Analysis Of The Book Benito Cereno By Conrad s Heart...

Kendall Worrell Beloved Essay 3/14/16 Our nation contains a vast collection of memories. We remember soldiers who have died in combat; we remember 9/11; and we remember the deaths of celebrities. While there are so many more things that could be listed, these events have become a conversation in the U.S. When it comes to slavery, however, many choose to turn away. When it comes to the disenfranchisement of Blacks, many dismiss that companies were built by slaves. Any attempt to introduce disturbing revelations is disparaged...thus, the truth of our country is censured. If the past we study is insufficient, what does it say about what we perceive to be our present? Through Morrison’s Beloved, Melville’s â€Å"Benito Cereno†, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Achebe’s essay, and Miller’s response, we are finally able to discuss the truth about slavery. In Beloved, Morrison features a history that too many white Americans seem to â€Å"forget†. She illustrates the life of a former slave Sethe, and how her attempt at repressing her memories brings about the rebirth of her murdered baby â€Å"Beloved†, who proves to be the memory of the â€Å"sixty million and more† Africans. Her return is important because, like the characters, America has put away slavery, making Beloved everyone’s ghost from the past. Beloved is introduced as a woman rising out of the stream. According to Carol Schmudde, slaves thought such bodies of water were an â€Å"ancestral repository† between earth and heaven. In this