Hannah's whole body is on fire as Sula watches with interest, Eva jumps through the window with her one leg to save her first-born, Eva is smothered with blood while she watches Hannah inevitably burn to death.
I found Hannah's death really unexpected because what are the chances that two characters in one novel would spend their last moments with fire devouring their flesh completely? In retrospect, I feel like I should have expected her death because of all the ominous signs especially her dream of wearing a red gown in her wedding. Taking a few steps back, Eva was recounting the number of "strange" things occurring recently starting off the wind that took the dampness out of the air instead of welcoming rain. Sula was acting up and the strangest events were Hannah's dream of a wedding in red bridal gown and when Hannah bends down to light the yard fire.
The "strange" events were presented almost in a chronological manner leading up to Hannah's clothes getting caught on fire and Eva attempting to rescue Hannah and her precious beauty. All of these events represent ominous signs of Hannah's death. I noticed how the wind/breeze in the previous chapters symbolized freedom and empowerment in relation to Nel and Sula but the symbol of wind took a dark turn embodying the destruction of Hannah's precious beauty.
I found Hannah's death really unexpected because what are the chances that two characters in one novel would spend their last moments with fire devouring their flesh completely? In retrospect, I feel like I should have expected her death because of all the ominous signs especially her dream of wearing a red gown in her wedding. Taking a few steps back, Eva was recounting the number of "strange" things occurring recently starting off the wind that took the dampness out of the air instead of welcoming rain. Sula was acting up and the strangest events were Hannah's dream of a wedding in red bridal gown and when Hannah bends down to light the yard fire.
The "strange" events were presented almost in a chronological manner leading up to Hannah's clothes getting caught on fire and Eva attempting to rescue Hannah and her precious beauty. All of these events represent ominous signs of Hannah's death. I noticed how the wind/breeze in the previous chapters symbolized freedom and empowerment in relation to Nel and Sula but the symbol of wind took a dark turn embodying the destruction of Hannah's precious beauty.
"Eva mused over the perfection of judgment against her. She remembered the wedding dream and recalled that weddings always meant death. And the red gown, we that was the fire, as she should have known." (78)What intrigues me even more is how Eva felt that her intuition and judgment went against her and that she should have been more conscientious of her daughter's dream. The statement "weddings always meant death" once again reflects her bitter experience with marriage and perhaps her marriage destroyed her once bright future. When Hannah mentioned that she was wearing a red bridal gown it striked me as odd because red was a bold color usually referencing blood and death. However in Hannah's dream, the red color represented her body being lit on fire.
Image : Katniss, the girl on fire, represented here as courageous. However Hannah's fire red gown symbolized the destruction of her beauty.
I was also really surprised at Hannah's death despite all the warning signs! I viewed Hannah's dream about the red wedding gown and how Eva said "weddings always meant death" as connected to the next chapter when Nel got married. It's only in Eva's (and perhaps Morrison's?) mind that weddings mean death due to her past experience in a bad marriage. However, this relation between marriage and death is established before Nel's wedding which just makes it kind of obvious that Nel is making a bad decision by marrying Jude. This is a really nice blog post!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you! I thought that it was very interesting how you explored the omens in this section - it was indeed very "strange" how we did not notice Hannah's death coming. I was thinking that her dream did foreshadow something to come, but I was not expecting her death. I also explored the quote "Eva mused over the perfection of judgment against her. She remembered the wedding dream and recalled that weddings always meant death. And the red gown, well that was the fire, as she should have known." (78) I thought it was interesting how you interpreted the wedding gown and death and the color red (being Hannah's body on fire). I also think that "weddings always meant death" to Eva and Hannah because of their past experience with either the husband that left them or the husband that died, there was no virtual point of their weddings based on the consequences. I really enjoyed reading your blog post too!
ReplyDeleteI didn't really notice what the wind symbolized in different chapters. But after reading your blog, I re-read the chapters and it does seem to have a positive influence on the people's lives. Thus, it really contradicts with how the wind was what caused Hannah to get caught on fire and die.
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