Turtle Sex

Cast your mind back to something like a week ago. Do you remember the scene where Denver and Beloved watch at the edge of a lake/body of water and see some turtles start to have sex? Why would Morrison add this into her complex novel about life in and right after slavery? We brought this up before class started one day and Mr. Mitchell said "if you want to write a blog post to try to explicate it, go for it". So, this one is for you, Mr. Mitchell (though I suppose all of them are in a way).
The way I interpreted this was how Paul D and Sethe are attempting to love each other. Both Sethe and Paul D are keeping things to themselves at this point. Paul D has his whole backstory; his time at Sweet Home after Sethe leaves, Georgia, Delaware, and his journey to and from these places. Likewise, Sethe at this point still hasn't told Paul D about Beloved's death, why the community isolates her, why the ghost haunts them. Both are okay with reminiscing superficially about Sweet Home to a certain extent, but if they talk too long about it, they reach subjects that are painful, and neither really wants the other's rememories interfering with their own. Sethe specifically says she wishes that her mind didn't have to take in and internalize all the things that are presented to her, including the information about Halle and the butter churn. They are both trying to open up to each other while simultaneously being guarded.
Now, back to turtles. Obviously, there's a parallel here. Turtles have hard shells to protect themselves, just as Sethe and Paul D are trying to protect themselves. And the turtles are trying to make love just as Sethe and Paul D are. But still, why is the turtle sex scene here? I believe it's all for the last line of the scene; "The gravity of their shields, clashing, countered and mocked the floating heads touching". This line illuminates something about Sethe and Paul D's relationship; That even though they are trying to have a loving relationship, heal and move forward (the loving taps of the turtles' heads together), they are  hindered by their guards against the world and to each other. Not only that it hinders their love, but it ultimately overrides the love they try to have. It negates their intentions for their relationship and mocks their attempt at moving forward and deepening their relationship.
So yeah. Turtles.

From the End to the Beginning

Now that we've read through Their Eyes Were Watching God all the way through, I want to go back to the opening again and relate it to the story as a whole. I remember being really confused by it when we first read it, and going back there are some interesting connections to make. The first paragraph refers to ships, saying "For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon" (1). The ships are said to carry every man's dream, which brings to mind the three men that we get to know in Janie's story; Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. So for whom did the ships land and for whom did they sail on the horizon? Well, we don't really know with Logan, since we never saw the end of his life. For Joe, it seems that he achieved many of his goals. He started the town, became the mayor, had the prettiest wife, etc. However, he failed to reach his internal goal of owning and controlling Janie forever. She does exhibit little acts of rebellion and especially at the end of Joe's life lashes out at him. For Joe, it's like his ship was an illusion on the shore but truly on the horizon. And then there's Tea Cake. Honestly it feels like Tea Cake is the winner here because his dreams were just to live contently and be happy and in love with Janie, all of which he achieved. Even at the end, Janie loved him, and probably deep down Tea Cake also loved Janie. His ship officially landed.

The second short paragraph talks about women, who "forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget" (1). This also is interesting to look at in retrospect, as this theme is carried in the telling of Janie's story. She tells very little about her relationship with Logan, mostly because she didn't enjoy it and wants to forget it. She tells little details of her twenty year relationship with Joe because there are important lessons to have from that relationship, but there isn't much there compared to her retelling the story of her and Tea Cake, which may actually be longer than the number of pages given to her story with Joe. This is because her time with Tea Cake is actually something she holds dearly to her heart and she wants to remember every moment she spent with him down to the last second.