Communicating Through Numbers in Beloved
Humanity uses numbers as a way to communicate beyond words, evoking ideas more readily than words alone are able to. All religions and cultures have significant numbers that communicate an essence or idea more quickly and completely than words can. It is in this manner that Toni Morrison uses numbers in Beloved. Significant numbers occur starting with the first symbols of the text and the words on the pages before the body of the text starts.
124. The first thing to appear, and we already have a significant number. Sethe has four children. The third one is dead. Numbers 1, 2, and 4 remain. Another number that stands alone in its significance is twenty-eight. Twenty-eight is the length of the menstrual cycle, the lunar month, and the duration of Sethe's happiness: "Sethe had had twenty-eight days - the travel of one whole moon - of unslaved life. From the pure clear stream of spit that the little girl dribbled into her face to her oily blood was twenty-eight days" (95). Sethe has lived twenty years of sorrow, for twenty-eight days of pleasure, and spends another eighteen suffering before Paul D and Beloved brighten her life again. "Those twenty-eight happy days were followed by eighteen years of disapproval and a solitary life....Was that the pattern? she wondered. Every eighteen or twenty years her unbelievable life would be interrupted by a short-lived glory?" (173). This symbol is significant, and twenty-eight appears only within this context.
Many numbers occur that are significant even though they are not recurring themes throughout the book. Howard and Buglar "[ran] away by the time they were thirteen years old" (3), the traditional age of manhood ...
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...tion" (695). This seems precisely what is happening when Sixo dies.
As we see, numbers play an enormous role in Beloved. They communicate concepts in a sort of psychic shorthand, adding a deeper subtext to many events. The way in which the numbers are used is universal, using symbols common to all of humanity. It is universal comprehension like that which gives Beloved the power it has, its genius, and its beauty.
Works Cited
Gaskell, G. A. Dictionary of All Scriptures and Myths. (New York: The Julian Press, 1960) p. 695
Herder Dictionary of Symbols. Trans. Boris Matthews. (Wilmette, Illinois: Chiron Publications, 1993)
Mackey, Cameron. Interviews with. Haverford College, December 1995.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. (New York: Plume, 1988)
Schimmel, Annemarie. The Mystery of Numbers. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)
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What is a healthy confusion? Does the work produce a mix of feelings? Curiosity and interest? Pleasure and anxiety? One work comes to mind, Beloved. In the novel, Beloved, Morrison creates a healthy confusion in readers by including the stream of consciousness and developing Beloved as a character to support the theme “one’s past actions and memories may have a significant effect on their future actions”.
Martin Luther King Jr. had a significant impact on society in terms of civil rights for the less privileged and created a model for peaceful protest. It is important for everyone to know who King is because of his impact on today’s society. If it was not for him society would still be heavily segregated. White patriotic people would still have advantages in their schools and society that “colored” people did not. King is a humongous icon in America’s society today, we even have a special holiday for him celebrated every third monday of January. Even though he helped “colored” people win their civil rights America’s society is still racist to a certain extent. He is still an icon for peaceful protesting.
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Martin Luther King Jr., was influenced by his father and followed in his footsteps to continue to have freedom for the colored race. Born on January 15, 1929, he had a lot to live up to. According to experts King “attended Atlanta public schools and graduated Morehouse College in 1948 and was ordained (make (someone) a priest or minister; confer holy orders on.) the previous year into the Ministry of Baptist Church.”(“Martin
Layton, Bentley. "The Gnostic Scripture." The Gnostic Scripture. New York: Doubleday, 1987, 1995. 9. Paperback.
Paralympics Games: this events is a major international multi-sport event involving athletes with a range of disabilities, including impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, vision impaired, and intellectual impairment. The opening ceremony for this year’s games attracted more than two million
...ge with Sethe. She not only searches for her face, but wants to be that face. In taking ownership of herself, Sethe unshackles herself from the ghosts of her past. Beloved has helped Sethe to free herself, and now can finally depart. Beloved takes Sethe's complex past and from it lifts one of life's simple truths: only you can define yourself. Sethe is finally free and at peace.
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The Internet is a global network of vast information. With a few clicks, an individual can have access to up to 200 million web-sites filled with educational and recreational information. The Internet is not regulated in anyway (Carnegie Library 1). It is accessible throughout the entire world from the North to the South, to the early morning sunrise and dark sunsets. Different ethnicity and backgrounds come together linked upon this network resembling a connection of one body in unity. Sadly, issues arise creating concern for users, focusing particularly on minors. Pornography is one of the inappropriate materials on the Internet for minors. This material is harmful to young impressionable minds. Pornography is tearing and disintegrating the foundations of our society can be described as follows, "what was available to a small number of people willing to drive to the bad side of town can now be viewed at any time in the privacy of one"s home" (Anderson 2). In order to understand how to aid in the critical decision of whether or not to censor child pornography, an individual has to first clearly understand a few terms. These terms will aid in a clear understanding throughout the case study.
Did you know that 83.5% of the images available on the Internet are pornographical? Did you know that the Internet’s pornography and hate literature are available to curious children that happen to bump into them?
"Tennis Equipment and History." Tennis Equipment History and Rules. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. .
It could carry only a few and was usually used by the important people. In wars and battles, the chariot became the identity of the warrior. The number of chariots in one’s army signified his military strength. The chariot was often buried with the owner signifying it’s importance as a personal belonging. Animal drawn carriages and carts remained the norm for millenniums to come until the dawn of the automobile.
To be a professional table tennis player you must be an athlete who has participated in the Continental
The Internet came with an abundant amount of benefits for our civilization as a whole. People became more connected and had the ability to access information they would have otherwise never seen. Yet, there is another side to this connectivity a much more malicious side: pornography. Pornography, typically abbreviated as porn, dominates the internet- as many as 12% of all websites are pornographic and the industry is worth nearly $97 billion . With regards to acceptance, some supported pornographic consumption while others rejected it due to religious or moral beliefs. Porn was considered as something that was not very dangerous. This has all changed, however, within the last decade as piles of research highlights the crude effects of pornography, not just on adults, but also adolescents. Porn harms adolescents through obscenity and early exposure to sexual images, this in turn promotes less progressive gender roles and sexual behavior .