1. Answer one of the following, using 1200-1400 words.
a) Compare and contrast Sethe in Morrison’s Beloved and Jack in DeLillo’s White Noise in terms of how they function as types, representative of a certain social group in a particular time and place, and characterized according to certain novelistic literary conventions (such as style and genre).
b) Compare and contrast Beloved and White Noise in terms of how they express a vision of human agency that may be termed tragic. Consider also the limits of the tragic vision in each, in terms of contrasting or alternative visions/conventions such as romance and the absurd.
If Sethe in Toni Morrison’s book Beloved is an agent of tragedy, from a general human perspective, then she is so on a much more down to earth manner than Jack from White Noise. The tragic events that shape the destiny of Sethe and those around her can be clearly related to and obviously identified as traumatic. I am, of course, speaking of the physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her former owners but also about the more general theme of the book, the long lasting effects of slavery. Tremors of which could argued to be felt up until our current day and age. The rape of Sethe works as catalyst for the tragedy that is soon to be the rest of her life. The event works as a justification of the murder of her own child, Beloved, and that act later leads to Sethe becoming an outcast in the black community in which she resides. Incarcerated in her own house with her only daughter, Denver, until the ghosts, not literary, of her past comes back to haunt her and driving her off the edge of sanity in a true Shakespearian manner. Although she finds temporary happiness and comfort with Beloved it is but temporary and soon leads Sethe to darker times.
I say it is more down to earth due to the fact that the tragic events that take place are almost the universal definition, if there is one, of what the man in the street would call tragic. Rape, loss of sanity, excommunication, incarceration and of course the loss of one's own child, albeit at her own hand. That being said, the tragedy is not something that looms over the book itself but it is rather small events that happen and then have dire consequences.
In comparison to the more satirical or almost absurd tragedy that occurs in Don DeLillo’s White Noise you will find that the characters in Beloved have very down to earth reasons for their strife. The White Noise tragedy lies not in things that happen in the book, you do not get any concrete event which explains their weird obsessions with death. In fact it is the obsession and fear that is the tragedy itself. Every part of their life, both Jack’s and Babette’s, is tainted by the revelation that they indeed are going to die. This looming doom naturally leads to several events which could be labelled as tragedies which later culminates in the shooting of the lord of Dylar, Dr. Mink.
To sum up the first half of the answer: In Beloved events beyond the characters control forces them into a pattern of actions which leads them to tragedy while in White Noise the fear of their own demise makes them create tragedy, tragedy which could have been avoided had they not been so occupied by their own mortality.
The White Noise notion of fear having tragic consequences in the lives of people is indeed an up-to-date and contemporary theme highly relevant when one tries to understand contemporary society, even though it was written more than twenty years ago. Back then the cold war was still going on and the main enemy causing the most fear out of people around the world, but mostly in the United States and western countries, was the Soviet Union and communism. Today the antagonist and the agent of fear in our lives, and the lives of people living under the banner of American culture, is the silent and invisible threat of terrorism. The fear of dying due to old age, car crashes and smoking has been put in hold in favour for the horrible thought of being the victim of a sudden death at the hands of an ungodly Muslim terrorist. Most Americans seem to have a hard time understanding why not all countries share the same values or why they do not simply emulate the American society in order to increase their chances of leaving the poor house and joining the exclusive club that is western industrialized countries. The American society is, after all, to many Americans a universal model for success (Campbell & Kean, 2006: s267-270). In Jack’s and Babette’s case it is a question of not understanding why they have to die. In what way is that fair? Realizing that they can not escape their ultimate fate they try to cope with their fears. Babette’s hunt for a cure can easily be compared with people shuffling into stores buying radiation suits and gasmask in order to at least stand a fighting chance when the silent killer comes to town. Dr. Mink is in reality a symbol representing all opportunists who thrive on the irrational fears of others, allthough I guess a fear of death ultimately is not irrational but you get my point.
If one extrapolates what I have already said about Beloved and try to focus on what may be the ultimate catalyst to the tragic events that unfold in the book, which I estimate to be slavery. Toni Morrison tries, in Beloved, to give a black narrative to a dark chapter in American history which traditionally only had been commented on by well educated men, hence mostly white men in the middle to upper classes of society. She tries, as stated earlier, to give a glimpse of how slavery has worked to cripple the chances of black Americans to move up in both social and monetary status. And this confirmed by Campbell and Kean: “[…] through the reconstruction process of telling African-American history to remind her audience, both black and white, of the restrictions imposed on the opportunities of young blacks [...] (Campbell & Kean, 2006: s89). Although the quote was talking about The Bluest Eye, also written by Morrison, I do feel that also applies to Beloved, at least in regards to the perspective from which I have chosen to analyze the tragedies contained within the cover of the novel. Toni Morrison does not only let you see the long term effects of slavery, or what could potentially happen, but in the book she also forces the reader, as she is forcing the characters, to deal with the past no matter if you are black or white. Like Beloved comes to haunt Sethe and Denver in the book, you as a reader, is haunted by the reminder of a not so glorious past no matter what colour your skin is. This is also mentioned in American cultural studies on pages 89 to 90.
To summarize once again I think the main differences between the two books are perhaps what the authors chose as a focal point for what they deem as tragic. White Noise warns us not to dwell on the future and the coming of the inevitable darkness that is destined to be our grave, but to live your life to its fullest. There is folly to live in constant fear of potentials because you tend to miss out on all the good things that might happen.
This, of course, stands in stark contrast to Morrison’s word of warning. Morrison urges us not to forget from whence we came lest it come back to haunt us. For what we are today clearly is the product of a continually increasing pile of events which belongs to the past. History exists so that we may learn from our mistakes. Or as Konrad Adenauer would put it: “History is the sum of total things that could have been avoided.”
a) Compare and contrast Sethe in Morrison’s Beloved and Jack in DeLillo’s White Noise in terms of how they function as types, representative of a certain social group in a particular time and place, and characterized according to certain novelistic literary conventions (such as style and genre).
b) Compare and contrast Beloved and White Noise in terms of how they express a vision of human agency that may be termed tragic. Consider also the limits of the tragic vision in each, in terms of contrasting or alternative visions/conventions such as romance and the absurd.
If Sethe in Toni Morrison’s book Beloved is an agent of tragedy, from a general human perspective, then she is so on a much more down to earth manner than Jack from White Noise. The tragic events that shape the destiny of Sethe and those around her can be clearly related to and obviously identified as traumatic. I am, of course, speaking of the physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her former owners but also about the more general theme of the book, the long lasting effects of slavery. Tremors of which could argued to be felt up until our current day and age. The rape of Sethe works as catalyst for the tragedy that is soon to be the rest of her life. The event works as a justification of the murder of her own child, Beloved, and that act later leads to Sethe becoming an outcast in the black community in which she resides. Incarcerated in her own house with her only daughter, Denver, until the ghosts, not literary, of her past comes back to haunt her and driving her off the edge of sanity in a true Shakespearian manner. Although she finds temporary happiness and comfort with Beloved it is but temporary and soon leads Sethe to darker times.
I say it is more down to earth due to the fact that the tragic events that take place are almost the universal definition, if there is one, of what the man in the street would call tragic. Rape, loss of sanity, excommunication, incarceration and of course the loss of one's own child, albeit at her own hand. That being said, the tragedy is not something that looms over the book itself but it is rather small events that happen and then have dire consequences.
In comparison to the more satirical or almost absurd tragedy that occurs in Don DeLillo’s White Noise you will find that the characters in Beloved have very down to earth reasons for their strife. The White Noise tragedy lies not in things that happen in the book, you do not get any concrete event which explains their weird obsessions with death. In fact it is the obsession and fear that is the tragedy itself. Every part of their life, both Jack’s and Babette’s, is tainted by the revelation that they indeed are going to die. This looming doom naturally leads to several events which could be labelled as tragedies which later culminates in the shooting of the lord of Dylar, Dr. Mink.
To sum up the first half of the answer: In Beloved events beyond the characters control forces them into a pattern of actions which leads them to tragedy while in White Noise the fear of their own demise makes them create tragedy, tragedy which could have been avoided had they not been so occupied by their own mortality.
The White Noise notion of fear having tragic consequences in the lives of people is indeed an up-to-date and contemporary theme highly relevant when one tries to understand contemporary society, even though it was written more than twenty years ago. Back then the cold war was still going on and the main enemy causing the most fear out of people around the world, but mostly in the United States and western countries, was the Soviet Union and communism. Today the antagonist and the agent of fear in our lives, and the lives of people living under the banner of American culture, is the silent and invisible threat of terrorism. The fear of dying due to old age, car crashes and smoking has been put in hold in favour for the horrible thought of being the victim of a sudden death at the hands of an ungodly Muslim terrorist. Most Americans seem to have a hard time understanding why not all countries share the same values or why they do not simply emulate the American society in order to increase their chances of leaving the poor house and joining the exclusive club that is western industrialized countries. The American society is, after all, to many Americans a universal model for success (Campbell & Kean, 2006: s267-270). In Jack’s and Babette’s case it is a question of not understanding why they have to die. In what way is that fair? Realizing that they can not escape their ultimate fate they try to cope with their fears. Babette’s hunt for a cure can easily be compared with people shuffling into stores buying radiation suits and gasmask in order to at least stand a fighting chance when the silent killer comes to town. Dr. Mink is in reality a symbol representing all opportunists who thrive on the irrational fears of others, allthough I guess a fear of death ultimately is not irrational but you get my point.
If one extrapolates what I have already said about Beloved and try to focus on what may be the ultimate catalyst to the tragic events that unfold in the book, which I estimate to be slavery. Toni Morrison tries, in Beloved, to give a black narrative to a dark chapter in American history which traditionally only had been commented on by well educated men, hence mostly white men in the middle to upper classes of society. She tries, as stated earlier, to give a glimpse of how slavery has worked to cripple the chances of black Americans to move up in both social and monetary status. And this confirmed by Campbell and Kean: “[…] through the reconstruction process of telling African-American history to remind her audience, both black and white, of the restrictions imposed on the opportunities of young blacks [...] (Campbell & Kean, 2006: s89). Although the quote was talking about The Bluest Eye, also written by Morrison, I do feel that also applies to Beloved, at least in regards to the perspective from which I have chosen to analyze the tragedies contained within the cover of the novel. Toni Morrison does not only let you see the long term effects of slavery, or what could potentially happen, but in the book she also forces the reader, as she is forcing the characters, to deal with the past no matter if you are black or white. Like Beloved comes to haunt Sethe and Denver in the book, you as a reader, is haunted by the reminder of a not so glorious past no matter what colour your skin is. This is also mentioned in American cultural studies on pages 89 to 90.
To summarize once again I think the main differences between the two books are perhaps what the authors chose as a focal point for what they deem as tragic. White Noise warns us not to dwell on the future and the coming of the inevitable darkness that is destined to be our grave, but to live your life to its fullest. There is folly to live in constant fear of potentials because you tend to miss out on all the good things that might happen.
This, of course, stands in stark contrast to Morrison’s word of warning. Morrison urges us not to forget from whence we came lest it come back to haunt us. For what we are today clearly is the product of a continually increasing pile of events which belongs to the past. History exists so that we may learn from our mistakes. Or as Konrad Adenauer would put it: “History is the sum of total things that could have been avoided.”
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