Beloved: A Teenage Infant
... make sense that she would have trouble breathing; because Beloved’s neck was nearly severed, and the windpipe is found in the neck, her windpipe would have to have been severed also. She had swift, raspy breathing, similar to that of which people with asthma have when they can’t catch or hold their breath. Earlier in the text, there is a passage that describes how the ghost slammed Here Boy into a wall and hurt him badly. After that, the dog refused to come into the house because of the ghost’s presence. When Beloved arrived, the scene was described as, "Here Boy nowhere in sight." It would make sense that Here Boy could sense that Beloved was the ghost and didn’t want to be hurt again. Also, at the end of the book when Beloved was already gone, Here Boy returned. One of Paul D’s biggest questions about Beloved was her skin. Her skin was like "new skin, lineless and smooth, including the knuckles of her hands". Most women of color in that time had lined, callused, scarred hands by the time they were nineteen. The scarring was from playing when they were children and lines and calluses from the housework. Beloved died when she was one with baby new skin. Beloved’s skin didn’t have time to become spoiled by labor or play. Beloved also had trouble keeping her head up. She would, "[rest] her head in the palm of her hand as though it were too heavy for her neck alone." When Sethe killed the baby girl, she held its head up because she had cut so deeply, it almost severed the girl’s head. If the Beloved were the ghost, she would have great troubles holding her head up because her neck had been severed and because babies have cannot support their own head before a certain age of which Beloved never reached. In death, certain things happen to a person’s body. For instance, they become very cold because the heart is no longer pumping blood through the body. The blood ceases to run through the veins, and settles which makes everything cool off. Also, bodies become very dehydrated because their is no more fluids being ingested. When Beloved arrives, she is very cold and she has the need to drink a lot of water. Her death would serve as an explanation of her dehydration and coldness. When Beloved first arrived, Denver insisted on taking care of her. And one discovery that Denver made was that she thought Beloved was incontinent because she would defecate in her bed. However, there is another explanation besides incontinence. Beloved died when she was one. The baby girl didn’t have time to be potty trained. Because Beloved was the ghost, she only had the knowledge that the untrained baby girl had when she died, and that knowledge did not include being potty trained. There are also passages that describe Beloved performing laborious movements about the house. She, "moved like a heavier one or an older one, holding on to furniture." Many babies hold on to furniture while learning how to walk. The baby Beloved might have been crawling, but she certainly wouldn’t have been walking yet. Beloved the teenager only had the knowledge that Beloved the baby girl had before she died, and that did not include learning how to walk. Beloved the teenager had to learn to walk because Beloved the baby wasn‘t able to before she died. One of the most obvious factors linking Beloved the teenager and Beloved the baby, in the beginning passages is the three little scratched on Beloved forehead. We as readers don’t discover why these scratches are important until later in the book, when Sethe says, "I would have seen my fingernail prints on your forehead for all the world to see". Then it becomes clear. The three little scratches are Sethe’s fingernail prints from when she healed the brutally slain baby girl’s head on. Beloved also has a scar on her neck. When Denver and she are dancing, Beloved falls back on the bed and Denver, "saw the tip of the thing she always saw in its entirety when Beloved undressed to sleep." The tip is a scar that is in the shape of a smile. Denver sees the top of the smile. It is the same scar that the baby girl would have had if a slice across her throat could have healed. It is the scar from where Sethe cut her throat. There is a very strange scene when Sethe is at the clearing. Beloved comes over and starts kissing Sethe’s neck. Eventually, Sethe pulls away and she smells Beloved breath. Sethe describes it as smelling "exactly like new milk". Then Sethe goes on to tell Beloved that’s she’s "too old for that." It would make sense if "that" meant nursing. Beloved was trying to nurse off Sethe like she did when she was a baby. After the skating adventure, when Beloved, Denver and Sethe are at home, Sethe hears Beloved humming a tune that Sethe made up herself. That is the incident that finally convinces Sethe that Beloved is her daughter. The only way the Beloved could know the song is if Sethe had sung it to her. And the only way Sethe would have sung the song to her is if she were Sethe’s child. Another interpretation views Beloved as a representation of Sethe's dead mother. Linking Beloved and Sethe’s mother are Beloved’s recounts memories that correspond to those that Sethe's mother might have had of her passage to America from Africa. It is in this that Beloved may give voice to the collective unconscious of all those oppressed by slavery's history and legacy. Traits shared by Sethe's mother and Beloved are a perpetual smile and a strange manner of sp...