New Outside Reading Book

I selected Paradise by Toni Morrison. I chose this book because I have read a few of her other books and she's become my favorite author. I really enjoy reading her books because she writes so beautifully. I always feel as if i'm in the book with the characters. There's still many books written by Toni Morrison that I haven't read but there was something about the green book with gold writing titled Paradise. The gold P reminds me of the P in my name. I'm interested and I can't wait to read this book.

Beloved Image

More Beloved . . .

"124, rocking with laughter, goodwill and food for ninety, made them angry. Too much, they thought. Where does she get it all, Baby Suggs, holy ? Why is she and hers always the center of things? How come she always knows exactly what to do and when? Giving advice; passing messages; healing the sick, hiding fugitives, loving, cooking, cooking, loving, preaching, singing, dancing and loving everybody like it was her job and hers alone.

Now to take two buckets of blackberries and make ten, maybe twelve, pies; to have a turkey enough for the whole town pretty near, new peas in September, fresh cream but no cow, ice and sugar, batter bread, bread pudding, raised bread, shortbread--it made them mad. Loaves and fishes were His powers--they did not belong to an exslave who had probably never carried one hundred pounds to the scale, or picked okra with a baby on her back. Who had never been lashed by a ten-year-old whiteboy as God knows they had. Who had not even escaped slavery--had, in fact, been bought out of it by a doting son and driven to the Ohio River in a wagon--free papers folded between her breasts (driven by the very man who had been her master, who also paid her resettlement fee--)....It made them furious"(137).

Toni Morrison uses alot of imagery in this passage. She chooses words that paints a picture of exactly what she is trying to say. When she is describing all of the food that Baby Suggs is able to provide she describes them in detail; she wants you to be able to see the food, and possibly almost taste it. The tone of this passage seems resentful, hateful, jelous, etc. It is negative thoughts coming from exslaves whom Baby Suggs helps. Toni Morrison describes Baby Suggs' actions as magical--similiar to Jesus. The exslaves are angry at this because they are not used to anybody helping them. Instead of appreciating Baby Suggs they start to resent her. It is the same story as in the bible for Jesus. Jesus was hated because he had too much power and people could not understand it. They were jealous how he could heal people, and create food out of nothing. It is a similiar situation with Baby Suggs. They cannot understand why she wants to do good things for them. They do not understand why she wants to help them, feed them, take care of them, etc. They are so used to being beaten, hated, tortured, and dehumanized that instead of loving her like she loves them, they turn on her.

Beloved.

Oprah: Welcome Toni Morrison! Glad you could take the time out to speak with me today.

Toni Morrison: You're truly welcome Oprah. I love your show!

Oprah: I love your books! Now we're here to talk about your book Beloved. It is truly a magical story! You're writing skills are phenomenal as well as your imagination! You've created such a masterpiece!

Toni Morrison: Thanks Oprah.

Oprah: You've written some extremely powerful messages throughout this story. One of my favorite quotes was when the character Baby Suggs says to the people at the clearing: "Here...[I]n this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dance on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it. They don't love your eyes; they'd just as soon pick em out. No more do they love the skin on your back. Yonder they flay it. And O my people they do not love your hands. Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off, and leave empty. Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face 'cause they don't love that either. You got to love it, you! And all your inside parts that they'd just as soon slop for hogs, you got to love them. The dark, dark liver--love it, love it, and the beat and beating heart, love that too. Hear me now, love your heart. For this is the prize"(88-89). Now, Toni, when you say the heart is the prize, what exactly did you mean by that ?

Toni Morrison: I wrote this story to take place in the 1800's, and that was during the time slavery was still going on in the south, but in the north slaves were allowed to be free. There were many slave women that were just like Baby Suggs, but very few got the advantage of being bought into freedom. Baby Suggs saw all of what the white people had done to her people, and she knew exactly what they were capable of. She knew that they purposely ripped and beat the slaves' souls so that the slaves would believe that they were not human; that they were not equal. After all the evil things that whites had done to the blacks, Baby Suggs wanted the black people to love themselves and cherish themselves because she knew the white people would not. Their job was to dehumanize slaves. Baby Suggs wanted her people to realize that they were humans just as well as the whites were. She wanted them to value themselves. She wanted them to not lose hope in themselves. She knew that the whites wanted the blacks to hate themselves, just as the white hated them, but Baby Suggs did not want that to happen to her people.

Oprah: Baby Suggs started off as a really powerful character, back when she believed that her words could help and inspire her people. Talk about the incident that caused her to stop believing in herself, or the world rather.

Toni Morrison: Well Baby Suggs' son Halle bought her out of slavery. She then believed that the world had some good in it because after all her years of hard working she'd finally been able to become free, which was rare. Halle and his wife Sethe had four kids. Sethe and her children were able to escape from slavery, but Halle was not. Sethe and her children went to live with Baby Suggs. Somehow their master found them, and was trying to get Sethe's children. Out of the love for her children, Sethe tried to kill them so they would not have to live with what she had to live with. She only successfully killed one of her daughters. Her whole intention was to keep them safe. She did what she did out of love, but the people in the town, including Baby Suggs, did not understand that. After that incident, Baby Suggs believed that there was no good in the world, except colors. She believed that colors never harmed anyone.

Oprah: In this story, the dead baby is known to haunt the house...

Toni Morrison: Yes, she does.

Oprah: But that's only an opinion for a while. Sethe and her living daughter Denver then discover that the baby was only trying to comunicate with them.

Toni Morrison: That's right.

Oprah: Until one of the characters Paul D shows up on Sethe's front porch, and scares the baby ghost away.

Toni Morrison: Correct. He sees how the baby is taking over the house, and disturbing the peace.

Oprah: Then comes Beloved. She shows up on the porch. Seeming to come from nowhere. Once Sethe realizes that Beloved is her daughter reincarnated, she becomes extremely happy, but a little to happy. So happy that her life begins to fall apart because of her regret, and because of the love for Beloved is so strong. I found this quote really interesting: "Beloved, she my daughter. She mine. See. She come back to me of her own free will and I don't have to explain a thing....I won't never let her go. I'll explain to her, even though I don't have to. Why I did it. How if i hadn't killed her she would have died and that is something I could not bear to happen to her...I'll tend her as no mother ever tended a child, a daughter"(200). I found this interesting because as she says this, she imediately dedicates her life to Beloved. Not even acknowledging her own life or Denver's life anymore.

Toni Morrison: A mother's love for her child is one of the most powerful gifts of life in this world. Because of Sethe's strong love for her children, she thought the only way to protect them was to kill them. Being granted a second chance to be with her daughter is such an extroardinary gift for Sethe that she does not want to take it for granted. She does not want to lose her child again. She wants the best for Beloved. She wants Beloved to forgive her and to love her. Because she is in the process of trying to forgive herself and plead for Beloved's forgiveness, she dedicates her life to Beloved. She even stops working, and neglects Denver. Her children meant the most to her in the world. So when Beloved came back from the dead, she felt as though her life had re started all over again. She felt as though she could pick up where she left off, and make the best of it.

Oprah: Like I said before Toni you're imagination is incredible!

Toni Morrison: (Laughs) Oh Oprah.

Oprah: What would you say is the main key word for this story ?

Toni Morrison: Love.

Oprah: Why ?

Toni Morrison: The root of all of the characters' actions result to Love. No matter the circumstances, its all Love. Whether it is shown in the worst way, or the best way. However you perceive Love, it is there. Halle buys Baby Suggs out of slavery, because of his Love for his mother. Sethe tries to kill her children, because she Loves them too much to let them relive all of her experiences. Denver goes out and asks for help when her mother dedicates her life to Beloved, despite the fact that her mother is neglecting her. It was because of Love that she built up the courage to leave her home. Sethe stopped working, and lived every minute in the house with Beloved, because of Love. The town starts giving food to Denver, Sethe, and Beloved, because of Love. All of the characters' actions result from Love.

Oprah: Once again a beautiful, magical, story! Let's give a round of aplause to Ms. Toni Morrison.

Toni Morrison: Thanks Oprah.

Oprah: No problem, thanks for joining me today!

Toni Morrsion: You're welcome.

English 3 Honor Paired Reading

My two books that I selected as my paired reading choices were A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini and Three Cups of Tea by George Mortenson. Both of the books have settings in the Middle East, and one of the main themes that both books share is determination to get an education. Although very different, the message that both books are trying to portray to the world is the right to an education, for women especially. Both books are showing what third wheel countries are like to live in, and all of the unfair laws and disadvantages that they have compared to the United States. Both books are great to read about if an 11th grade student wants to know about what is going on over on the other side of the world. I would not recommend Three Cups of Tea for 11th graders because it is not very well written. The point of the book is very clear, but the author takes an extremely long time to get his point across, and there are a lot of details that are not needed. 11th grade students would become extremely uninterested in the book because it is not one of those books that you cannot stop reading because you’re so interested, it’s one of those books that you force yourself to read because you have to, for an English class. I would recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns because the book is written beautifully, it keeps the reader interested, and most of the main characters start off as children and then become adults, which makes it easy for 11th graders to relate to.