托尼·莫里森《宠儿》读书报告(英文)

2021年1月25日发(作者：2604)
FACE TO HISTORY
, OPEN TO FUTURE
——
Book Report of
Beloved
2013
级汉语国际教育

刘倩瑶

2013101058
It was not a story to pass on. It was a story about an imagined history of
slavery, both reality and myth at once.


Beloved turns on the slaughter of a baby by her own mother. Sethe kills
her child rather than have her returned from freedom to slavery. Sethe has
escaped from Sweet Home in
Kentucky to freedom in
Ohio, where she
has
joined
her
mother-in-law,
Baby
Suggs,
whose
freedom
has
been
bought
by
the
labor
of
Sethe
’
s
husband,
Halle.
Sethe
’
s
three
elder
children, two boys and a
“
crawling-
already” daughter
are already in the
free
house,
number
124.
Sethe
has
given
birth
to
another
daughter,
Denver,
on
the
way
there.
28
days
later,
when
the
slave
owner,
Schoolmaster
caught
up
to
them,
Sethe
killed
her
“
crawling-
already”
daughter.
“
Inside, two boys bled in the sawdust and dirt at the feet of a
nigger woman holding a blood-soaked child to her chest with one hand
and infant by the heels in the other. She did not look at them; she simply
swung
the
baby
toward
the
wall
planks,
missed
and
tried
to
connect
a
second
time,
when
out
of
nowhere-in
the
ticking
time
the
men
spent
staring at what there was to stare at-the old nigger boy, still mewing, ran
thorough the door behind them and snatched the baby from the arc of its
mother
’
s
swing.
”

It
is
the
first
part
of
the
story,
and
in
one
word,
the
“
crawling-
already” daughter
was killed by her mother because she didn
’
t
want her to suffer pain and misery as she suffered in the past. As negro
slave, even though we know the history of slave trade, it is still difficult
for us to comprehend what did they go through during the dark century.


Sethe
’
s
escape
is
modeled
on
the
story
of
Margaret
Garner,
who
escaped
from
Kentucky
with
sixteen
other
slaves
in
January
1856.
The
fugitives were pursued by a posse of slave masters and sheriff
’
s officers.
They
fought
back.
Margaret
Garner
cut
her
youngest
daughter
’
s
throat
with a butcher
’
s knife and tried to kill herself and the rest of her children.
There was a sensational trial, in which the slaves
’
lawyer paradoxically
suggested
that
Margaret
be
charged
with
murder
and
the
others
with
complicity-trying
to
ensure
that
she
remained
in
the
Free
State
to
be
judged as a person, not returned as property. She was, however, returned,
and her other baby daughter was drowned when the boat returning them
capsized.
Margaret
is
reported
as
having
“
displayed
frantic
joy
”

at
this
death.


I was totally astonished by the description of
Negro’s
grief which came
from their miserable experience in this novel-actually we can say in the
true
history.
Baby
Suggs
has
said,
“
Not
a
house
in
the
country
ain
’
t
packed
to
its
rafters
with
some
dead
Negro
’
s
grief.
”

From
Beloved
’
s
monologue,
we
can
know
that
some
Negro
was
forced
to
eat
nasty
themselves, and the men without skin bring them their morning water to
drink.
If
Negro
had
more
to
drink
they
could
make
tears.
They
cannot