After you complete your reading for today, we'd like you write your journal entry for chapter 9 as a blog post. The focus of it revolves about the issue of Memory, Rememory, and the Power of the Past - what is the novel saying about these topics at this point? What are the challenges and issues that arise when the past is either raised or specifically avoided? When is it embraced - when is it hidden - why?
As Sethe begins to revist her past through her memories in Chapter 9, she begins to unfold the secrets of her past. Baby Suggs, her mother in law, was similiar to the community leader of 124 Bluestone. She would stand at the Clearing and preach to her people and hope that they finally become their own people. These vivid memories allow Sethe to reflect as she revisted "Baby Suggs", "Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another." (112). Sethe begins to free herself from Halle. She slowly understands that he did not come back for her, and that Paul D. supported her and was the one she needed to spend her life with. She believed there would never be a time when Halle would come to her, so she claimed ownership of herself. Every part of her that she gave away to him many years earlier, now belonged to only Sethe. Her hands were her own and she was to do whatever work she wanted too with those hands.
Sethe's time at the Clearing also allows her to come upon her re memories that she does not seem to have grip on. After Denver accuses Beloved of choking Sethe, the breath begins to trigger a past occurrence. Sethe thought, "it was because the girl's breath was exactly like new milk." This references to Beloved's breath thrusting the same pain upon Sethe as the pain she felt as her milk was taken away from her. All of Sethe's milk was stolen moments after she gave birth to Denver, and the thought of someone else nursing her child was alarming. She wanted to have control of her own body and she was not allowing anyone else to nurse her baby. Aligning this, the breath of the girl who choked Sethe was taken away. Either that breath was the spirit of her dead child, or it was Baby Suggs reminding her that she was still there. Baby Suggs had assisted Sethe when she arrived at 124 Bluestone and helped her clean up. These re memories will help Sethe discover her own identity, just as Baby Suggs preached years earlier at the Clearing. Her visitation at this site was an important growing point for her because she has finally begun to understand that Paul D is in her life, her new relationship with Beloved, and her sole priority is Denver.
