Beloved
Pulling it All Together???
Carl Gustav Jung. Psychiatrist (July 1875-June 1961)
 Founder
of analytical psychology
 Pioneer in dream analysis
 Collective unconscious
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part of the unconscious mind
does not develop through personal experience
system of a collective, universal, and impersonal
nature which is identical in all individuals
does not develop individually but is inherited
consists of pre-existent forms—archetypes
(models)--of a person, a personality or a behavior
= Shown in voices Stamp Paid hears “roaring” around
124, and Beloved’s creepy stream-of-consciousness
Water Motif
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Cleansing
Rebirth
Childbirth
Ice/frozen water
Blood & milk also connected to water
= Life forces, motherhood, sex, birth, death
Rivers: Lethe = of forgetfulness-spirits drink of the river
Lethe to forget their lives in the human world
Styx = boundary between earth and underworld is
guarded by Phlegyas, who passes the souls from
one side to another of the river.
Acheron translates as the "river of woe“; believed
to be a branch of the underworld river Styx over
which Charon ferried the newly dead souls across
into Hades.
Styx, etching by Gustave Doré
in 1861
Tree Motif
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Nature
Fertility
Comfort (Big Brother)
Children playing / people hanging
Tree of Life: a mystical concept alluding to the
interconnectedness of all life on earth; according to some
scholars, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, portrayed in various religions and
philosophies, are the same tree. However, it is mentioned
in Genesis that there exists a distinct tree of life in the
Garden of Eden (although humans are barred from entry
to the Garden by the time it is mentioned).
Tree of knowledge: from Genesis is the tree of good and
evil; eating from it leads to sin and/or death
= Mixed messages of fertility and hope and
danger from jungle/vine imagery and paradise and sin
from Garden of Eden
Snake Allusions
 To
evil, manipulative serpent from Garden of
Eden
 To African folk stories in which snakes were a
totem of healing and wisdom, and thus hope
= Beloved, their salvation: she brings
healing, but there is evil/danger--“baby’s
venom”--in confronting one’s demons
Memory Motif
 Amy:
“everything dead coming back to
life hurts”
 Rememory: past never truly dies
 Conscious attempts to keep the past at
bay
= past is both confining and freeing
Iron Motif
 Iron
eyes
 Tobacco tin heart
 Shackles, collars, bits
 Sword and shield
= Mixed messages of captivity but
also freedom and iron-will to overcome
one’s fetters.
Hunger Motif
 Hunger
for companionship
 Hunger for identity
 Hunger for freedom, in the figurative sense
 Hunger for forgiveness, primarily of self
Animal Motif
= What does is mean to be human?
= What does it mean to be a man?
Universal Themes
(not just about slavery)
 Mother-daughter
relationships
 Male-female relationships
 What does it mean to be human?
 What does it mean to be free?
 What is meaning of family/ community?
 Is it possible to love someone too much?
Essay: Turn-it-in Info
 Password:
aplit1
 Class ID: 8805407