Taylor: Response to Jesse (third time i've tried sending, hope it works)  Upon thinking about your comment, I find that. personally, the ghost
material might be a bit heavily used in her novel, but I personally believe
it adds a bit of additional drama and entertainment. It might be different
for you if you werent reading this book in a classroom setting, in which
alot of the details behind the novel might have been disclosed to you
prematurely. One of the joys that I've discovered from this novel is how
things tend to fall into place as the story progresses, and the many
embodiments of Beloved serve as a puzzle for the reader to solve as s/he
reads. Kindof like a mystery novel.
   As for the various characters' concepts of reality, I think that a couple
more might be a bit skewed in their perspectives. Sethe for example, under
the emotional stress she is under with the memories of her past, has
displayed something of an unrealistic form of love, "too thick" as Paul D.
describes it. A love that can drive someone to commit murder I can hardly
find realistic, understandable, sure, but not realistic. And Denver seems
pretty detached from reality herself in that she is forced to, out of
desperation, rely on a decrepit wanderer for her only source of company and
appreciation. I suppose my point is that I think that the only character who
really has the strongest grasp on reality is Paul D. He's the one smart
enough to realize it's time to go when some strange girl forces you to touch
her on the inside part, and the woman you're shacking up with killed one of
her kids and made the other two run away.

Taylor L
