Beloved (thanks Izzy)

I just came from reading Izzy's blog post (http://izzyafamlit.blogspot.com/2018/11/beloved-girl.html), and I was shocked to realize that I hadn't completely registered or recognized any of Beloved's actions. The things she does and the way she behaves is actually quite disturbing, manipulative (as Izzy points out), and borderline evil. I feel like she could almost be the villain of the story, which is a conflicting idea for me. On the one hand, Beloved obviously has some issues going on, likely from having been killed by her own mother at such a young age, and possibly from being trapped as a ghost for so many years. So I’m uncomfortable disliking her because it’s not her fault she’s so messed up. But on the other hand, she’s totally in complete control of Denver, she’s influencing Sethe, and she’s exploiting Paul D. She’s kind of tearing the family apart.

There have been a couple moments that stick out to me as being extremely disconcerting. For one, when we first encounter her, she is described as having trouble holding her head up (I can’t remember if this is actually mentioned in the book or if Mr. Mitchell just suggested this idea in class?). If you picture this image, of a young woman who’s apparently stumbled out of a stream or whatever, who can’t look up because her head is just hanging over her neck at the floor, that’s pretty terrifying. It reminds me of how camel crickets are perpetually looking down because their backs are anatomically hunched forever, which is an incredibly disturbing concept to me for whatever reason. But also when she, as we are led to believe, tries to strangle Sethe in the woods, and Denver, who suspects the attempted murder was Beloved’s doing, doesn’t do anything because she’s so enraptured by her. Or when Beloved’s tooth falls out and she reacts only when prompted by Denver, like an alien trying to fit into human society. OR when she, as I saw it, pressured Paul D. into having sex with her?

I honestly don’t know how, when I read these moments, they didn’t disturb me more, because looking back, I am thoroughly spooked. This might be because I wasn’t invested in the story as I am now, or maybe I wasn’t reading carefully enough, but regardless of the reason, I do not trust Beloved. She has some sinister scheme up her sleeve, and has had “plans”, as Denver put it when she saw the white dress that we assume to be Beloved hanging onto Sethe, since the very beginning. This is further suggested by the fact that Paul D. first noticed her “shining” much earlier than when Beloved starting making moves, so you could argue that she knew what she was going to do to try to get rid of him basically as soon as she met him. But yeah, I’m super interested into seeing where this goes next, and I’m anxious to learn more about what she has in store.