Rememory: Sethe's Identity

Just like Paul D does not feel that he can “lay claim” to his own identity, Sethe is unable to claim her own memories. Through the concept of “rememory,” Sethe gives her memories the power of autonomy. When she explains this idea to Denver, Sethe describes rememories as having physical characteristics, thus revealing the intense grip that Sethe’s past has on her present (Morrison 43). As a result of slavery, former slaves and their children are unable to escape the past or to form a concrete sense of identity and wholeness; therefore, they often conflate their identities with others or become alienated from themselves. Paul D’s method of dealing with a broken identity is by using emotional coping mechanisms to become estranged from himself.
Sethe views her children as the best part of herself, so she prioritizes their needs over her own. For example, when Sethe tells Paul D the story of how schoolteacher’s nephews stole her breast milk, she alludes to the fact that they might have also raped her; however, the reader cannot be sure because she is so preoccupied with the theft of the milk that belongs to her children that she glides over the details of her own rape (Morrison 19). Because Sethe invests most of her identity into motherhood and because she views her children as extensions of herself, every abuse she suffers feels more offensive toward her children than toward herself. In addition to the struggle of defining herself apart from her children, Sethe also devotes much of her energy to repressing the past, for her memories of Sweet Home are too painful for conscious recollection; however, this process is unhealthy and detrimental, for the absence of a past prevents the construction of a solid identity. Because Sethe’s “brain [is] not interested in the future” but is instead “loaded with the past,” even the freedom for which Sethe has worked so hard is threatened (Morrison 83). She remains completely stuck in the past until Paul D arrives, and she is able to take a small step toward