I want to talk about the motif of shadows that are used in Beloved. The main chapter where shadows are seen is when Paul D, Sethe, and Denver all go to the fair and Sethe sees all three of their shadows “holding hands” (56-58). I found this interesting because Sethe viewed the shadows as a good omen for the future even though shadows are often seen as something from the past and usually something dark. The two times Sethe noticed their shadows, they are not situated behind them but rather to the left of them and in front of them (56, 58).
The shadows also call back to the time when Sethe was an enslaved woman running away from not only her enslavers but the people who had raped her. As a runaway slave, she was forced to be like a shadow; silent and creeping in the night. Her position as a shadow was what helped lead her to her freedom. Her own shadow though had to be hidden during the day because if it was seen, it would mean that she either would be forced back into enslavement or, even worse, killed.
Sethe being able to not only look at her shadow and the shadows of her daughter and her partner as a good omen and to also be able to have it out in the open during the day is significant because it signifies her freedom from enslavement and the joy and the family that she is finally allowed to have. She is able to see her shadow as a positive sign and not as a threat to her possible capture and she is allowed to be a person and not a shadow, seen and heard, rather than hidden and silent. Their shadows also only are seen to their side and in front of them which means that they are not just seen by the people around them, but also the creators of those shadows.
In thinking about shadows in Beloved now, after we’ve read it. As you mentioned, shadows have been present in every period of Sethe’s life, even in her enslavement. This shows how the concept of her shadow is multi-layered in depth. Sethe as a shadow herself and being dehumanized, forced to be unnoticed, forced to hide, VS. Sethe’s shadow being a symbol of hope seem conflicting to her overall perspective of shadows. However, I think Sethe’s perspective on being a shadow is something that shifts with how in touch she is with herself. This makes sense because in times of survival, you are less thinking of who you are and more about how to stay alive. Perhaps when she was seeing the three shadows, she had hope because she was feeling like a version of herself that she was in touch with: a Sethe that she felt connected to rather than just going through the life of.