Summary+Pages+Michelle

1) summary of main arguments 2) something surprising or interesting learned 3) agree/disagree with the ideas and then apply this to a scene or example from the book (one not mentioned by the critic). Please try to disagree at least once with a critic. At the top, include how many pages, the bibliography information, which summary.

Books bibliography: Bloom, Harold, ed. //Toni Morrison//. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 2000. Print. Bloom, Harold, ed. //Toni Morrison//. New York: Chelsea House, 1990. Print.

__**SUMMARY 1**__ Wow, very interesting article. I can see how it would be complicated to read. Nice job in the surprising part. Needed maybe one more sentence in the summary section, though very clear and easy to read. 10/10 pg. 100-101 = 2 pages Krumholz, Linda. "Linda Krumholz on Beloved as a Story of Individual and National Rememory." //Toni Morrison// (2000): 100-01. Print.

Summary: Linda Krumholz's critical view was based on Toni Morrison's //Beloved// and the author's re-conceptualization of American history. She states the Morrison uses ritual as a model for the healing process of Sethe. The central ritual of healing is Sethe's "rememory" of and controntation with her past. Krumholz separated this process into three parts: 1) Sethe's confrontation to her past, 2) her atonement, and 3) her ritual "cleaning." All three, of course, occurs mainly after the appearance of Beloved back into her life. Krumholz also stated Morrison's fragmentation of the plot and a shifting narrative voice as a parallel to Sethe's psychological recovery. All this, whatsoever, leads to one point: The three phases of the reader's ritual involve a personal reckoning with the history of slavery. Looking back to the ending of //Beloved//, Denver's emergence as a new teacher provides readers with the idea of opportunity for the reconstruction of slave history from a black woman's perspective.

Surprising/Interesting: It took me a while to fully interpret what Linda Krumholz was saying when she wrote this short, yet very inspiring article. The whole time while I was reading //Beloved//, I knew slavery was involved and the story itself was about a woman who survived slavery and found a new life. However, this article made me realize that the whole process of Sethe trying to overcome all these obstacles relating to Paul D, Beloved, and the rest of her community was an indirect reference to the history of slavery itself. On the last part of Krumholz's critique, she states that Beloved's mysterious character and "necessary disruption" in the novel was intended to be. As the reader leaves the book confused and questioning, we have also taken on slavery's haunt as our own. Not until I read this did I ever come to think that my curiosity about more on this topic was an obvious result--the unsolved problems and issues of slavery.

Agree/Disagree: I agree with Krumholz in her opinion about Morrison's reference to Sethe's overcoming of obstacles as a symbolism for slavery itself. However, I cannot agree completely on her statement that the ending of this novel provides the reader "with a model for a new pedagogy and the opportunity for the reconstruction of slave history from a black woman's perspective." I don't think this scene was a reconstruction, but simply an evolution of slavery. It seems to show a process that was to come, not only because this black woman had dreamed it to be so, but also because society itself was going through many stages of change at that time. It was a necessary process to be taken. Morrison was brave enough to add that bit into her writing without directly criticizing the way society treated her race. For example, in parts when Beloved is able to make Paul D touch her and make her feel happy (towards the middle of the book), it already shows how women are able to take control and lead the men. Yes, Beloved is simply a ghostly figure in the novel. However, a symbol is a symbol--it means what it means.

__**SUMMARY 2**__ I could tell that this was a more difficult text for you to read. For example in the end of the "Surprising" section you end with the word "cave." I sense that part of the fun and difficulty of this text was the vocabulary. There seems to be a Jungian base to this critic's analysis (archetypes and such). I don't entirely understand what you were saying in your agree or disagree portion. The example doesn't seem to support the statement. 9/10 pg.97-99 = 3 pages Demetrakopoulos, Stephanie A. "Stephanie A. Demetrakpoulos on the Death of the Maternal in Sethe." //Toni Morrison// (2000): 97-99. Print.

Summary: Once again discussing Beloved, Demetrakopoulos examines the motherhood in //Beloved// and refers to the maternal bonds and cruelties of slavery. She begins by comparing Morrison's novel to the Holocaust--books based on the Holocaust and Morrison's //Beloved// both linger ironically on how beautiful the landscape is while there is a completely disturbing scene going on. "Nature erases atrocities." Demetrakopoulos's focus, however, changes to the cruel absurdity of maternal passion. Sethe's maternal bonds nearly destroy her, which leads us to Denver. Her need for community and family, unlike Sethe's fear for society and company, helps her embody the history that Sethe resists entering. By giving birth to her Self and through her connection with her father, Denver is guided a step further. She boldly faces reality and ends up being the caretaker of her caretaker.

Surprising/Interesting: It was interesting for me to read this article not only because I struggled understanding Demetrakopoulos's meaning in all this writing, but also because I wasn't fully sure of what Denver's adolescent sexuality had anything to do with motherhood. However, after reading through everything carefully, I came to a conclusion that this adolescent sexuality impels her identification with Beloved, "who unwittingly provides one step toward maturity for Denver's Womanself, struggling to be born." My guess is that becoming a women also meant leaving Sethe's protection for Denver. That is why when Paul D indicates the similarity in Halle, Denver's dad, to Denver, she regains strength and feels pride. Halle's nurturing, industry, and compassion leads on to Denver's future life. Denver is strong enough (internally) to use whatever is around her to help her out of the matriarchal cave into life.

Agree/Disagree: I was actually very convinced after reading this article that the effects society and one's surroundings have on that person are very crucial and influential. However, the only difference is the way people interpret the meaning of the world around them. Sethe and Denver were in very similar situations and environments. However, Denver was stronger than Sethe--she overcame her obstacles using those obstacles. Even Beloved serves as a foothold for Denver, but not for Sethe. For example, when Sethe first found Beloved (the ghostly figure) on the steps, she couldn't resist but say yes to Beloved and bring her back home as if she was always a member of the family. Denver was a young girl and had no say in that decision, but later Beloved practically took over a very important and large part of their lives.

SUMMARY 3 pg. 171-188 = 17 pages

Summary: This is a criticism on Toni Morrison's //Song of Solomon// by Theodore O. Mason, Jr. in relation to general stories and comprehension of stories. He first describes Morrison as a Marxist and a feminist. Also, her revisions of past traditions in fiction are magnified--predominately male, white, or the upper-class. Before Morrison's novels, the focus of many stories were based on men, whites, or the wealthy. However, she took a different path with her books. She likes to be a "conservator" by issuing cultural practices of black communities in most of the stories she writes (172). The black communities are chaotic, but Toni Morrison has the talent of "creating sense out of the chaos of reality" (172). She doesn't hide anything, but rather reveals everything and brings out a different charm in that reality. In one part of this long critique, Mason also mentions how some people may view Morrison's writing as one in which she "unnecessarily problematizes Afro-American cultural patterns by representing them as anarchic and frequently violent" (173). Towards the end of Mason's criticism, he focuses on the language of Morrison's works. The Black community and its language is a very important thing to notice when reading not only Morrison's books, but any book. In Song of Solomon, for example, even the smallest things such as the Doctor Street shows how much language is valued and //how// the language is valued. Instead of using the actual name Main Street, the black people call is Doctor Street simply because Dr. Foster lives there--the only black doctor on that street. Mason emphasizes the regular, yet influential language and style Morrison writes her novels to not only portray the Afro-American culture, but also the American culture in whole.

Surprising/Interesting: In one part of the criticism, Mason talks about how Morrison's writing mirrors her belief in the constructive nature of human subjectivity. I took a really long time trying to figure out what this meant--in terms of literature as well as a cultural figure. However, the sentence after that said that "Morrison forces the reader to fill in the spaces--to create a sense of history by means of apprehending a fiction" (173). From this, I looked back to when I was reading her stories, and realized that I, too, had filled in the spaces as I read her novels. The parts where I was confused about the past or the truth, I ended up figuring them out eventually. Mason's reference to this skill Toni Morrison possesses was quite interesting: she uses opacity and transparency, rigidity and fluidity. Yes, I wondered "what?" at first too. "The essence of her fiction is to set these opposites in motion, forcing her characters to take obscuring opacities and try to make them transparent, and paralyzing rigidities and make them more fluid." Her narratives make sense of the real world by interpretation, not simply by understanding.

Agree/Disagree: Mason stated that Morrison's work relies on fundamentally linear plotting, the use of rounded characters, and a generally mimetic conception of the novel. I would agree to some parts of his opinion, but I don't think all of her stories rely on fundamentally linear plotting, for instance //Beloved//. This story's biggest obstacle is the plot itself; Morrison plays with time and utilizes it for the meaning of the novel. Yes, Mason says that Morrison's stature depends upon a great deal more, but her novels speak with greater depth and meaning than some may notice. //Beloved//'s plot of the baby Beloved dying and a new Beloved appearing in the lives of Denver and Sethe both confuses and clarifies the book's purpose to readers. Readers are confused of why and how this ghostly figure is back, yet they realize that the return of Beloved is the whole point of the rememory and recovery of Sethe as a woman and as a mother.