Throughout most of the novel, Morrison uses third-person point of view. In several chapters in Part Two, however, she shifts to first-person and has Sethe, Denver, and Beloved speak as the narrator. How does this stream of consciousness narrative technique affect the reader and contribute to the effectiveness of the novel?
In any novel, or piece of literature, switching point of views, especially between characters, allows all the feelings of each character to be shared and experiences. Offerening perspectives from all characters reveals to the reader more information, in a way to continuously piece together different emotions and Connections. As a third person point of view, the reader is exposed to the general information and facts. For example, we knew that Sethe killed Beloved to try and save her from the life of torture she faced. We see, early in Part 1, Denver’s outburst of emotions against Paul D. First person point of view offers us justification of specific options and actions. In Sethe’s stream of consciousness, we see the struggle of her actions. She yearns to justify why she killed her daughter and often wants to die herself, but continues to fight on for her family. In Denver’s, we as readers become new to the fact that she only loves her mother out of fear. Beloveds death was the death of any true love Denver can have for her mother. In Beloveds stream of consciousness, she reveals her yearning to create a bond with Sethe, but also seek revenge. She foreshadows her want to become Sethe and the mother figure to seek revenge. Overall, this technique makes the understand of the novel much for effective as it justifies different character emotions and reactions toward Sethe.
ReplyDeleteThis stream of consciousness narrative technique gives the reader a clearer understanding of how the three main characters are feeling. As the reader, you are seeing different sides of the character with the first-person narrative. For example, Beloved’s stream of consciousness were incomplete thoughts which were written in fragments. Letting the reader inside Beloved’s mind gives the reader a deeper understanding of how underdeveloped Beloved's thoughts are. While Beloved’s chapter reminds the reader that she is a little girl, Sethe and Denver’s chapters gives insight on their feelings. Sethe's chapter made it clear that her kids were the most important thing in the world, which is why she wanted to kill them. Denver's chapter also showed a whole new side of her. Before this chapter, I really thought Denver loved Sethe, but we found out she is just scared of her mother. Since Denver is so oblivious to Sethe's past, she thinks Sethe killed Beloved out of pure evil. Denver really thinks that Sethe is a threat to Beloved and herself. Overall, the first-person narrative made the reader more understanding of why Beloved is so vengeful (brain’s too underdeveloped to understand where Sethe is coming from) , why Sethe killed Beloved and how scared Denver is of Sethe.
ReplyDeleteNarration in any novel is important to the effectiveness of the book. Morrison doesn't stick to just one narrative style, because by switching from narration to narration, she makes the reader realize how diverse her characters' translation are. As a result of this I completely agree with Marina;s comment because it gives the reader a chance to hear from each character's point a view and an understanding of their feelings. The amazing thing about Morrison is that she is so subtle with the change of narration and because of this, the reader sometimes doesn't realize it has changed, until they suddenly realize that they're in some other character's head. And I have experienced this before! And because of it, I have had to go back and re-read pages just to comprehend what is going on. In a nutshell, Beloved breaks down into three narrative perspectives and by doing this, the novel becomes difficult to read but more appealing to the reader.
ReplyDeleteMorrison used stream of consciousness in her novel because it allows for a character's current thoughts and emotions to come to the forefront by means of using third and first person speakers. Just as Marina said, when the novel is in third person, the reader is able to pick up on general information about the characters. However, when the novel is shifted into first person, the reader is exposed to the character's stream of consciousness in which they are able to learn much more personal things about the character, like their thoughts. When Morrison gives Denver, Sethe, and Beloved a stream of consciousness, we are able to learn new sides to their characters and it is very imperative to the work as a whole that we learn more about each of them.
ReplyDeleteSwitching from third person to first person allows the reader to get inside the characters mind and understand what they are feeling as they they go through experiences. When an author writes in third person it is very often an observation of what they are seeing happen, and what they think rather than the character in particular. Morrisons transition to first person from third person so we know exactly what they're thinking and how they feel. It helps us to understand the character better through actual thoughts rather than observing from the sidelines.
ReplyDeleteThe stream of consciousness contributes to the novel by allowing the reader to understand the motivation and thought processes behind each of the characters and their actions. In Beloved's perspective, we cans see that her thoughts are not entirely coherent. She is fixated on certain memories and wants, and that may be what contributes to her bipolar behavior and fixation on Sethe. In Denver's perspective we can see her fear of Sethe and her dreams, the dependence she had on Baby Suggs and how much Denver loved her father and waited patiently for his return. We can see how much the community estrangement hurt Denver, and why she puts up with Beloved and her behavior. We can understand why Denver doesn't like Paul D and we can understand, if she is so much like her father, how Denver gets the motivation to pick herself off the ground and go get help. Most importantly, in Sethe's view, we can see just how strongly Sethe cared for her child, and was affected by her loss. That part, I suppose, is the author's way of explaining away Sethe's deed.
ReplyDeleteWhen Morrison uses the stream of consciousness technique, it really opens the readers eyes to how the characters are truly feeling. In third person, we only got a general idea of how each character was feeling, but in the third first person point of view, we really understood what was going on. We discovered how Sethe truly loved her children to death, how afraid Denver was of Sethe because she killed Beloved, and how underdeveloped Beloved’s thoughts were. We can also take Beloved’s thoughts and realize that she really loved Sethe, but she loved her so much that she wanted to consume her, both out of love and out of revenge. It created a really eerie feeling to the novel, but created more sense of clarity.
ReplyDeleteThroughout most of Beloved, the story is told from the third-person point of view. In several chapters in Part Two, however, Morrison shifts to first-person and has Sethe, Denver, and Beloved speak as the narrator. This stream of consciousness narrative technique affects the reader and contributes to the effectiveness of the novel by describing events from characters that directly experienced them. Additionally, the feelings and emotions are portrayed more effectively through the first-person. The reader is able to better understand each character's actions and experiences as well. With the third-person, the story is told from an observer so the reader is unable to truly understand the character's inner thoughts.
ReplyDeleteBy switching from third-person to first-person point of view in Part II, the reader is able to capture more of the characters thoughts and feelings during certain situations. When a story is told in third-person, the reader can only get so much out of the novel. They only grasp how the author portrays each character, not how the readers portray them. By speaking in first-person, the characters come to life and give the reader a much better visualize of their mind-set. All three characters, Sethe, Denver and Beloved, exposed themselves to the reader, showing the reader a different side of them. The reader was able to put themselves in each character's position when spoken in first-person, as opposed to just observing their actions, when spoken in third-person.
ReplyDeleteThe novel "Beloved" is mostly written in third person, while some select parts are written in first. This is a common thing for many authors to do. Most authors use third person because it gives the reader a general idea of what's happening. With this point of view, the reader can get multiple perspectives. One instance in particular would be the chapter about Sethe killing her baby. With the use of third person, the reader could see what multiple people were thinking and also how the scene played out. It offers a better/more general description. First person is used when the reader should get a better idea of what one character is thinking. Without the use of first person in Beloved, one would not know why Sethe killed her baby. It also shows how the character is feeling and why they act a certain way.
ReplyDeleteWhen Morrison shifted to first-person in Part Two, I was somewhat confused. I was so used to reading everything in third-person that the shift took me by surprise. However, I really enjoyed reading about the characters through their own thoughts and feelings. Beloved’s portion was extremely interesting as her thoughts were scattered and unorganized, like those of an uneducated and young child, which she technically is. I think being able to read about what is going through the minds of the characters directly, especially Sethe, helps you to understand them better and connect. I was originally horrified with Sethe over her killing Beloved, but when I started to hear things from her point of view, my opinion changed. Morrison makes you feel more connected and more involved with the characters when changing to stream of consciousness, which I think made the message stronger. It really allowed the reader to see what was going on inside the minds of these haunted characters.
ReplyDeleteReading in third person gave me a good understanding of what was happening overall, but reading in first person, truly helped me understand the lives and the struggles of the characters. I agree with Madi about how it was interesting to read first person beloved's thoughts, all scattered and confusing, being the thoughts of a young stupid child. Morrison helps in connecting the characters and the reader by switching from third and first person, so we have a complete an total understanding from two different views, as the reader, and as the character.
ReplyDeleteThe stream of consciousness that really impacted me was at the end of Beloved’s section where she forms complete thoughts. I find it powerful how Morrison makes her thoughts short and concise and how she starts to weave what Denver and Sethe have told her into her stream of thought. For example, Morrison writes “I drank your blood. I brought your milk. You forgot to smile”(256) where Denver speaks, Sethe speaks, followed by Beloved. This is one of the easier streams to figure out who’s thoughts belong to who. Denver drank Beloved’s blood. Seth brought Beloved milk. Beloved remembered that Sethe forgot to smile. Each is reveals a time that connects them to Beloved or in Beloved’s case one of the grudges she holds over her mother’s head. Similarly, this is followed by the three sentences saying, “I loved you. You hurt me. You came back to me. You left me.” (256). Some of the other sentences throughout Beloved’s stream of consciousness were harder to figure out who was saying what. However, it is interesting as the reader to see what statements stuck in Beloved’s memory and how her thoughts always follow Denver and Sethe’s maybe signifying how she has the last word or final say in her emotion no matter how much the two try to persuade her.
ReplyDeleteThe stream of consciousness technique gives the reader a better understanding of the characters feelings towards one another and the situation they are in. It no longer is just general information like it is when written in third person. The character speaking may be experiencing different emotions than what the third person perspective is giving off. For example, from Sethe’s point of view we learned how much she really loved her children. With Beloved, she has not experienced that much, but the way she thinks and says things suggests that her thoughts are not very sophisticated. She did love Sethe so much, as we learn, and it was so much that she wished to consume her. With Denver, we learn she was truly afraid of Sethe because of her murderous actions.
ReplyDeleteThe switch of narrarators allows readers to get different perspectives from different characters. It can cover how the same events caused people to feel different feelings. For example, Sethe sees the action of murdering her daughter as righteous. While all the other characters see it as murder. It also shows how slavery has effected each of the characters in their own personal way. It gives insight to the pain they have endured that shaped them into the person they would develop to be in the novel. In my opinion, shifting perspective makes the novel more raw, showing how slavery may have effected one person in one way and another person in another.
ReplyDeleteMorrison's use of stream of consciousness and varying first person point of views allows readers into the minds of the characters. It truly allows us to get a better feel of the situation at hand. rather than reading first person from Sethe the entire tory, switching it up adds to the picture. We aren't just getting one story, but various ones in the eyes of different characters, culminating to a greater meaning. Feelings can be detected through Morrison's first person narration, allowing readers to gain deeper understanding of the work on a whole.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, Morrison mostly uses a third person, but at some points she switches and uses a first person point of view from the eyes of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved. This stream of consciousness narrative technique allows readers to better understand events that are occurring from the viewpoint of the characters. For example, during this stream of consciousness the reader learns that Denver is terrified of Sethe and is afraid she might kill her. The reader also grasps a better understanding of why Sethe killed her child in this stream of consciousness.
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ReplyDeleteWhen Morrison shifted to first-person, it let the readers know the feelings and thoughts of the narrator. I was surprised but this sudden change however I thought it was very interesting to perceive events from diffeerent perspectives. When Beloved narrated it was very weird, but interesting, since her thoughts were all over the place. It represented a small, young child but I realized that Beliced IS A small young child. I believe she is representative of the age that she was killed at. Reading from a first person helps us better connect with the characters. For example, when Sethe killed Beloved, my initial reaction is that she committed and act of unjustness. However, by hearing her perspective of the event I realized why Sethe killed Beloves and understand her perspective of the situation.
Switching from third person point of view to first person when it comes to the characters of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved allows the reader to focus on the events in their point of view and keeps the reader interested. Doing this gives a better connection with the reader and characters allowing them to understand why a character did what he/she did.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel it is true that Morrison does use third person point of view. The reason she switches and uses first person through Denver, Sethe, and Beloved is because each character is able to tell and explain a different memory through their own point of view. Not everyone's opinions will be the same and as each person's stream of conciousness is unfolding it helps to develop their character. It gives the reader and understanding of how they think and why they act as they do. Focusing on one person's point of view will help the reader understand that they need to pay close attention to that specific characters actions and thoughts. Perspective helps shed light on more than one view that Morrison would like the reader to ponder.
ReplyDeleteRotating narrations by characters helps readers to better understand the story from all points of view. Giving readers perspective results in a better understanding of the message of the novel. The point of view from Denver, Beloved, and Sethe helps readers to see what its like to feel held back like Denver, angry like Beloved, and exhausted like Sethe. Morrison did not want readers stuck on one mindset, but see the story from everyones eyes.
ReplyDeleteThe stream of consciousness from Sethe, Denver and Beloved help the reader better understand what the characters are going through. Though third-person is important for an unbiased view, the first-person point of view helps the reader relate to the character and feel what they are feeling in the story. It also provides important information that may answer questions readers have. For instance, I was questioning where Beloved was during her time as a ghost. When Beloved speaks in first-person, I came to understand that she was stuck under the bridge between life and death. I could also sympathize with Sethe’s story more when I read what she was saying to Beloved about why she killed her. Furthermore, I understood why Denver adamantly protected Beloved after reading her thoughts about how lonely she was and how her sister filled that void. Thus first-person point of view helps the reader make connections and understand the meaning of novel.
ReplyDeleteI personally thought that the first person chapters were extremely interesting and were my favorite in the book. I think that Morrison wanted to show directly how each character perceived what was around them and how they felt about the situations. Beloved’s chapter was very choppy and seemed as if it was words of a child learning to speak. I think this shows how she is truly just the spirit of a child and isn't fully understanding of the world around her. Sethe shows the emotions of what is running though her head and is when the reader develops more on why she killed Beloved. Denver’s chapter revealed her true feelings towards her mother and how she feared her for the actions she had done in the past. I feel that Morrison included these to tie the story together and show the reader how affected each character is.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning, the story is told from third-person point of view. As the novel continues, the point of view switches to first-person point of view to tell Sethe’s, Denver’s, and Beloved’s perspective. By doing this, Morrison allows more emotion to go into the story as there are first hand accounts of what happened, rather than just the story being told. It makes this tale more personal as readers can truly understand what the characters are feeling.
ReplyDeleteMorission does this to keep the reader engaged and offer first hand accounts of events that occurred through specific characters. This rotation of speakers allows for us to gain an even better understanding for a character’s feelings. By switching up the characters, Morrison engages the reader and helps him or her build a better connection to the individual characters, such as in the chapters narrated by Beloved. Aria had previously mentioned, our group felt that Beloved’s chapters were the most intriguing as. The style of writing was childish and almost broken which provided us
ReplyDeletean interesting narrative that engaged the reader.
I particularly enjoyed the chapters of stream of consciousness from different characters in the novel. Within each chapter, the character’s insights, feelings and past were revealed. Hearing a story from another perspective always allows a different point of view to be heard. This reveals more information to make connections, conclusions and predictions. The stream of consciousnesses in this novel are told in first person, and the readers are able to learn each character’s emotions and helps us to learn more about them. In Sethe’s stream of consciousness, we are exposed to the guilt and struggle she goes through due to murdering her daughter. Sethe wanted to lie down in the grave with her dead daughter but, she had to continue for her other three children. In Denver’s stream of consciousness, we learn that Sethe’s three children only love her out of fear. Then, when Beloved is in first person, it is revealed that she wanted to have a relationship with Sethe however, she also feels abandoned and wants revenge against her mother. Therefore, this stream of conscious narrative technique provides us with insight on each character's emotions.
ReplyDeleteI think this switch allows Morrison to not only give more insight to each character but reveal thoughts and emotions that wouldn't normally be revealed in a third person narrative. It also keeps the readers engaged and more interested in the story line when there are more opinions and emotions brought into the story. As others mentioned in their posts, this gave the most insight into Beloved, because she spoke in a child-like manner with juvenile sentence structure and it showed how although she was in a 19 year old body, she still had a child like mentality.
ReplyDeleteThird person perspective is the classic writing style for a narrative, allowing the reader to see different perspectives. When Sethe, Denver, and Beloved were doing their monologues, it took me a couple of reads to understand. Linguistically, each person writes differently, Beloved's being the most different. She wrote not like she was 19, but like a child. This is probably to remind the reader of who Beloved really is, not her physical form. These monologues are much more personal and really seem to truly show how each character feels.
ReplyDeleteSwitching the point of view to the first-person in Part 2 brings the reader closer to the characters in the story. They are getting to know what exactly is going on in the characters’ streams of consciousness rather than being relayed information from another narrator, which can make the story feel more distant. The stream of consciousness also makes the characters’ emotions more clear to the reader: Sethe is clearly overwhelmed by love for Beloved, Beloved is obsessed with not only being with but consuming Sethe, and Denver, although happy to finally have a sister, comes to the realization that she must protect her mother from Beloved. The change between characters in this section is very subtle at points, and it makes it a little confusing to understand who is thinking what. This is another one of Morrison’s techniques (like rememory and past/present) that is used to evoke the true feeling of confusing and of being out of place from the reader, while also providing other emotional responses.
ReplyDeleteUsing first person in the second part of the book made the conversation and dialogue with Sethe , Denver, and Beloved, and PAaul D. ore personal. They themselves were telling the story of their lives, because they experienced it, that's the best way to be informed about it.It provides you with exact emotion from the characters while in Part 1 the third person is used. Third person is still an up-close account of the characters lives, but the connection is not as strong as first person.
ReplyDeleteThe use of first person narration in Part 2 allows the reader to have a better connection to the character’s and understand them better, and also exaggerates the mood of the book. First person lets us understand how the characters are feeling and help to explain their actions, which is ironic because this is the most confusing part of the book. When Sethe speaks, it’s obvious how overwhelmed she is by Beloved, and how desperate she is to justify killing her as a baby. The guilt and uneasiness that is expressed here shows why she was so harsh with Paul D. When Denver speaks, it explains why she was so desperate for a sister when Beloved first appeared: she has been so scared of her mother that she thought having someone else with her would make it less scary. I thought that only Beloved couldn’t understand why Sethe murdered the baby, but it turns out Denver couldn’t understand it either. When Beloved speaks, it is verfied that behind her innocence of seeking love from her mother, she is angry. She wants revenge and she won’t stop at just gaining attention from Sethe, her goal is to take over Sethe to ensure she never has to be “dead” again. The different first person narrations also mirror the chaos that is going on in the novel. With all the different voices speaking, it becomes confusing and overwhelming, much like it is becoming in the house.
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