Crafting Creative Concepts with Charlotte

Paul D and Sethe have an extremely complicated relationship that constantly morphs and shifts throughout  Beloved . They spent lots of time at Sweet Home together, and therefore have an established emotional bond. Though a more physical aspect of their relationship develops, the glue holding them together is their shared trauma of living at Sweet Home and of their respective escapes. Generally speaking, relationships held together primarily by shared traumatic experiences are fragile and unstable: Paul D and Sethe's relationship is no exception. Though they understand each other's experiences with slavery, they have little else in common. Crucially, they haven't seen each other in eighteen years, and there are significant gaps in their knowledge what has happened in the other's life in the nearly two decades since their last encounter. Most importantly, Paul D is unaware of what Sethe did in the shed on that fateful day when schoolmaster came to 124. With the presen...

For the most part, I think that we can all agree that  Their Eyes Were Watching God  is an extremely progressive novel that explores female independence in the early 1900s. However, Janie is abused in each of her 3 relationships. Hurston really plays each of these instances down, which raises some questions about the characters and society in the early 1900s. Janie's first abusive encounter is with Logan Killucks, right before she runs away with Joe. "'Ah'll take holt uh dat ax and come in dere and kill yuh!'", exclaims Logan when Janie is unwilling to help him shovel manure (Hurston 30). It's a really short phrase, and you could miss it if you're not reading carefully. However, Logan's off-handed comment really shakes Janie up, and this is the final straw - that same day, she runs off with Joe towards a new life. Janie is abused emotionally by Joe, and it has a long-term impact on her view of herself and her role in society. Joe's abusive ...