If there's anything Dr. E's english class has taught me, you can call anything a reference to the Bible and write a convincing 3 page explication essay on it.
I don't plan on writing an essay for this, but I had a weird idea a few nights ago that I wanted to share. I was thinking that some of the names in the book seemed a little weird to me. For example, I was trying to remember how to pronounce Halle, and I couldn't think if it was just how you'd pronounce the name Hal, or if you would say the word "hall" with an e on the end. Then I started trying to do the same thing to Sethe's name for some reason, and I thought it was weird that Sethe was just the name "Seth," just with an e at the end.
Then my mind started drawing a bunch of weird parallels between Sethe and Seth from the Bible.
Now my Bible knowledge is very limited, so I'm going to be taking a lot of this stuff from other sources. In case you need a refresher, Seth was one of the sons of Adam and Eve. He was the brother of Cain and Abel, the guys who got involved in the first murder plot in the Bible, where Cain killed Abel and was exiled by his parents. Seth was born after all of the family trouble, and he's the guy who ended up carrying on the genealogy of all the well-known Bible people. He's the ancestor to Noah, the guy who built the ark.
Now, with all the background information out of the way, time to make a biblical connection!
What's intriguing is that Morrison named Sethe after the guy who wasn't involved in any of the important stuff. He was just kind of there, you know? In a way, I feel like that could be referencing some sort of untold tale. We never really learn a lot about Seth in the Bible. We're just told that he had a kid named Enosh and lived 912 years. That's a pretty long time to only have a son. And seeing as Beloved is about this extremely traumatic story that is kept quiet for years. Heck, it's a story about a former slave woman, which means that it's even less likely to be told.
Something else: turns out there are some traditions that regard Seth as the righteous son of Adam and Eve, since their other children didn't turn out very well. It's this righteousness that is the reason Seth carried on the genealogy. Using that, does this mean that Sethe is a righteous character? Are her actions morally correct? That's probably a topic for a whole other blog post, but I think it has a lot of implications. She tried killing her children to keep them out of slavery. While that doesn't sound morally correct, I think Morrison does a really good job of justifying her reasoning, and even justifying her actions. But that opens up a whole other can of worms on what exactly is justified, because it's based on point of view. "Righteous" implies that is justified by divine law, but in that sense murder is not justifiable in any case. Does this mean that Morrison is saying that disobeying God is a better path than slavery?
Is Beloved a historical protest novel?
See, drawing religious connections is a gift that just keeps on giving. The best part is that Sethe's name probably doesn't have any biblical significance, and it's just a weird coincidence that they match up. But still, Beloved is such an intense novel, and I love how its able to rationalize all of the things that happen in it, no matter how weird. Next thing you know, Sethe's going to turn into a Messianic figure or something. And the book is so good that it would probably make sense within the novel.
I don't plan on writing an essay for this, but I had a weird idea a few nights ago that I wanted to share. I was thinking that some of the names in the book seemed a little weird to me. For example, I was trying to remember how to pronounce Halle, and I couldn't think if it was just how you'd pronounce the name Hal, or if you would say the word "hall" with an e on the end. Then I started trying to do the same thing to Sethe's name for some reason, and I thought it was weird that Sethe was just the name "Seth," just with an e at the end.
Then my mind started drawing a bunch of weird parallels between Sethe and Seth from the Bible.
Now my Bible knowledge is very limited, so I'm going to be taking a lot of this stuff from other sources. In case you need a refresher, Seth was one of the sons of Adam and Eve. He was the brother of Cain and Abel, the guys who got involved in the first murder plot in the Bible, where Cain killed Abel and was exiled by his parents. Seth was born after all of the family trouble, and he's the guy who ended up carrying on the genealogy of all the well-known Bible people. He's the ancestor to Noah, the guy who built the ark.
Now, with all the background information out of the way, time to make a biblical connection!
What's intriguing is that Morrison named Sethe after the guy who wasn't involved in any of the important stuff. He was just kind of there, you know? In a way, I feel like that could be referencing some sort of untold tale. We never really learn a lot about Seth in the Bible. We're just told that he had a kid named Enosh and lived 912 years. That's a pretty long time to only have a son. And seeing as Beloved is about this extremely traumatic story that is kept quiet for years. Heck, it's a story about a former slave woman, which means that it's even less likely to be told.
Something else: turns out there are some traditions that regard Seth as the righteous son of Adam and Eve, since their other children didn't turn out very well. It's this righteousness that is the reason Seth carried on the genealogy. Using that, does this mean that Sethe is a righteous character? Are her actions morally correct? That's probably a topic for a whole other blog post, but I think it has a lot of implications. She tried killing her children to keep them out of slavery. While that doesn't sound morally correct, I think Morrison does a really good job of justifying her reasoning, and even justifying her actions. But that opens up a whole other can of worms on what exactly is justified, because it's based on point of view. "Righteous" implies that is justified by divine law, but in that sense murder is not justifiable in any case. Does this mean that Morrison is saying that disobeying God is a better path than slavery?
Is Beloved a historical protest novel?
See, drawing religious connections is a gift that just keeps on giving. The best part is that Sethe's name probably doesn't have any biblical significance, and it's just a weird coincidence that they match up. But still, Beloved is such an intense novel, and I love how its able to rationalize all of the things that happen in it, no matter how weird. Next thing you know, Sethe's going to turn into a Messianic figure or something. And the book is so good that it would probably make sense within the novel.
This is really interesting, and I definitely would never have thought of it. I definitely see what you mean about the parallels between Seth and Sethe. I especially think the part about righteousness is really cool. The question of righteousness is really crucial to Sethe's character. But while I see your point about Morrison maybe trying to depict Sethe as righteous if we're going by the Sethe-Seth comparison, I'm not sure if that's how I see Morrison's depiction. I honestly don't think Morrison is taking a side - I don't think we're supposed to know what the right answer is, just that Sethe is doing the only thing she knows how to given her experiences and trauma.
ReplyDeleteNice post! I hadn't thought about the meaning of Sethe's name but the idea that it represents her righteousness is really interesting. Since Seth was also the person who continued Adam and Eve's family maybe Sethe's name also refers to how her main goal is to continue her family and protect and provide for her children despite the trauma she's experienced. According to nameberry.com, Sethe means "appointed" so maybe it's also a reference to how Sethe has to represent the trauma of slavery to readers. Seth is also an Egyptian god so maybe Morrison is referencing him.
ReplyDeleteLike Annemily said, I first thought it could be a reference to the Egyptian god Seth, but now that you have enlightened me with Biblical knowledge, I feel that the Bible Seth is probably a better comparison. I don't know if Morrison intended there to be too much significance in names (Since we have about 3 Pauls. We could have gotten a Joe or something but instead we got the full assembled FDA), but I do see the connections one can draw. You never know what the author was actually thinking, so you can always just make interesting connections.
ReplyDeleteI think that the biblical reference is especially apt given the prophetic and destiny-filled events of the novel as well as how they are often referred to in euphemistic terms like "stolen milk,"which reminds me of biblical euphemisms like the "fall from grace." It's like the events of Sethe's life are too hurtful, too traumatic to refer to in direct language so the novel itself has to resort to those methods.
ReplyDeleteWow I really enjoyed this post and your connections! I never would have thought of connecting it to the Bible but after reading your post I can see the justification! After reading the part when you talk about genealogy, I thought of the last scene. We have Sethe who represents Seth and she has Beloved who we see is pregnant in the last scene. When you said that part it made me realize the significance of Beloved, continuing the family genealogy.
ReplyDelete