Memory+Motif+and+Themes

= As the motif of Memory/Rememory 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 =

Sethe feels bad that she remembers how beautiful the sycamores were, and that she didn't remember the boys that were hanged from them. She tries to forget the bad things, but feels bad when she does remember.
 * Section 1.1 pg 7 "Boys hanging from the most beautiful sycamores in the world. It shamed her-remembering the wonderful soughing trees rather than the boys."

During this time of slavery mothers wouldnt let themselves remember much about their children since it was possible for them to be taken away. Their memorys of their children would only bring back pain. And the only reason she had remembered something about this child is because it was her first born.
 * You can choose what you remember.
 * "That's all you let yourself remember..." 1.1 pg. 6 (hardcover)
 * "My first born. All i can remember of her is how she loved the burned bottom of bread. Can you beat that? Eight children and thats all i remember."


 * Sometimes keeping busy can help you forget the bad things in your past.
 * Book One Section 4 (paperback) pg. 61 "She had to do something with her hands because she was remembering something she had forgotten she knew."
 * Asking questions and evoking memories can make others question what happened.
 * Book One Section 6 (hardcover) pg. 75 " Beloved took every opportunity to ask some funny question and get Sethe going....How did she know?"

We see though out the book that memories of loved ones is hard to keep. Even with your own parents or children, slaves would be separate and start losing memories they had of their family.
 * "My women? You mean my mother? If she did, i dont remember. i didnt see her but a few times out in the fields and morning, she was in the line." Section 6 p.72

Denver asks what her mom prayed about, or rather talked about when she was kneeling down. Sethe talks about how things that happen never stop existing. She can never escape certain things and if she forgets, it still remains in its place for someone else to find or experience. Sethe gets rather philisophical with her daughter in this conversation. Sethe originally refuses to explain her prayer but soon after gives in because she desperately wants to explain to Denver that she cannot return to the places she has been because "even though it's all over--over and done with-- it's going to always be there waiting for you. That's how come I had to get all my children out. No matter what." Sethe's memory is her most hated enemy. It never remembers what she wants it to and remembers what she wants to forget. This forces her to always work to forget her bad memories.
 * Section 1.3 (hardcover) pg 43 "I was talking about time. It's so hard for me to believe in it. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place--the picture of it--stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there,in the world. "
 * Section 1.7 (hardcover pg.83 "She shook her head from side to side, resigned to her rebellious brain. Why was there nothing it refused? No misery, no regret, no hateful picture too rotten to accept? Like a greedy child it snatched up everything."
 * "Working dough. Working, working dough. Nothing better than that to start the day's serious work of beating back the past." (1.7 hardcover: pg. 86)

Sethe tries to block out a lot of her memories, but when Beloved asks her about certain things relating to her past, she divulges her stories. This is how we learn some background info about Sethe and her times at Sweet Home.
 * Section 1.6 (hardcover pg. 69) "Tell me," said Beloved, smiling a wide happy smile. "Tell me your diamonds."

Sethe views it as her to surpress her memories, a job similar to that of working dough. This shows how seriously she views the locking away of her memories. Sethe starts to allow Paul D to fill the memories of Halle.
 * Hardcover, Section 1.7, pg. 86: "Working dough. Working, working dough. Nothing better than to start the day's serious work of beating back the past."
 * Book 1, section 1.9, p. 95, "Into the empty space of not knowing about Halle-a space sometimes colored with righteous resentment at what could have been his cowardice, or stupidity or bad luck-that empty place..."


 * Section 1.3 Page 43, " If a house burns down, its gone, but that place-the picture of it-stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world." This shows that they keep their memories close to them because they end up loosing most of the things that are important to them, so they have to hold their memories close to their heart.

Sethe's memory can play tricks on her. There are times in which it seems like the memory is an actual entity, which can hurt or sooth her.
 * Section 1.9 pg. 113 "Sethe bowed her head and sure enough-they were there. Lighter now, no more than the strokes of a feather, but unmistakably caressing fingers. She had to relax a bit to let them do their work, so light was the touch, childlike almost, more finger kiss than kneading. Still she was grateful for the effort; Baby Suggs' long-distance love was equal to any skin-close love she had known.

Beloved's interest in Denver's birth allows Denver to really understand what that memory was like. After finding out that Halle has watched her the entire time she was attacked she explains how she wishes her brain was not able to think of such facts, memories, and experiences. "She shook her head from side to side, resigned to her rebellious brain. Why was there nothing it refusedd? No misery, no regret, no hateful picture too rotten to accept? Like a greedy child it snatched up everything. Just once, could it say, No thank you? I just ate and can't hold another bite..." (Section 1.8 p.83 hardcover)
 * section 1.8 pg. 91 (hardcover): "Denver was seeing it now and feeling it -- through Beloved. Feeling how it must have felt to her mother. Seeing how it must have looked..."

Paul D brings back memories that Sethe has suppressed and she likes the fact that he brings back the happy memories, but she was not happy that he was also bringing back the sad memories. In section 10 when Paul D expains his past and escape, we see how much it affected him emotionally and physically. But now, in present time, he forces himself to keep those memories to himself. Beloved has said that she doesn't recall anything from when she was alive except for a bridge and water. But then she states that she remembers having a woman and then being taken away from her. This most likely depicts how it was for Beloved before Sethe killed her. It might also have something to do with why Beloved is so attatched to Sethe and is really dependent on her. After a day of ice skating with Beloved and Denver, the three sit together to warm up again and Beloved starts to hum a song. The song brings back Sethe's memories and it finally "clicks" that Beloved is her daughter. Sethe always says "rememory" instead of "memory". This could show that thinking about the past not only makes you remember, but it also makes you experience it once again.
 * Hardcover section 1.9 pg. 113 "She knew Paul D was adding something to her life-something she wanted to count on but was scared to. Now he had added more: new pictures adn old memories that broke her heart."
 * Paperback 1.10 pg. 113 "It was some time before he could put Alfred, Georgia, Sixo, schooteacher, Halle, his brothers, Sethe, Mister, the taste of iron, the sight of butter, the smell of hickory, notebook paper, one by one, into the tobacco tin lodged in his chest. By the time he got to 124 nothing in this world could pry it open."
 * Hardcover 1.12 pg 140. "Beloved, scratching the back of her hand, would say she remembered a woman who was hers, and she remembered being snatched away from her."
 * Section 2.0 pg 133 (hardcover) Paul D, like Sethe, has repressed many of his memories and does his best not to access the "tobacco tin lodged in his chest." "It was some time before he could put Alfred, Georgia, Sixo, schoolteacher, Halle, his brothers, Sethe, Mister, the taste of iron, the sight of butter, the smell of hickory,notebook paper, one by one, into the tobacco tin lodged in his chest. By the time he got to 124 nothing in this world would pry it open."
 * Paperback 2.1 page 177 " It was then, when Beloved finished humming, that Sethe recalled the click--the settling of pieces into places designed and made especially for them."
 * Paperback 2.1 page 178 "The click had clicked; things were where they ought to be or poised and ready to glide in. 'I made that song up,' said Sethe. 'I made it up and sang it to my children. Nobody knows that song but me and my children.' Beloved turned to look at Sethe. 'I know it,' she said."
 * hardcover pg. 253: "You rememory me?"

Memories can often help or hurt the individual who holds them. Hardcover, pg. 201 - "Deeper and more painful than his belated concern for Denver or Sethe, scorching his soul like a silver dollar in a fool's pocket, was the memory of Baby Suggs- the mountain to his sky."

Denver tried to keep bad memories away
 * p. 206, book 2, 2.3 "I didn't remember for a long time until Nelson Lord made me."