Beloved

We've just started to read Beloved, so I guess I don't have that much to say about it, but I wanted to start off by saying I like it SO much better than The Road. I don't know why Toni Morrison's version of Stream of Conscious is less confusing to me than Cormac McCarthy's, because honestly it feels like it should be the other way around, but I think it's actually easier to understand. It's definitely way more complicated, but what I think makes the difference is that with Beloved, you can look back through and find the answers to your questions somewhere, but with The Road, you have to interpret and analyze and infer. The Road's writing is simpler, but I think I understand Beloved a lot better. I like the plot a lot better also, and the characters seem more real to me because they actually describe their emotions. Most of The Road is making assumptions about what the characters are feeling, but Beloved tells you how they feel and what they're thinking. 
A strategy Morrison uses a lot which I think makes Beloved confusing to read at first is reference of events that the characters already know but the readers do not. For example, they have yet to explain to us how Beloved died, which I think will probably unfold later. But they make it clear that Sethe knows exactly what happened, and obviously we know she died violently. It involves an element of suspense which is a little annoying but very interesting. You have to really pay attention to figure out what is going on or you could completely miss important information.

I also wanted to take a second to talk about our student teacher Mr. Scholtz (Sorry if I spelled that wrong!). I usually don't really like student teachers, but he did a really great job today explaining the book and leading our discussion, and I hope he gets to teach us more!