Beloved: Analysis :: essays research papers

From the beginning, Beloved focuses on the import of memory and history. Sethe struggles daily with the haunting legacy of slavery, in the form of her threatening memories and also in the form of her daughter’s aggressive ghost. For Sethe, the present is mostly a struggle to beat back the past, because the memories of her daughter’s death and the experiences at Sweet Home are too painful for her to recall consciously. But Sethe’s repression is problematic, because the absence of history and memory inhibits the construction of a stable identity. Even Sethe’s hard-won freedom is threatened by her inability to confront her prior life. Paul D’s arrival gives Sethe the opportunity and the impetus to finally come to terms with her painful life history. Already in the first chapter, the reader begins to gain a sense of the horrors that have taken place. Like the ghost, the address of the house is a stubborn reminder of its history. The characters refer to the house by its number, 124. These digits highlight the absence of Sethe’s murdered third child. As an institution, slavery shattered its victims’ traditional family structures, or else precluded such structures from ever forming. Slaves were thus deprived of the foundations of any identity apart from their role as servants. Baby Suggs is a woman who never had the chance to be a real mother, daughter, or sister. Later, we learn that neither Sethe nor Paul D knew their parents, and the relatively long, six-year marriage of Halle and Sethe is an anomaly in an institution that would regularly redistribute men and women to different farms as their owners deemed necessary. The scars on Sethe’s back serve as another testament to her disfiguring and dehumanizing years as a slave. Like the ghost, the scars also work as a metaphor for the way that past tragedies affect us psychologically, â€Å"haunting† or â€Å"scarring† us for life. More specifically, the tree shape formed by the scars might symbolize Sethe’s incomplete family tree. It could also symbolize the burden of existence itself, through an allusion to the â€Å"tree of knowledge† from which Adam and Eve ate, initiating their mortality and suffering. Sethe’s â€Å"tree† may also offer insight into the empowering abilities of interpretation. In the same way that the white men are able to justify and increase their power over the slaves by â€Å"studying† and interpreting them according to their own whims, Amy’s interpretation of Sethe’s mass of ugly scars as a â€Å"chokecherry tree† transforms a story of pain and oppres sion into one of survival.

Farewell Speech Essay

Worthy principle respected teacher and my dear fellow student a.s.a. I am Alizeh Eman from class 9 girls. Today we all have gathered here to bid the matric class of our school our farewell. This academic year is about to come to an end. We all might say that we don’t like school or we want to get out of it as soon as we can but when it all really comes to an end we know we will really miss it.And I bet that all the matric class students understand this perfectly well since its really the end of school for them now. They have really gone through it all and will soon enter their pratical lives. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the matric class on behalf of my whole class. This batch of the matric class shall never be forgotten. They have really been ideal seniors for us. They have correctedus when we went wrong and have patted out backs on our achievements. They have not only been great seniors but they have also been great students. The have certainly studid as hard as they could and have made their teachers proud and have inspired us to do the same. They have guided not only us but the other juniors as well and have always tried to give in your best to lead us to the right path. Our matric class is now at a very important stage of life. This is where a new life begins for you. It gives great sorrow to do this, but we have to bid you our goodbyes. As you step forward into this new phase of your life, we hope for you to get the very best in life. We hope from God to keep you under his protection and bless you with a great future. We hope you remember us through the years of life Personally, and on the behalf of Class 9, Our teachers and respected principle, I wish you all the best in your says ahead.

John Mercer Langston Abolitionist, Politician and Educator