How Does Sethe Lose Memory In Beloved

The bigger picture of novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison, seems to involve the past. Both Sethe and Paul D avoid the pain of their past as best they can, and both have developed elaborate coping mechanisms to keep the past away. Even as they attempted to escape, whether they succeeded or not, the slave inside of them still exists. They constantly live in fear of recapture. Sethe has effectively erased a lot of her memory, and Paul D functions by locking his memories and emotions away in his “tobacco tin heart.” The quote, by Gaston Bachelard, helps explain the concept of not leaving the past behind. It illuminates the meaning of the novel; Do not forget the past but you must learn to move on from it.

Sethe’s life had always been difficult. Because it was so horrific, the past can be easily forgotten, but the past always seems to come back to haunt you. It may be in the form of a “fully dressed woman walking out of the water.”

(Morrison 50) She cannot allow herself to move forward when the experiences of the past haunt her. Sethe describes the imprint slavery had on her to Denver as she warns her never to go to Sweet Home. “Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place -the picture of it- stays...” (Morrison 36). Just as Sweet Home will never go away, the experiences and memories cannot be erased. Sethe has escaped from her captivity, yet she still remains captive by the memory of it. " Paul D’s arrival makes Sethe’s memories unwind. She begins to remember certain things about her past that catch her off guard. One example of that is when she is folding laundry. “ Oh my Jesus...Then she folded, refolded and double folded it. Neither was completely dry but the folding felt too fine to stop. She had to do something with her hands because she was remembering something that she had forgotten she knew.” (Morrison 61) Sethe ultimately embraced the past by finally reconciling with Beloved, telling her the reason for murdering her.
Paul D also remains bound to his past, though he constantly tries to deny it.

Emotionally, he hides his feelings better than Sethe, but his actions still indicate that he is still plagued with his experiences as a slave. Running away from the past has temporary relief, but everything catches back up to him when he finds Sethe. Paul D is bound to the past through Sethe and unable to let her go. He seems totally powerless once Beloved arrives. “She moved closer with a footfall he didn't hear and he didn't hear the whisper that the flakes of rust made either as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave he didn't know it. What he knew was that when he reached the inside part he was saying, "Red heart. Red heart," over and over again.” (Morrison 117) Sleeping with Beloved, seemed to get him to appreciate Sethe much more. It is almost as if Beloved unknowingly leads Paul D back to the heart for his love for Sethe and awakens his dormant emotional side. The connection of the past brings them together, their lives

bound.
The characters in this book rely on a strong sense of community. Everyone works together to help each other live with their pasts. They all seem to want to forget, however, everyone knows that that past will always come back. Baby Suggs’ congregation that gathers in the woods illustrates this, as neighboring African-Americans come together as a community. “Here, in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in the grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it.” (Morrison 88) But the community is angry. They do not approve of the crime Sethe committed because their jealousy and mistrust weighs on the feast so that it changes Baby Suggs’s perception of the dark and coming thing. The quote perfectly describes their anger; “ 124 shook with their voices far into the night. Ninety people who ate so well, and laughed so much, it made them angry. They woke up the next morning and remembered the meal- fried perch that stamp paid handled with a hickory twig, holding his left palm out against the spit and pop of the boiling grease; corn pudding made with cream; tired overfed children asleep in the grass, tiny bones of the roasted rabbit still in their hands -- and got angry.” (Morrison 137) Baby Suggs, however, does not seem to approve or condemn the crime. The community can not seem to get over the past and it only gets worse when Beloved arrives. However, they finally defeat the past and move on to help Sethe and Denver get rid of Beloved all together.
In conclusion, Gaston Bachelard helps explain the concept of not leaving the past behind. Do not forget the past but you must learn to move on from it. Sethe, Paul D, and the community had finally moved on from their pasts. Not one of them left it behind but embraced it. Embracing the past will help you focus on the future.