Looking+to+the+Future+Motif+and+Themes

= As the motif of Looking to the Future emerges, record moments when the theme is developed interestingly. Add your ideas about what Morrison is trying to say and how she explores the theme. See Motherhood Motif and Themes for an example =
 * Happiness can come when you least expect it and it is best to let it be.
 * Book One, section 4 (paperback) pg. 47. "- all the time the three shadows that shot out of their feet to the left held hands. Nobody noticed but Sethe and she stopped looking after she decided that it was a good sign. A life. Could be.
 * Sethe is beginning to think it's ok to look to the future, but it still doesn't change the past: "...and the notion of a future with him, or for that matter without him, was beginning to stroke her mind. As for Denver, the job Sethe had of keeping her from the past that was still waiting for her was all that mattered." (book 1. sec.3)


 * Sethe believes that if she avoids and denies her negative past, it will ensure a positive future for her and for Denver. Morrison may be showing that through all the pain of slavery there is hope for the future. She also may be implying that Sethe cannot run from her past and that your past will always effect the future, even if you are in denial of it. "To Sethe, the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay. The 'better life' she believed she and Denver were living was simply not that other one." section 1.3 pg.51

After Sethe gives birth to Denver, she notes spores of bluferndrifting overhead. This is significant because it her description of the spores mirrors her attitude toward the future with her new baby. Her tone starts off sentimental but then becomes slightly worried as she thinks about what's to come.
 * Section 1.8, pg. 84 "Spores of bluefern growing in the hollows along the riverbank float toward the water in silver-blue lines hard to see unless you are in or near them, lying right at the river's edge when the sunshots are low and drained. Often they are mistook for insects -- but they are seeds in which the whole generation sleeps confident of a future... This moment of certainty lasts no longer than that; longer, perhaps, than the spore itself."

When Baby Suggs is finally free she has such hope for the future that she cannot help but laugh with pure joy. She immediately set out to use her big heart.
 * Pg. 167 Hardcover. "She covered her mouth to keep from laughing too loud."

Sethe begins to think about her how her life will be with Paul D when he mentions having kids. Sethe and Paul D have different futures planned for themselves.
 * Section 1.13, page 132 "She (Sethe) knew she was building a case against him in order to build a case against getting pregnant, and it shamed her a little."


 * Section 1.15 Page 162 it reads, "The sky was blue and clear. Not one touch of death in the definite green of the leaves." This shows that once Baby Suggs is here it is all good things happening from now on and in the future.
 * pg.259 "Letters cut into beeches and oaks by giants were eye level now." As Denver grows older she sees things differently and is able to make a future for herself.

Denver looks to the future in a bad way thinking that what happened to her sister could happen to her.
 * p. 205, 2.3, book two "I'm afraid the thing that happened that made it alright for my mother to kill my sister could happen again."