Beloved: Finding meaning in the face of unthinkable suffering

                In its depiction of the struggle of the African-American community to carve out a future in the aftermath of slavery, Beloved provides a poignant portrayal of what it means to find meaning and purpose in situations that seems entirely devoid of it.
                The main character, Sethe, is the product of a series of unthinkable events. She was born into slavery, abandoned by her mother and later subjected to brutal treatment by her slave master, the School Teacher. In spite of this, she attempts to create a loving union with Haley and later has children in an attempt to create a familty.  In this way, Sethe attempts to maintain her dignity.  Sethe forms a strong connection with her children which eventually leads to her decision to attempt to escape from slavery in order to protect them from a slave’s brutal fate.

                The love she has for her children and the hope they represent for the future are Sethe’s chief source of meaning and purpose. In particular, she seeks to protect them from slavery at all costs which later leads to her decision to attempt to kill them in order to prevent them from being recaptured. Sethe’s deep seated love for and connection to her children is stemmed in the reality that they are the one thing in Sethe’s life that is truly her own. As a slave, she was robbed of everything else including her humanity. Thus, Sethe attempts to protect her children at all costs. However, her need to posses her youngest child, Denver, prevents her from being able to grant her the independence she needs to truly be free. It is ironic that Sethe’s response to her slavery is to attempt to posses her own child and deprive Denver of her freedom.

                The meaning Sethe finds in her family is contrasted with how Paul D has responded to his enslavement and later freedom. In order to keep from losing that which he loves most, Paul D refuses to become too connected to anything. Morrison ultimately exposes this way of life as a futile one, as Paul D is never really free from slavery as a result of his refusal to become connected to anything. This is also ironic as Paul D’s main purpose seems to be to incite the opening of other’s hearts. He is successful in this regard as many women, including Sethe, confide in him yet this ultimately brings him little solace as he is unable to open up in the same way.

                Ultimately, Morrison reveals that perhaps the best way to find purpose and meaning in the face of a communal atrocity is to seek solidarity with others that experienced it. In order to move past the tragedy they have experienced, the characters in Beloved must turn to each other. Paul D is able to begin to heal his past wounds only when he returns to Sethe; likewise, Denver discovers herself and grows up only when she becomes involved with Cincinatti’s larger African American community.   The importance of healing through others is signified both by the community’s distressing failure to alert Sethe of the schoolteacher’s approach and by the important role the community eventually plays in collectively exorcising Beloved. In this way, Morrison shows that individuals can move on from atrocity and create a life of meaning only by coming together to attempt to secure release from the past.

The Stranger

            No book we have read this year has dealt more directly with ideas related to man’s search for meaning than Albert Camu’s The Stranger. The novel, which contains elements of existentialist, absurdist and nihilistic thinking, traces the ideological evolution of Meresault, a man who continuously challenges traditional morality and ways of understanding the world by living a life devoted to honesty and truth.

            The Meresault the reader meets at the beginning of the novel is an unperceptive man who interacts with the world only on a sensual level. His actions are not guided by reason but by action, thus he kills the Arab as a response to the intense physical effect the sun has on him. Meresault describes all of the events in his life, including the murder, merely as occurrences that “happen to him.” At first this worldview seems to point to a lack of understanding about his own responsibility for his own actions and life. However, Meresault is actually an enlightened mind who intuitively understands that neither the world nor the human mind possesses any rational order. Instead, it is society that tries to fabricate and impose rational explanations for the irrationality of the universe, a feeble process which robs man of their humanity, which is the exclusive product of honest interaction with the physical world.

            The remainder of the novel deals with Meresault’s trial, an event that serves as an allegory for the absurdity of man’s attempts to impose rationality and meaning on an irrational and meaningless world. Meresault’s values clash with those of his society which refuses to accept his worldview and thus attempts to explain his behavior through rational means. The prosecutor and Meresault’s lawyer both offer explanations for Meresault’s crime that are based on logic, reason and the concept of cause and effect.  Yet these explanations have no basis in fact and serve only as attempts to defuse the frightening idea that the universe is irrational.          Religion is at the forefront of the clash between Meresault and his society. Meresault is an atheist, indeed this seems to be the only thing about life which Meresault is sure, yet those around him repeatedly attempt to push religion upon him. It is the attempts of society to push religion upon him that eventually lead Meresault to his second great realization that nothing is certain except for death. Meresault comes to understand that death comes for all men and renders all life meaningless as a result. Meresault meets this realization with happiness as he realizes that to hope otherwise is to create a false belief that death is avoidable, a burden that presents man from fully experiencing and enjoying life. By coming to grips with death, Meresault is able to understand life and realize that one must live life for what it is- an impermanent experience that begins and ends without greater significance. Meresault finds that this realization is one to be celebrated as it allows man to make the most of life and accept its limitations. Death is not a burden but a liberator equalizing men and granting all the opportunity to live freely. This freedom is life’s greatest gift as it grants man the potential to find comfort in death if he is willing to see beyond society’s attempts to project greater order and meaning onto life and understand life for what it truly is: an opportunity to live freely in a world that is indifference to our existence and actions.