Memory

There's a certain element about this book that caught my attention; similar to themes from 100 Years Of Solitude. In addition to the magical realism aspect, there was a specific attention to time from the first half of Beloved that stood out to me. The quote is "If you go there-you who was never there....it's going to be there always waiting for you." In this quote, Denver is recalling what Sethe had once told her about the persistence of things; in a similar manner which we saw in 100 Years, discussing the circular nature of time in the story. In Marquez' book, we see the past, present, and future all overlap at different points in the novel. So far Beloved offers a similar message. One obvious example is the ghost of Sethe's deceased first born baby, which hangs around and haunts, keeps company, excites the residents of 124-in any case the past manifests itself in the present in this transparent way. Other quotes in the novel allude to permanence as well. On pages 42 and 43, there are references to dead coming back to life, or staying alive rather, and "places" remaining, in reality or memory. This can be a burden, however, as Sethe's memories prove to carry quite a weight on her soul. Early in the book we see Sethe try to forget her past as much as possible. We see her physically convulse when describing the past, and heed Denver about the power of lessons from the past. So like in 100 Years, we see recursion being used, maybe as a tool or crutch, or possibly the issue of time will be used as a larger theme or motif as the book develops.