Memory Lane Deconstruction

Memory is a very powerful tool of a person's mind. It can cause a person to relive a positive incident or do the exact opposite, meaning it causes the person to relive a painful moment. Memory is portrayed as a destructive activity in Beloved because it causes many characters to revisit their painful past. There are many incidents throughout the novel that helps to endorse the destructive quality of memory. First of all destructiveness is portrayed through one of the main characters, Sethe. Another character that memory affects negatively is Paul D. A third prisoner of bad memory is Stamp Paid.

From time to time, the reader hears of a red light in the house of 124 Bluestone Road. Sethe is haunted by a life changing choice she made in her past. Her daughter's infant ghost haunts the house that Sethe and her daughter, Denver occupy. Sethe cannot move forward in her life because of a choice she made many years ago, which was to kill her baby girl. This decision was based upon the fact that Sethe did not want her daughter to be taken back into slavery. Sethe tries to repress the past, but cannot with this ghost haunting her. Paul D. proceeds to enters Sethe's life again, and as a result he causes more negative memories to resurface. He brings back the memories of Sweet Home, the plantation where they were slaves together. Sethe recalls Sweet Home and states, "Comes back whether we want it to or not" (Morrison 16). This statement reflects the meaning that no matter how hard someone tries, memories cannot be repressed forever, they will resurface at some point whether the person wants them to or not. When Paul D. arrives at her house, the memories from Sweet Home resurface, which in this instances is a very deconstructive matte...

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...pacted by memory is Stamp Paid. Stamp Paid is mentioned may times throughout the book, but he plays a very important role in Sethe and Paul D.'s relationship. He recalls a horrid moment in the past that he witnessed that changed Sethe and her family's life. Stamp Paid tells Paul D. of this moment, and deconstructs their relationship. Stamp Paid was there the night that Sethe tried to kill her children. He prevented her from killing the baby of the family, but could not stop her from killing the two year old.

In conclusion, memory is deconstructive for Sethe, Paul D., and Stamp Paid. When each of these characters remember factors of their past it effects their behavior negatively. The people around them suffer from the outcome. It can destroy present relationships that people have worked very hard to build and it can destroy any chance of a future they might have.