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Definition of Stream of Consciousness
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by incorporating sensory impressions, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax... read full definition
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by incorporating... read full definition
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's... read full definition
Part 2, Chapter 20
Explanation and Analysis—Frenzied Thoughts:
Beloved employs stream-of-consciousness writing throughout the novel to depict the raw emotions and frenzied thought processes of the characters recounting traumatic experiences. The technique is most present in Chapters 20 to 23, which focus on the thoughts of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved. In Chapter 20, Sethe's monologue follows her thoughts as she tries to explain to Beloved why she killed her:
My plan was to take us all to the other side where my own ma'am is. They stopped me from getting us there, but they didn't stop you from getting here. Ha ha. You came right on back like a good girl, like a daughter which is what I wanted to be and would have been if my ma'am had been able to get out of the rice long enough before they hanged her and let me be one.
The technique is used by Sethe to convince Beloved (and the novel to persuade the reader) that murdering Beloved was an act of love meant to keep her children from the cruelty she experienced. Sethe's rambling monologue is interspersed with non-linear thoughts of the past, switching from her feelings about Beloved as a daughter to her traumatic recollections of the memories of her own mother. Stream-of-consciousness writing allows the novel to show how the past constantly invades Sethe's thoughts. Sethe's frenzied thought process reveals how her decision was the product of her mind buckling under the threat of having to relive the cruelty of Schoolteacher and make her children do the same.
Stream of consciousness works slightly differently in Beloved's monologue in Chapter 23, which is significantly more abstract than Denver's or Sethe's.
how can I say things that are pictures I am not separate from her there is no place where I stop her face is my own and I want to be there in the place where her face is and to be looking at it too a hot thing
All of it is now it is always now there will never be a time when I am not crouching and watching others who are crouching too I am always crouching the man on my face is dead his face is not mine
The fragmented images and lack of punctuation overwhelm the reader and capture how Beloved's identity is a muddied amalgamation of the different experiences of enslaved people. In the same way that there are no markers to the end of a thought or sentence, there are also no markers distinguishing the beginning and end of Beloved's identity. Beloved describes imagery that wouldn't apply to her if she was just Sethe's daughter reborn. Instead, she switches between describing being presumably packed on a boat with other enslaved people on the Middle Passage to claiming a melded identity with Sethe. Beloved's scattered and obscure thought process demonstrates the difficulty of encompassing the varied experiences of slavery when there’s so much painful history to unravel.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 23
Explanation and Analysis—Frenzied Thoughts:
Beloved employs stream-of-consciousness writing throughout the novel to depict the raw emotions and frenzied thought processes of the characters recounting traumatic experiences. The technique is most present in Chapters 20 to 23, which focus on the thoughts of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved. In Chapter 20, Sethe's monologue follows her thoughts as she tries to explain to Beloved why she killed her:
My plan was to take us all to the other side where my own ma'am is. They stopped me from getting us there, but they didn't stop you from getting here. Ha ha. You came right on back like a good girl, like a daughter which is what I wanted to be and would have been if my ma'am had been able to get out of the rice long enough before they hanged her and let me be one.
The technique is used by Sethe to convince Beloved (and the novel to persuade the reader) that murdering Beloved was an act of love meant to keep her children from the cruelty she experienced. Sethe's rambling monologue is interspersed with non-linear thoughts of the past, switching from her feelings about Beloved as a daughter to her traumatic recollections of the memories of her own mother. Stream-of-consciousness writing allows the novel to show how the past constantly invades Sethe's thoughts. Sethe's frenzied thought process reveals how her decision was the product of her mind buckling under the threat of having to relive the cruelty of Schoolteacher and make her children do the same.
Stream of consciousness works slightly differently in Beloved's monologue in Chapter 23, which is significantly more abstract than Denver's or Sethe's.
how can I say things that are pictures I am not separate from her there is no place where I stop her face is my own and I want to be there in the place where her face is and to be looking at it too a hot thing
All of it is now it is always now there will never be a time when I am not crouching and watching others who are crouching too I am always crouching the man on my face is dead his face is not mine
The fragmented images and lack of punctuation overwhelm the reader and capture how Beloved's identity is a muddied amalgamation of the different experiences of enslaved people. In the same way that there are no markers to the end of a thought or sentence, there are also no markers distinguishing the beginning and end of Beloved's identity. Beloved describes imagery that wouldn't apply to her if she was just Sethe's daughter reborn. Instead, she switches between describing being presumably packed on a boat with other enslaved people on the Middle Passage to claiming a melded identity with Sethe. Beloved's scattered and obscure thought process demonstrates the difficulty of encompassing the varied experiences of slavery when there’s so much painful history to unravel.
Related Themes:
