Emi's English Blog

I cried once during Beloved. There was a lot to cry about, and yet amidst all the scenes of almost clownish tragedy, the thing that really affected me was Sixo’s death. Sixo wasn’t a very important character in the book, but he was important to the thirty-mile woman. Just look at her name—thirty-mile woman. That’s a testament to how much she meant to him. How? I don’t know. How do people separated by thirty miles find each other? All I know is that somehow he loved her. He walked thirty miles for her. If he didn’t love her he would have just molested the cows. That sounds much easier. Morrison is truly amazing in the way she slips into different minds. She knows how people think, understands their view; understands it even better than the people themselves. The way she described Sixo and the 30 mile woman together was phenomenal. “they clutch each other and whisper. She is lit now with some glowing, some shining that comes from inside her. Before when she knelt on creek pebbl...

Ever dreamed about how life would turn out? Many children, like me, think they will have it all—everything they thought they needed or deserved. Money, fame, a perfect romantic marriage. Janie probably thought she could have it all. Not the same “all” as us, but the “all” within her realm of possibility. At least, the perfect romantic marriage. It’s hard when life doesn’t go the way you wanted. You don’t accept it at first. You try to change it and return to that state of hopeful ignorance. Janie tried to do that by running off with Jodie. She still felt entitled to those happy things. Unfortunately, Jodie was not what Janie wanted him to be. Janie learned pretty quickly that she wouldn’t have the things she thought she would and adapted. We all adapt as life goes wrong. We experience injustices that used to exist only in our nightmares and tragedies that we read about in story books, and we normalize them. We expect them, and the next time they happen, we’re not as shocked. We ada...