ghostbel Comparing Ghosts in The Woman Warrior and Beloved comparison compare contrast essays

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Ghosts in The Woman Warrior and Beloved In Toni Morrison's Beloved ghosts are dead people walking among the living. Beloved has come back to be with her family, to have Sethe's love and Denver's companionship. In Maxine Hong- Kingston's The Woman Warrior the word ghost was used to refer to people that were different from the characters, or people that the characters couldn't understand. Ghosts were real, living people. The idea of what a ghost is in Beloved is strange to me - but it's not as disturbing to me as the idea of a ghost in The Woman Warrior I don't really believe in ghosts. I don't ever expect to see my great grandmother in my room some night telling me that she's met a lot of interesting people on the other side. I don't ever expect to come back to earth and chat with my friends after I've died. Because of this, the concept of "ghost" in Beloved doesn't disturb me though it has caused me to think a great deal about what a ghost really is. I began to compare it to the ghosts of The Woman Warrior. If a ghost is something different from me, something that I can't completely understand does that make everyone a ghost? I don't completely understand my friends or family. I don't think it's ever possible to completely understand or know anyone. If no one else can completely understand and know me then I'm a ghost too. Even to myself I am a ghost. I don't understand why I do half of the things that I do. I don't really know myself or who I am completely. Sometimes I do feel like a ghost. I have conversations with people, I talk to my friends and family all the time. They see my behavior, and I can try to explain to them why I do things and how I feel -- but they can never get inside my head. They can never understand me. I will never understand them. There will always be something about each person we come into contact with that perplexes us. Does this make them a ghost because we can't understand them? If I am loved, liked, or hated then I am not a ghost. IF I am simply not thought of at all by someone then maybe that's what we could consider being a ghost. I would rather be hated then to have someone just be indifferent to me. At least then there is some feeling, motivation, or passion. Something about me has affected this person - even if it is something negative. I would prefer to think of a ghost as the kind of ghost we see in Beloved; a dead person come back to this side of things. The thought of walking through this life as a ghost is much scarier to me than the thought of dying and then becoming a ghost.

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