doesn’t it mean it has to be bad like a scar from when you broke your leg or whatnot. It could a scar from running into a fence while having a water balloon fight. And now you will always remember that water balloon fight. Scars are just reminders and stories hidden either in your mind or on your body and they hold both good and bad memories.
I have never considered the term "scarring" with a positive connotation. The explanation you gave is poetic in its intent, but I wouldn't think my significant other scarred me, until after she was gone. I understand where you're coming from, there are good things that will be forever present in our memories, but "scar" isn't the right term. Aside from semantics, I agree with you, scars are lifelong reminders that make up who we are as people.
DeleteThe events that take place in Beloved revolve around slavery. The scars of the past. Sethe bares scars of being whipped. She buries her sense of self underneath those scars. Paul D has scars around his heart, his tin box heart. Paul D knows not to ever love anything too much so that when that love is taken away you can put a little love into something else. Denver has the scars of her family, the jaded treatment of the haunted, a scar that prevents her from leaving 124 nearly forever. Denver's isolation is how she deals with her pain. Baby Suggs becomes defeated by the oppression, by her children's plight. She lays down to deal with her scars. Too much burden, and then death. The woman who steals ducks because she thinks they are her children does not deal with the scarring at all, just goes crazy and is eventually hanged until death by the oppressors who condemned her.
ReplyDeletePage 234 has a passage that I think addresses this: ...the deeper and more tangled the jungle grew inside. But it wasn't the jungle blacks brought with them to this place from the other (livable) place. It was the jungle white folks planted in them. And it grew, it spread. In, through and after life, it spread, until it invaded the whites who had made it. ...Made them bloody, silly, worse than even they wanted to be, so scared were they of the jungle they had made.
As people, everyone on the planet must deal with some sort of hardship. The pain of our humanity is our scar. Our shameful pain-filled past is documented well in the past several centuries. Slavery, genocide, starvation, fanaticism, supremacy doctrine, etc. This is our global scar. The scars of environment compound the local mental and physical scars that we carry each day. Every person has a plot with exposition, multiple rising actions and climaxes, denouements. The cycle of pain and suffering, survival and perseverance. The scars remind us of the past we have endured.
This is a very good point. Humanity itself does have many scars on it. You live and you learn. That is exactly why we study history. So we can look back at our scars and not make those same mistakes again.
DeleteThe protagonist of the story is Sethe, who bears the largest of scars on her back that resembles a tree. It could have a double meaning not only does it give a reminder of who she is but it also reminds her of where she came from. Paul D also bears scars from slavery on his chest covering his heart. He describes his heart as a “tin tobacco box” after he suffers traumatizing events at Sweet home and the prison camps in Georgia. He locked away his feelings and memories in the box. Paul D believes by alienating himself from his emotions he can save himself from further psychological damage. There were others who suffered before her and others who will suffer after her. Beloved is seen as not a person but as all the slaves who have suffered. Beloved bears scar of all the slaves that had lost their lives. The scars are a reminder of the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain brought on by slavery. It haunts those who were former slaves even after they are free, but the most dangerous effect is the negative impact on the former slaves’ sense of one’s-self. The scars are used as a reminder of the haunting past of slaves. They are a physical mark that will stay with those that bear it as long as they live. The pain does not go away no matter how happy they become, the memories of the scars will follow them where ever they go. In my own life today I bear the scars of what my ancestors suffered, but I do not use that as an excuse to hold me back in whatever endeavors I partake in. Today some people judge others based solely on their skin color without even getting to know what kind of character they have. I have friends from all different races and backgrounds, who chose to judge someone by their heart. I explain to my friends of African descent that you must strive to succeed even though you will be tested throughout your life. There are only a few of us who understand this, but the others must learn to stop the ignorance for us to reach our maximum potential. I believe “We are gifted, but cursed” at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI love when you say you will be tested throughout your life. I don't think that could be any more true.I think if you truly want something it wont come easy and you will have to work for it, be tested to see if it can be yours. And I think when you said "we are gifted, but cursed" at the same time also hold true to all of us. When going through life there are always pros and cons and sometimes the cons are inevitable (cursed) and sometimes there are certain attributes a person have that are pros (gifted) and going through life we have to be excepting of all the pros and cons.
DeleteEveryone in the novel bears some sort of scars. Whether they were the people torturing or being tortured, the scars of the past will always stay with them. These scars may be mental or physical. Although everyone in the novel bears some sort of scars, the ones that are focused on the most are the main characters. Sethe bears both mental and physical scars. I believe this is what makes her a dynamic character. Her scars are a symbol of the horrible things in the past that she has endured. In the beginning of the novel she blocks out the memories of the scars of her past. She keeps her physical scars covered up and never speaks of the mental scars she holds on to. Throughout the rest of the novel she is able to start talking about her past and really starts to deal with it. I believe she is a dynamic character because she changed so much from the start of the novel to the end. She has come to terms with the memories of her past and accepted them so that she can move on with her life. Positive things come from dealing with her scars but I do not think their are any scars that are positive. I think Denver's scars come from the fact that her mother will not speak of her past to Denver. She feels a loss of connection because of it. She is emotionally scared because she does not really get to have a relationship with anyone outside of her home. Her only company is from her older sister in the form of a ghost that was murdered as a baby until Beloved shows up at their door. Once Sethe deals with her past Denver can overcome her own past and start to grow up. She goes from being stuck inside the home to being able to grow up, get a job and take care of her family. Paul D has the emotional scars that he never wanted to deal with so he just kept running away from them. He finally deals with them when he gets to Sethe's home. They work through their past together and he too gets to over come his past. He too gets a positive outcome from dealing with the scars of his past.
ReplyDeleteOverall, the scars play a role of reminding the characters of what they have been through in their past. The scars are symbolic of the cruel treatment of people marked as slaves all throughout history . Scars play a similar role in our lives because everyone has dealt with difficult things they do not like to remember and that they can chose to either define them or move beyond. Ryan Brown states that one could have a good mental scar of remembering when a person met their significant other for the first time. I do not think think this would be classified as a scar. I think an example of a positive scar would be a cancer patient who has a scar of where the tumor was removed, this would be a constant reminder that they are now healthy.
Just like Ryan said, there are two types of scars in this novel: mental and physical. At least once in the novel the characters talk about their past and how it has changed their present situation. This I would characterize as a mental scar. Although we cannot see it on the outside it is something that stays with the character whether they like it or not.
ReplyDeleteSethe bears the scars of her murder, rape, and losing her husband and sons. Although she killed her daughter out of protection it stays with her. Paul D believed she did the right thing so a case for a positive scar could be made here. However, that act caused her two sons to flee. She did the act out of love to defend her children but was forced to deal with its consequences daily. She is also reminded of her time as a slave by the whipping scars on her back that form the shape of a tree.
Paul D also has his fair share of scars. None are physical, but their emotional mark is rather large. Towards the end of the novel he finally comes to the realization that he has always been running. He ran from Sethe, slavery, and prison. He also carried a great deal inside tobacco tin. He shared the story of Sethe and Halle’s separation and did regret it but I think he did so in order he heal his scars. Overall I thought he dealt with his scars well by facing their realities and coming to truth with them.
Finally I found their analogies on forgetting the past and loving very interesting. Paul D spoke of it often. Saying you should not love one thing to much because when it is gone you need love left over for something new. They also talk about forgetting yesterday to make room for tomorrow. I understand his point on love, especially after experiencing something as awful as slavery. If they became to invested, their losses would simply be too devastating to overcome. I also enjoyed his thoughts about yesterday and tomorrow. I believe it is important to move on from the past, but I don’t think we should ever forget it and I think that is what he was trying to say.
That purpose of forgetting yesterday to make room for tomorrow is a positive way to deal with scars. That section of Paul D's explanation of love was powerful. I think you're right to never forget the past but to be moving away from it at the same time. I may never know the damage an extremely traumatizing experience, but in the general sense this can hold true.
DeleteBeloved incorporates a variety of scars throughout the novel. The main characters of the novel, those who live at 124 Bluestone Road, carry mental or physical scars. Sethe carries the physical scars on her back when she was whipped at Sweet Home, along with emotional trauma that occurred while she was there. The novel hints at rape from schoolteacher’s nephews. The scars on her back are described as a chokecherry tree; however, Sethe carries the pain of not escaping Sweet Home with her husband Halle and her children. Sethe also has to deal with psychological trauma after she killed her first daughter to protect her from schoolteacher. Paul D suffers from emotional trauma from his time at Sweet Home and the prison camp at Alfred, Georgia. Paul D carries his scars within the “box” referred to as the rusted tobacco tin in his chest. This tobacco tin was rusted over due to the abuse he suffered through. Paul D suffered when he tried to escape Sweet Home with Sethe and the other men. His punishment was an iron but was used on him so he could not speak. Denver faces psychological scars because she is isolated from others based on the rumors about her mother and her mother’s lack of telling her the truth about her past. Denver secludes herself in the comfort of her dead sister’s ghost. This concept is detrimental to the development of her character. These characters carry scars, regardless of what variety due to the consequences of slavery.
ReplyDeleteScars aren’t always negative, although scars can be hideous in appearance, it can teach others a life lesson. Scars bear the concept of life experience because the individual lived through the event to tell the tale. Maggie Buss makes a very good point that it reminds the characters of their past and the history which made them as they are today. These scars in the novel are to symbolize the humanity these ex-slaves have and the suffering that followed throughout their lifetime. Scars in real life can transcend the physical marks and symbolize our own humanity. Humanity itself is tough and can bear the weight of the harsh reality of our world.
In the novel “Beloved,” the character Sethe, has scars in the shape of a tree on her back. Sethe’s scars are a constant reminder of the pain she experienced towards the end of her time at Sweet Home under the vicious control of Schoolteacher. The horrors she faced, that led her to try and take her children’s lives, to spare them from the misery. The tree shaped scar is a symbol of growth, and Sethe learns to face her past head on, in order to grow and move on with her life. The scars across Sethe’s back are very negative in origin, however, they do lead towards the light at the end of the tunnel in regards to Sethe’s transformation. The tree represents Sethe’s ability to grow from slavery. Even though it is a reminder of a horrible time in her life, she eventually uses it to live peacefully.
ReplyDeleteThe overall roll of scars in the novel is one of recovery. When a person suffers a wound, no matter how deep, or whether it be physical or mental, there is always a scar. It is a reminder of the wound, it is a reminder of what happened to get the wound, and it is a reminder of how not to make the same mistakes. Throughout the novel, scarring was the author’s literary device used to express that the scars left from slavery, were deep and many weren’t fully healed at the time. In the same respect, the scars were the avenue the characters travelled on to stabilize their lives and gain peace.
I learned a great many things as a child, several of which involved a permanent mark being added to my face. I have a few scars in other places, but I tended to aim my mischief towards my head. The scars, when I realize they are still there, bring back memories of the ridiculous situations I used to get into, and are a stark reminder of things I shouldn’t attempt any longer. Aside from humorous anecdotes, scars can represent much more meaningful ideals than learning not to jump head first into a counter corner. Powerful messages are often delivered through scars. The image that comes to mind is that of breast cancer awareness. It is an image with a young woman, who has had her breast surgically removed and all that is left is scarring on her bare chest, but she is still beautiful.
Just like Ryan Brown stated, scars can be mental or physical. The characters in Beloved have lead difficult lives and all carry scars of some sort. Sethe has both types of scars. She has lost her husband, she murdered her oldest daughter, her sons ran off, and Baby Suggs died. These losses weigh heavily on her character.
ReplyDeleteSethe was whipped before leaving Sweet Home. Amy, the white girl who helped deliver baby Denver, describes Sethe’s scars as a chokecherry tree with “tiny little cherry blossoms.” (Page 79) These physical scars are a testament to Sethe’s dehumanizing years as a slave and a constant reminder of what she will never allow her children to suffer. However, Amy transforms a story of pain, into one of survival and strength by saying the scars look like a beautiful tree.
Paul D. is mentally scarred from his time at Sweet Home and the prison camp in Georgia. He refers to his heart as a “tin tobacco box.” Paul has locked away all of his traumatizing experiences and the feelings associated with those experiences inside this box. Paul D. uses the idea of the box as a coping mechanism to preserve himself psychologically. He deals with his emotions by repressing his memories. He has a very difficult time dealing with his memories and emotions after the “box” is broken by Beloved.
The character Beloved is speculated to be Sethe’s murdered daughter. Beloved appears quickly after the spirit, that had been haunting Baby Sugg’s house for years, was banished by Paul D. She is the appropriate age and has a scar under her chin where her death wound would have been. Her character possesses many mental scars. She does not allow Sethe to attempt to justify her actions in killing the innocent child. Beloved almost leads Sethe into her grave by feeding off of her physically, eating all of the food, and emotionally, by causing Sethe to relive painful memories many times over.
Denver carries psychological scars because she is isolated from the people around her. She does not leave 124 often and is shunned from the people in the town because of her mother’s actions. She is angry with Paul D. when he banishes the ghost because she did not feel alone with the entity around. Denver immediately loves Beloved when she arrives and clings to her, without question. She becomes jealous of Beloved’s affection for Sethe and Sethe alone. Denver’s character grows towards the end of the novel out of necessity. She must leave her home and reach to the people around her for help, concerning her mother’s failing health. Denver learns to deal with her difficult past by facing it instead of locking it away.
Scars are not always negative. Some scars are reminders of things we should not do. I have a scar on my knee that reminds me not to run around outside amidst hurricane debris. Others can be life saving. My mother has a scar from surgery which removed a breast cancer tumor. Scars can teach us lessons and help us to learn from our mistakes. They can also remind us not to take our lives, or the people who come into them, for granted.
Scars are usually seen as a way to remember past mistakes, but some scars in life can represent positives and negatives. Scars in life are resembled by a tragic event, mistakes, or in some cases birth. Some parents have scars from child birth, which can be seen as a positive scar. Scars throughout Beloved remind characters of their past and what they should do in the present. Several characters in Beloved share scars that remind them of “Sweet Home” and other horrid events that have taken place in their lives. As Ryan Brown mentioned, many of the characters suffer from physical and mental scares. Physical scars are temporary pain, but the mental scar left behind will last for a lifetime. Many characters gain a positive outcome from the results of these scars and are able to use these positive outcomes to change their lives and the ones around them.
ReplyDeleteIn Beloved, the protagonist Sethe has many scars from the days she spent on the Sweet Home plantation. The scars resemble hatred to her, and remind her of her old life as a slave. She obtained her scars from as a form of punishment from schoolteacher through a severe whipping. The physical scar of the whipping is temporary pain, the mental scar she is left behind causes her to relive her older life. Although the scars resemble hatred to schoolteacher, it also reminds her that she has successfully overcome that horrid event and nothing can ever come close. Sethe uses the scars to her advantage by teaching her daughter and others the atrocities she endured while at Sweet Home.
Paul D, another major character in Beloved, also shares many scars gained over the years. Many of Paul D's scars come from the Sweet Home plantation, mostly involving mental scars. Paul D. suffers mental scars of losing many close friends and relatives from being unable to do anything as a slave. Most of his true thoughts are repressed and locked away in the “rusted tobacco bin” of his heart. Paul D's scars do not allow him to fully enjoy life, which causes him a lifetime of regret and depression. Although most of his scars are negative, he is still able to move on from his past life with Sethe. Through his relationship with Sethe, Paul D is able to fully enjoy his life and help Denver grow into a beautiful person.
There are several characters that have to carry the burden of having scars for the rest of their lives. Sethe has scars in the shape of a tree on her back from a brutal whipping. This “tree” would be there forever to remind her of her days on Sweet Home as a slave and the atrocity that slavery was. Not only does Sethe have physical scars, but she also has mental scars involving her daughter Beloved. Sethe has to live with the fact that she killed her own daughter by slicing her throat with a saw. Not only did she kill one of her children, she tried to kill Denver by bashing her head in against a wall, and she maimed her two sons. I believe that having to live with the guilt and the grief, along with seeing Beloved come back sent Sethe over the edge and played a crucial role with offsetting her mental balance. Besides Sethe, Denver has the mental scares that her mother tried to kill her when she was younger and that everyone in the town knew about the incident, but kept it from Denver. On page 120-121 Nelson Lord ask Denver about her mother going to jail for killing a kid. Denver was shell-shocked by this question to a point that she could not hear for two years. From that point on she was also mentally scared because she did not know if her mother was going to kill her too. That fear always plaguing a mind is detrimental to its development and it showed throughout the novel by how Denver acted around her mother and others.
ReplyDeleteSethe finally overcomes her mental and physical scars by overcoming her past and coming to terms with it. Her past was very emotionally and physically draining and it shows in the last chapter when all Sethe wants to do is sleep. Denver overcomes her scares by “stepping off the edge of the world” and becoming her own person. She has to overcome her past and her fears to take care of her mother. By doing this she grows up from the shy, timid little girl to a fully matured woman ready to take on the world. I would have to say that in the case of these two characters, that their scares were a positive outcome for them in the end.
In the real world scars are a way for people to remember events. Whether the even be mental or physical, that scar would always there, a reminder. I have several scars from accidents involving bikes or other some stupid activity that I thought was fun. Some people have “zippers” or scars on their chest to remind them of their open heart surgeries. Some people may never have a physical scar, but a mental one instead. The sight of a parent killing a sibling or watching a loved one die in a building collapse (i.e. World Trade Center). A scar can belong to a happy memory or it can haunt a person for life. These scars can change people’s outward look on certain topics throughout the world. The scarring from the Twin Towers collapse put a worldwide attention on terrorist. One scarring event can lead to a domino effect and create more scarring on a wider scale. Alexandria made a point about scars being able to teach us from the mistakes we make and I completely agree with that. It is almost like the saying we learn history, so we don’t repeat history. It is the same with scarring; if something scars us we won’t repeat that action.
For me, physical scars have always been a source of fascination and respect. I look at them like battle wounds in that they indicate survival. Whatever happened to cause that scar, you survived it and kept going. These marks aren’t open wounds anymore; they’ve healed. Rather than viewing scars as ugly or negative, I look at them as something more meaningful than that. In the novel Beloved, scars play a large part in shaping who the characters are and why they do the things that they do. The most obvious physical scar in the book is the “tree” on Sethe’s back, given to her schoolteacher and his nephews. This scar, while the result of something ugly and horrifying, is shown in an almost beautiful light after Amy’s description it’s resemblance to a cherry tree. While it serves as a constant reminder to the horrors that Sethe faced at Sweet Home, she takes comfort in calling it a tree, as it then becomes a reminder of survival and healing, rather than something more sinister.
ReplyDeleteAs countless other students have talked about before me, it’s also important to note the mental and emotional scars that the characters obtain throughout the novel. These are harder to give a positive connotation to, as mental or emotional scars can sometimes be much harder to heal from than physical scars. A person might appear to be completely healthy but is steadily falling apart on the inside. For instance, both Paul D and Sethe carry mental scars from their time at and just after Sweet Home. Sethe’s scars take the form of her infanticide and the way that she treats Beloved later on in the book as their relationship becomes more toxic. Paul D’s scars manifest themselves in his “rusted tin tobacco box” of a heart. Rather than letting himself be mentally abused again and again, he locks himself away in a metaphorical box that’s been closed for so long that it rusts. Sethe’s daughter Denver also carries a great deal of emotional scars from growing up in the environment that she did. This is evidenced in her dislike of anything that doesn’t directly have to do with her (such as stories of Sweet Home) and of how young and childish she acts, despite being 18 years old.
Similar to real life, this novel uses scars to tell the story of a person’s past, as well as how that past will affect their future. Maggie Buss said something about choosing to either let the negative experiences of your past define you or move on from them. I think that by using scars as such an important plot point in the novel, the author is trying to get across that exact same point; you can either let the bad things continue to affect you or you can learn from them and keep going.
you referring to scars in any instance as battle wounds from something a person survived and how that is positive are very interesting points and I never thought of it like that. I only looked at how that can affect a person not necessarily the positivity of them surviving the hardships they faced. Thank your my perspective on this has been broadened.
DeleteSethe is obviously the character that I most associate with scars in the novel, Beloved. Sethe’s scar is literal, the result of a whipping at the hands of her former master. Sethe received this whipping for trying to tell about the two men stealing her breast milk, something that deeply disturbed her because she felt so wholeheartedly that her breast milk should be reserved only for her infant. I think the fact that her scar is in the shape of a tree is a symbol in itself: it could be seen as representing a family tree, or just family in general, and the fact that the scar is on Sethe’s back symbolizes that Sethe is literally carrying the burden of trying to protect her family. Her scars represent her hatred of slavery and the lengths that she would go to in order to protect her children from it.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I believe that in the novel, scars are seen as a negative thing. For Sethe, and probably for other characters that bear physical and mental scars in the book like Baby Suggs and Paul D, the scars seem to symbolize an inability to escape the past, of being a slave to the past. They seem to enforce the idea that no matter where a person goes in life, they are still influenced and largely controlled by the things they’ve seen and experienced previously. Sethe’s scar and what it represents for her (the failure she felt at protecting her child and her milk from the hands of white men), directly influence Sethe’s actions further on in the novel, when she kills her child rather than fail her again.
In our own lives, I believe that scars are more a matter of interpretation; they can be viewed either negatively or positively. As Ryan Schussler and a few other people said, the obvious example of this would be a cancer survivor. Any scars obtained during their fight with cancer, rather than signifying being a victim to or of the past, instead symbolize being a survivor. They are not wounds, but rather badges of honor, showing not just that a battle was fought, but that a battle was won.
People commonly know that scars are not just physical. They can be mental as well. Physical scars people can see. If you say, this is where I hurt my leg, you can see the scar where the injury was even after it has healed. With emotional scars, although not seen, they too can still be present, present in the person’s heart and head. People who have emotional scars might act a certain or feel something like guilt, loss, anger or even the desire for revenge from emotional scars.
ReplyDeleteThe entire character list in Beloved has a scar of some sort. I feel that the setting of the scars plays an important role. The circumstance the characters were under when they received their scars, determines how they feel. They will feel either pain or joy. Sethe had many scars both physical and emotional. Some were minor scratches and some were deep. She had mental and physical scars from the Schoolteacher and his nephews’ abuse, such as rape. She had emotional scars from the guilt she felt for killing her child Beloved, and attempting to kill her other children. She had emotional scars from being a slave; the lack of freedom scarred her. Sethe had a whipping scar on her back in the shape of a tree; reminding her every day that she was, and always will be a slave. Whether a slave to herself or to an owner.
I agree with Ryan Brown in saying that Beloved’s scare on her neck bothers her mother more than it does her. When Sethe looks at Beloved, she will always be reminded of the time she tried to kill her. This action will also show Sethe that she loves her child very much and is willing to do what it takes to keep her safe. This ties into what Alex Shelly was saying about Paul D. He believed that Sethe was doing the right thing in protecting her children so Beloved’s scar can be seen as a positive memory.
The scars are a metaphor for characters lives. They obtain their scares through horrible experiences. The scars give the readers a deeper look into the characters. If you get hurt, heal, and get a scar it’s a constant physical reminder of the incident. If you have a mental scar you will be able to hide it but it will still be there.
There are scars all around us in world. We can see physical scars every day. Driving by a military cemetery you will see hundreds of scars. These scars helped our country in ways that we may never understand. Soldiers fought and served our homeland. I see this scar when I look at my aunt. The scar of my uncle leaving us due to his service will never dissipate, but it does seem that time heals all wounds.
Some mental scaring you may never notice until it is too late. Like the guy who goes postal and hurts others because he was fired from work, or the kid who jumped off a bridge because he is bullied at school for his sexuality. Physically they are not hurt, but emotionally they are very broken. No one knows they hurt until they exemplify they hurt, and by then you are either at a hospital bed or funeral.
Each character in the book Beloved suffers from scars both mental and physical. All except Denver have physical scars that correlate with actual physical abuse suffered during life as a slave. Scars are however symbolic. They represent past pain that can or will heal over time. For the Major characters Sethe, Paul D, Beloved, and Denver a lot of their most damaging scarring was done to them mentally which in turn bruises their personality and reflects in their actions.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to relate scarring to the protagonist Sethe because her physical scars are described vividly in the book. However, it is her mental scarring that has done the most damage. Sethe was born into slavery which is traumatizing in itself. She grew up as a young woman without the guidance of her parents which can be hard for even young women even in modern times without the burden of being “owned”. She witnessed her mother being burned alive. Was sexually assaulted and beaten while noticeably pregnant. All of these events happened and like any normal human being they had a lasting impression on her and how she viewed the world she lived in. When she finally ran away and experienced those 28 days of freedom she mentioned repeatedly how she experienced real happiness. Nonetheless, when she saw School Teacher, the antagonist and stereotypical slave owner, coming to get her and her children all of the past came back to her. The emotional scarring resurfaced and she acted on them. She knew the life School teacher had in store for her children and she would of rather them all die than to have them experience that life or even a piece of it. Her mental scarring shaped her actions negatively despite her having positive intentions, and they had the price of her sanity and 3 of her 4 children.
People become who they are based on their past experiences whether those experiences are good or bad. The past can dictate the future and in so many people’s lives it has. The rape victim, people in abusive relationships or have abusive parents. These people often live in fear or have post-traumatic stress disorder because of their past. Unlike when Sethe was alive there are now support groups and medicine to help cope with the anxiety and pain caused by the past so things like infanticide will not happen. Physiatrists and the medicine they can provide now have the main job of helping to heal the emotional scarring an individual has faced. Although, even with these resources available depression and suicide often occur in modern society without the same amount of emotional scarring Sethe suffered.
As ryan brown stated scars can be mental and they can be physical. In the story beloved, a lot of the important characters have scars. Sethe has scars on her back, Paul D has scars around his heart, Beloved has a scar on her throat. Each character deals with their own scars differently Sethe’s scars are seen many times through-out the novel by other people. There is one moment in the story where Paul D and Sethe are starring at each others’ scars. They are both looking to each other thinking of what lies in each ones past; the past at sweet home and in Cincinnati. One epigraph says “. . . if you go there—you who was never there—if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there . . . it’s going to always be there waiting for you.” That meaning you can’t escape the past. That is what I believe. Whether a person wants to believe it or not, the past is always there. The past can be in your conscience or sub-conscience, where ever it lies it is still there. Paul D tries to forget the past completely so he is able to move on but many times while talking to people, something would be said and the memories were brought up. No matter how hard he tried to not see the scars and past, they were still right there in front of him. The scar with beloved is an interesting one because I think it symbolizes how most people deal with scars. Sethe sees the scar on beloved and believes she has to redeem herself for what she has done. So many people live their lives trying to make up for what they did in the past. The role of scars in the novel shows that everyone has scars whether they are mental like Denver or is they are physical like seethe. I think scars symbolize that the person who endures them were stronger than what was hurting them and I think that’s important to keep in mind. The past is something that people should embrace and except that things happened. You can either live in regret and sorrow or you can learn from it and grow. In a way I think that is what Sethe is trying to do. There is no escaping from scars. Everyone we meet has some sort of scar or past and that’s what makes us who we are. It’s what makes us an individual, unique and original even.
ReplyDeleteScars play a huge role in the novel Beloved. In my opinion I think the scars are more affective mentally than physically. For example, the scar on Sethe back that is shaped like a tree doesn’t seem to faze her but the memory and story behind it does. In negative ways it symbolizes a tortured life. It’s interesting that to all of them the meaning of a “tree” is home or serenity but the scar on Sethe’s back is a memory of pain. The scar does become more positive when Paul D kisses it. Paul D on the other hand has mental scars. He has continuous memories of his time at Sweet Home where he was a part of a chain gang. Now he lives his life to believe he shouldn’t get attached to anything. Because of these memories he keeps his emotions bottled up in a “rusted tobacco tin” at the bottom of his heart. This reminded me of the Wizard of Oz when the tin man wanted a heart so badly. Sadly, for Paul D he doesn’t get it figured out in the end and for the rest of his life he questions his manhood. In the novel, scars play a role of telling background. They symbolize the world that they use to live in and the affects it has on them today. Scars symbolize the same thing in our world. I have experienced both the negative and positive side of scars. When I was in gymnastics I hurt myself on the high beam and after that I never wanted to get back on. I would stare at my scar, which reminded me that I could get hurt. I had some inspiration from a former gymnast who taught me that my scar could help me reach my goal by reminding me that I’m strong and I work hard.
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