In Nicole Coonrat's text on Beloved she goes in depth about the lack of respect and treatment of African Americans during the times of slavery. She really focuses on the theme of love and the ways that blacks were essentially not allowed to "love themselves" (4) because of the extreme abuse they had to endure. I thought she had a very interesting analysis of the house "124" connecting the skipping of 3 as a representation for the absence of the third child Sethe had. This paper focuses greatly on the contrast between the love of family and the hate of racism.
Coonrat shares a lot of similar beliefs as me when it comes to the bond that is created from family. There is some strange emotion that comes along with being related by blood with someone that is very hard to understand. It is one of those things that you can’t explain but everyone can relate too because everyone has some type of family in their life.
Another element of Morrisons writing that Coonrat analyses is the constant feeling of hope characters in the book experienced even in times of extreme hardship. She uses Amy as a symbol of hope throughout this book since she is a white lady that understands and respects the struggle the slaves had to endure which is ultimately the goal for society as a whole. While I never thought of the character Amy like this, it does make a lot of sense to connect her with the theme of hope in this book. She is one of the “good” white people in this book and helps Sethe with bearing her child. I did not think of Amy as a character that played a major role in this book however Coonrat helped look at her differently and develop a better understanding of the book.
