The Beloved story is starting to pick up with the entrance of Beloved and the integration of Paul D within the 124 household. While this surely adds to an already complex story, I instead would like to focus on the idea of the future. Previously, we discussed how Toni Morrison appears to blend time; it is hard for the reader to identify what is now and what is the past. While this has worked to show Sethe’s fear of the past, we see on page 71, for one of the first times, a shift towards the future on the topic of the eatings when Morrison narrates, “she wouldn’t say another word. Until the next time when all three of them ran through the wind back into the house.” Similarly, Sethe acknowledges her preoccupation with the future when she says “I have other things to do: worry, for example, about tomorrow” on page 83.
It is no coincidence that this shift occurs in tandem with the introduction of Beloved and Paul D. While Sethe had been running her whole life, working to forget the past, this is the first time when things are starting to look good for the residents of the 124 house. Beloved seems to take the place of the dead baby (we also have not had any ghost interactions lately) and Paul D is working to integrate the “family” into society by bringing them to the carnival. For the first time since this book began, Sethe and Denver finally have direction and are excited for what the future holds. That is not to say that the past is gone, though. Morrison does say that Sethe’s “brain was not interested in the future,” but we are beginning to see a shift that might be cognisant of a shifting time. Post abolition but still with a long way to go, the future might have been bright for many African Americans, but a preoccupation with all that has been done and a dark past are hard to forget and move on from.
I definitely got the feeling that Beloved was haunting the 124 household, as you alluded to in your post. I agree that Denver and Paul D’s reactions to her are the most noteworthy, though, as they seem to represent significant ideas of the future for African Americans in the United States. Denver in her young age and Paul D’s idealism bring about an interesting contrast to the values and ideas surrounding Beloved, given how sickly she is. Whatever this represents, I think it will be explored in future chapters.
I agree with what you said about the change in the mood of the family after Beloved was introduced. The atmosphere of the house was considerably different in this section of the book than the last section we were assigned to read. It seems like the family members are each more positive than they used to be, and appear to be mentioning the past less than before.