A Final Reflection- Erin

Reading this book was an experience. At times it was a really disturbing experience as some of the details in the book were especially unnerving. But the history of the novel were very evident throughout the book. But what I most learned from this book was the importance of facing your past. The theme of the book is that people are burdened with their past and they must face it to move forward. Sethe was so consumed by the guilt of killing her daughter that she felt like she had to be punished. This is evident when she wouldn't move from the haunted house and when she kept trying to justify her actions to Beloved. The psychological effects of past pain is forever but people cannot keep living in the past. Denver is able to move forward when she confronts herself and the outside world that she was once so scared of. Paul D was able to move forward when he was able to open the rusty tin box of his heart. And Sethe, at the end, was trying to protect her children like she should have, attacking the white person instead of killing her children.

The history in this book is astounding. It directly confronts all the pain and inhumanity of the slave trade and the effects of the people afterword. This is not in any history textbook or class. This book can really open up a person's eyes to the institution of slavery. Also as I was reading the articles I looked at the text in different ways. I was really surprised when I was presented with the story of Margaret Garner. Sethe's story of killing her children was based on a real life story that became one of the most ground breaking fugitive slave trial of the pre-Civil War period. Looking through at this book through the New Historian lens gave me more information about slavery. But reading other peoples blogs helped me see the book through other lens's that made this book very relevant because this book is about confronting our past. Everyone has memories that they would rather forget but if we continue to focus on them then we lose our chance in the present. We should remember the past but we should not let it consume us.