1.4 Strategy of Development of Argument

Chapter Two demonstrates and analyzes textual fragments which are focus on the management of time. Chapter Three and Chapter Four both collect and demonstrate fragments about characters and analyze the significance of fragmented narrative. Chapter Three focuses on the fragments that describe the characters while Chapter Four focuses on the fragments that describe the experiences of characters.

2. The Fragments of Time Management in Beloved

There are indispensable descriptions in Beloved that call readers’ attention: the descriptions of the past. Morrison describes the past through characters’ conversations and memories, especially Sethe’s and Paul D’s. Besides, she interrupts the narration of the life in 124 Bluestone Street by describing experiences that characters experienced many years ago. Looking at the following examples: 

“No more powerful than the way I loved her,” Sethe answered and there it was again. The welcoming cool of unchiseled headstone; the one she selected to lean against on tiptoe.... (Morrison 5)

“...feel how it feels to be a coloredwoman roaming the roads with anything God made liable to jump on you....”

“I know every bit of that, Sethe,....” (Morrison 80)

OUT OF SIGHT OF Mister’s sight... Paul D began to tremble....When he turned his head, aiming for a last look at Brother, turned it as much as the rope that connected his neck to the axle of a buckboard allowed.... (Morrison 120)

The first example describes the memory about the business that Sethe makes with engraver, which is recalled when Sethe and Denver discuss the ghost in 124. When Sethe says, “No more powerful than the way I loved her,” readers may have an inference that Sethe will give specific descriptions about how she loves her daughter, Beloved. However, it is quite different from what Morrison writes, she describes a dark experience through Sethe’s memory which can indicate how much Sethe loves her daughter. In this way, the business between Sethe and engraver seems not so dark and dirty because readers know the reason and somewhat understand Sethe. 

The second example is about a conversation between Sethe and Paul D, which takes place after dinner. They argue about the hard life and cruel experiences in the past. Both Sethe and Paul are unwilling to recall the horrible past. In the past, they do not have freedom, they do not have dignity, and they are almost treated like animals in Sweet House. Through their conversation, we can guess how hard they lived, how powerless they felt, and how smallness they were. They wanted to change their life, they wanted to escape from the Sweet House, they wanted to fight against schoolteachers, but, the only thing they can do was to yield to the slavery. For readers, it is unimaginable that schoolteachers steal Sethe’s milk, Paul D has a bit in his mouth, and Paul D has a feeling that he is something else which is less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a tub in Sweet House. When readers nearly cannot tolerate their sufferings, their conversation stops suddenly and Morrison writes the peaceful scene again: Paul D calms down, Sethe comforts him, and Denver and Beloved dance upstairs. This scene also makes readers clam down before they are out of control and gives readers a sense that at least they have a better life now and no one tyrannizes them. 

The last example is a whole chapter which is mainly about their life as slaves. But it interrupts the narration of present life in 124. At the end of the last chapter, we have a picture that Denver and Beloved watch a fight of two turtles at the riverbank, however, Morrison does not draw readers’ attention to the interaction between Denver and Beloved, she presents abused life of slaves without any hints. Their necks are connected to the axle, they cannot have breakfast, and they do not have right to say anything but “ Hiiii!” and “Yes, sir.”...At the end of this chapter, Morrison tells readers that it is a part of Paul D’s memories which he does not want to recall. The description of the life as slaves is stopped when Paul D stops recalling, and life in 124 is presented again. Just as what Morrison says, “the order and quietude of everyday life would be violently disrupted by the chaos of the needy dead,” the quietness of readers’ mental state is also violently disrupted by Paul D’s sufferings and the sense of mood being out of control is abating when Paul D stops recalling and life in 124 is represented.