In the book Beloved by Toni Morrison the idea of fate is discussed more in the sense of what the main character is able to control. Sethe allows Beloved to stay because she thinks it gives her an ability to change her past, or repent the mistakes she made. Really Beloved represents more of a parasite of the past that she hasn't dealt with, so it controls her present and future. Because she gets too caught up in her own past to live a healthy future, Sethe's entire family suffers. She allows a world she cannot control become her downfall. If Sethe would've accepted her past then she could have lived a life void of guilt.
One could also argue that Sethe interfered with fate when she killed Beloved as a child. Her motherly instincts told her that death was a better fate than slavery, but then would it have been fate that she was meant to have Beloved in the first place? And was it fate that Beloved was the one child to die? If Sethe attempted to mess up Beloved's fate then it would make sense that Beloved would come back to haunt her. Maybe her life in slavery wouldn't have been as bad as Sethe thought, so she took away her child's life for no reason. Either way, Sethe's actions haunted her for years until she finally overcame her guilt with the help of Denver, only after it almost completely consumed her. Sethe's fate may have been to kill Beloved, but because she could not forgive herself for her actions it affected her life for many years after. We should accept and learn from things that happen to us and that we do instead of allowing them to linger and affect us in a negative way. Life happens, but that doesn't mean that it's over just because we do one thing wrong.
Emily,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like by the end of your blog post you've moved away from the duality of fate & free will, and I wonder if it's because you are in a different place now on this topic than when you began in September. One thing that you nail is the idea of redemption--though you may make it sound a little too easy with the statement, "If Sethe would've accepted her past then she could have lived a life void of guilt." How does one accept a past like hers? What God or higher power would give someone such a fate? What happens to the idea of fate, when some people (slave owners & dealers) can so completely control the life (fate) of others (slaves)? I'd like to hear your ideas on this--maybe in your culminating essay?