Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Close reading and Class Struggle (Close Reading)

From what I have noticed is that there is an immense amount of class discrimination throughout this text, the main type being that there is no way for the main characters to get beyond their situation. No matter how hard they work they can only do so much, and get only so far, Sethe for example, she cannot afford the costs of going north, nor does she want to spend the money to leave the house that is currently haunted by her deceased infant daughter, Beloved. This book does have similarities to the current Marxist ideals, all of the characters stick together, much like the ideals of Marx where the proletariat must stick together in order to stay strong. The example that I am referring to is exactly the moment where Beloved, the mysterious girl who had risen from the water in a white dress had found refuge in Sethe's home. Sethe let Denver take care of her due to Denver's desire to find someone else to talk to besides her own mother. This really sheds the light on Sethe and her family itself, Sethe even get's to know Beloved, even to the extent of taking her in, even though Paul D had doubts about keeping Beloved around. Even though Sethe had known Beloved for such a short amount of time, she opens up to Beloved, talking to her about her life, specifically when Sethe talks about her missing Diamond earrings that she had been given as a present because her marriage did not have a ceremony of any sort. This lets us see how Sethe lets another in and takes her into her small group, even though this new young woman has no job, or way of contributing to the household. From what we can see here is an example of a Marxist ideology preforming itself out, without any sort of knowledge of it.

1 comment:

  1. I really like how you incorporated the Marxist ideas into the text. I personally didn't know much about it, but from your explanation and an example from the book I completely agree with you that they are very closely related. Good job!

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