Beloved As A Character Defies Classification.She Is Both

Beloved as a character defies classification. She is both the light and the dark, an all-encompassing duality that forces Sethe to recognize pain from her past, as well as deal with new pain in the present. Beloved’s shocking reappearance forces Sethe and others to confront old, painful memories whilst concurrently reconciling who or what Beloved is. For many, the character of Beloved embodies multiple generations of slavery and symbolizes the horrors of the past – seemingly back from the dead she haunts Sethe, Denver, and anyone else that is unfortunate enough to encounter the family. â€Å"Beloved, she my daughter. She mine† (236). If only Sethe had realized that Beloved was a replacement for her baby earlier in the novel – Beloved†¦show more content†¦She is not simply a reincarnation of Sethe’s lost baby, but a replacement for her. In Her, Samantha, an Artificially Intelligent Operating System downloaded and customized by Theo, act s similarly as a replacement for Theo’s former wife Catherine, though Samantha is an independent entity. In this case, she is a carrier of happiness and a reminder of past good times. Heartbroken in the beginning of the film, Theo downloads Samantha; he once again finds a human-like connection in someone, or something rather that is as far from human as possible. Theo’s relationship with Samantha is synonymous with Beloved and Sethe’s relationship. In both cases, Samantha and Beloved temporarily fill a void within the protagonist. With Samantha, Theo seemingly finds his â€Å"perfect† woman; someone who shares his interests, someone he can talk to and confide in, someone who loves him, insecurities and all. Likewise, Beloved’s reappearance is originally more shocking for those around Sethe than Sethe herself. Once Sethe realizes who Beloved is, a wave of emotions crash over her and she devotes herself to Beloved (beginning the process of dea ling with her past). However, Beloved causes pain for those in her presence. She forces Paul D to recount stories about Sweet Home, and to Sethe about how Halle was left behind, a husk of his former self; the story about Halle being