The Voice of the City Anita Desai Essay Example

around the room, Sethe's youngest daughter, Denver, becomes shy, friendless, and confined to the house. Sethe's sons, Howard and Buglar, have even run away from home before turning thirteen. Shortly after, Baby Suggs, the mother of Sethe's husband Halle, passes away in her bed. Paul D, a former slave from Sweet Home plantation where Baby Suggs, Sethe, Halle, and other slaves once worked, arrives at 124. He attempts to bring a sense of reality into the house and help the family move on from their past.

By expelling the spirit, he displaces it and initially seems triumphant, causing the family to leave their home. Denver, who has been confined indoors for a long time, also ventures outside. However, during their return journey, they encounter a young woman standing in front of the house. This woman introduces herself as Beloved. Paul D is cautious and warns Sethe about her, but Sethe is entranced by Beloved and disregards his concerns. Gradually, a supernatural force compels Paul D to depart from Sethe's home. He is forced to sleep outdoors in a shed where he becomes trapped by Beloved. During a sexual encounter with her, he is overwhelmed by horrifying memories from his past.

Paul D is burdened by guilt and desires to confess his secret to Sethe, but he cannot bring himself to do so. Instead, he expresses his wish for them to conceive a child together. Sethe is filled with joy and accepts Paul D's words, despite his resistance against Beloved's influence on him. However, when Paul D discusses his plan of starting a new family with his colleagues, they respond with fear. Stamp Paid

elucidates why the community rejects Sethe, and when Paul D inquires about it, Sethe recounts what transpired. After escaping from Sweet Home and seeking refuge at her mother-in-law's residence where her children awaited her return, Sethe's former owner locates her and endeavors to reclaim both Sethe and her children.

In an attempt to safeguard her children, Sethe brings them to the tool shed and tries to kill them all. Unfortunately, she is only successful in using a saw on her oldest daughter's neck, resulting in her demise. Sethe discloses to Paul D that her intention was to ensure their safety. This revelation overwhelms him and causes him to leave. As a result, without Paul D, the sense of reality and the passage of time start fading away. With time, Sethe starts believing that Beloved, the girl she knows now, is actually the daughter she killed when the child was two years old. The tombstone only bears the name "Beloved".

Sethe's guilt drives her to spend recklessly and spoil Beloved, causing Beloved to become angrier and more demanding. Beloved's presence grows, consuming Sethe's life and draining her. This causes Sethe to neglect her own need for food as Beloved continues to grow. In a desperate plea for help, Denver, Sethe's youngest daughter, seeks assistance from the black community. Women from the village come to 124 in an attempt to exorcise Beloved while a white man arrives simultaneously.

The man assisted Halle's mother, Baby Suggs, by offering her number 124 as a place to live after Halle purchased her from their owner. He has come to collect Denver, who asked him for employment. Denver

has obtained the job and he is picking her up on his way home, but she has not shared this information. Sethe, unaware of the situation, attacks the white man with an ice pick and is restrained by the village women. At the same time, Beloved vanishes from 124. While Sethe is bewildered and experiences a "rememory" of her master's return, Beloved disappears.

The conclusion of the novel sees Denver becoming an active member of the community, while Paul D returns to Sethe and declares his love. Initially, readers are led to believe that Beloved is a supernatural manifestation of Sethe's deceased daughter. However, Stamp Paid later shares a story about a white man imprisoning a girl near Deer Creek. The man was found dead the previous summer and the girl was no longer there. It is uncertain which scenario is true according to the text. Sethe believes that Beloved sings a song known only to her and her children. Additionally, Beloved references a pair of earrings and questions Sethe about their whereabouts.

The second section of the novel explores memories of Beloved, suggesting that she may be the girl who escaped from Deer Creek. The main theme examined is the mother-daughter relationship. Sethe's strong maternal bonds with her children impede her personal growth and hinder her from being true to herself. Sethe's profound love for her children leads to the killing of one daughter, who represents Sethe's "best self," and causes her surviving daughter to become alienated from the black community. Sethe does this in an effort to shield her children from a life of enslavement and fulfill her vision of their

future. However, she fails to recognize that Denver, her daughter, also requires connection with the community to develop into a woman. Ultimately, Denver is able to establish her own identity and embark on a journey of self-discovery with the assistance of Beloved.

Sethe's emergence as an individual only occurs after Beloved's exorcism in contrast to Denver. It is at this moment that Sethe is able to fully embrace her relationship with Paul D, which becomes the first truly significant bond in her life. This connection helps Sethe break free from the destructive influence of the maternal relationships that had dominated her existence. Both Beloved and Sethe suffer emotional trauma as a result of Sethe's previous enslavement. Slavery often leads to mothers being separated from their children, causing devastating consequences for both parties involved. These women frequently define themselves solely as mothers, so when they are unable to care for or are separated from their children, they lose their sense of identity.

When a child is separated from their mother, they lose the sense of familiarity that comes with the mother-child relationship. Sethe, in particular, was unable to form a strong bond with her own mother as she could not see her true face due to the distortions caused by her experiences. As a result, Sethe struggles to connect with her own children despite her deep longing to do so. Additionally, receiving milk from their mother is a fundamental and primary need for a child.

Sethe's trauma stems from having her milk stolen, as it prevents her from establishing a symbolic bond with her daughter. [1] Slavery has a psychological impact that leads

most slaves to repress these memories in an attempt to forget the past. This repression and detachment from the past result in a fragmentation of one's self and a loss of true identity. The characters Sethe, Paul D., and Denver all endure this loss of self, which can only be healed through accepting the past and remembering their original identities.

The book in Beloved serves as a reminder for the characters of their suppressed memories, ultimately allowing them to reunite their fragmented selves. The enslavement experience creates an empty self that denies painful memories and an unspeakable past. To heal and regain humanity, one must articulate and organize this identity by restructuring the traumatic events and recounting the memories. Slavery's suffering leads to a violent cycle of constructing and demolishing oneself, but once acknowledged by others, it becomes a tangible reality.

In Beloved, Sethe, Paul D, and Baby Suggs all struggle to redefine themselves by suppressing their pasts. The concept of the "self" is based on how others define it, making the word associated with it powerful. Once the word changes, so does the identity. Every character in the book faces the challenge of rebuilding their self, shaped by their memories and perception of themselves through language. However, they are hindered by their longing for a simpler past and the fear that remembering will take them to an irreversible place. [8]