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Euphemism In Beloved

792 Words4 Pages

Anna Tikhomirova
Courtney P2
2/13/2018
10 on 1

“It’s a tree, Lu. A chokecherry tree. See, here’s the trunk - it’s red and split wide open, full of sap, and this here’s the parting for the branches.You got a mighty lot of branches. Leaves, too, look like, and dern if these ain’t blossoms. Tiny little cherry blossoms just as white. Your back got a whole tree on it. In bloom. What God have in mind, I wonder.” (Page 79)

Over the course of reading the novel Beloved, I came across a fascinating tendency of the utilization of trees to serve as a representation of beauty, hope, and comfort. I found it interesting the author described something that would be associated with pain and violence, and transformed it into a way that was beautiful. …show more content…

Amy had just came across Sethe in the woods and could see that she was in pain. That’s when she created a euphemism once Sethe revealed her scars on her back which we learn it serves as a reminder of the painful memory of the boys robbing her of her breast milk and torchouring her. The scars remain on Sethe’s back, similar to the painful memories she experienced. This part, however, is part of a larger discussion of when Beloved asks Denver, “tell me how Sethe made you in the boat” (Chapter 2). The girl Amy who helped deliver Sethe’s baby happened to be the part of the story that she adored the most.
The scars on Sethe’s back show up numerous times in the text, most of the time portrayed as “beautiful”, in the shape of a blossom tree. Seeing the scars as beautiful and turning a painful memory into something hopeful, Amy creates an overall image of trees representative of healing, comfort, and hope as she describes the scars to help Sethe relax and relieve the pain. The scars themselves are a sign of Sethe’s strength since her

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