Storytelling: Listening and Learning

At first read, this book is confusing and a little frustrating to get started because the author just throws the reader into the story, without ease or consideration. Now that I’ve finished the second section of this book that was assigned, I have a new appreciation for how it’s structured and the themes of the story. At first, I was not very interested in the book simply because it started off so randomly that it made me uncomfortable. Now, however, I am really noticing the themes, one of which is the power of storytelling.
The story, in reference to the storytelling theme, begins with Sethe obliging to Denver’s questions of her past, but Sethe never tells any story in full detail. She does this because she does not want Denver to have her memories as her own because they are too hard for even Sethe to bear. Sethe calls this rememory. Sethe has many horrible memories, some of which involve Denver, but she always stops talking before she gets to such memories. When Beloved gets into the picture, however, and she begins asking Sethe questions about her past, Sethe tells her stories in full detail. Sethe discovering Beloved’s need for storytelling allows her to become her own therapist in reliving the horrors of her past that she has tried so hard to shut out and forget. In the story, Beloved always gets Sethe to tell her a story by avoiding the actual request. Instead, she says, “Tell me you diamonds.”(pg.69) or “Your woman she never fix up your hair?”(pg.72) which intrigues Sethe enough to tell her story in detail.
The significance of Sethe, Beloved, and Denver finding peace and an almost therapeutic medication through storytelling, either telling or listening, is directly related to the fact that the author is doing the same thing in storytelling. Telling the stories of African Americans in the 1800s, seems therapeutic for Toni Morrison, and in return, I believe she is hoping that the readers empathize for the characters so they will understand the struggles of her race. Its one big metaphor for listening and learning.