Are We All Driven By Unconscious Desires? A Close Reading By Sierra Nelson-Liner

Sethe had given little thought to the white dress until Paul D came, and then she remembered Denver's interpretation: plans. The morning after the first night with Paul D, Sethe smiled just thinking about what the word could mean. It was a luxury she had not had in eighteen years and only that once. Before and since, all her effort was directed not on avoiding pain but on getting through it as quickly as possible. The one set of plans she had made--getting away from Sweet Home--went awry so completely she never dared life by making more.

Yet the morning she woke up next to Paul D, the word her daughter had used a few years ago did cross her mind and she thought about what Denver had seen kneeling next to her, and thought also of the temptation to trust and remember that gripped her as she stood before the cooking stove in his arms. Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something?

-Beloved Chapter 3 pages 45-46


This passage is derived from Beloved when Sethe wakes up from her night with Paul D. It touches upon some of Sethe’s internal conflicts and desires. One that is illuminated is her hesitance when it comes to making “plans” for her future. Sethe spent her childhood and the majority of her life being a slave. As a result she was trapped, abused mentally and physically, and separated from her friends and family. This hesitation to accept that her life could be better can be interpreted through psychoanalysis.
Many of the concepts and theories of psychoanalysis can be derived from Sigmund Freud’s life works. “Papa Freud”, as my AP Psych teacher told us, dedicated his life to understanding the human mind and the behaviors that come with its understanding. He is considered the father of psychology. He  believed that the psychoanalytic therapy he used with his patients could remove information from their unconscious. (Further information about Freud’s life can be found here.)

Through his research, Freud concluded that the human psyche was split into the id, ego and superego. The id is present at birth and is driven by all  desires, wants, and needs. The ego is the set of “rules” you follow defining what is appropriate for you to do. The ego develops from the id. It strives to satisfy the id’s desires in a realistic and socially acceptable way. The superego is like the justice system; forcing you to think about what is the right thing to do.

Furthermore, the superego provides guidelines to suppress unacceptable urges present in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The conscience contains thoughts of our present moment. The preconscious contains something you can easily retrieve from your mind that you might not be thinking right away. The unconscious contains hidden meaning filled with repressed memories. This lead Freud to believe that behavior is based on unconscious drives that could either be destructive (for example greed) or necessary for survival (for example hunger or self preservation).

In this passage it is clear that Sethe is struggling because her defense mechanism of repressing all of her memories is getting in the way of her happiness. In this instance, her unconscious desires can be interpreted to be finding a place in the world where she can trust those around her. As a result she is left thinking about what would happen if she really did stop repressing her emotions and thoughts to instead “count on something”. This raises the point that memories banished to the unconscious do not disappear. Instead, they continue to influence our behavior in major ways. Sethe needs to realize that in order to move on it is the realization and forgiveness of what has happened to her that will allow her to free her mind. It is interesting how now, after all she has been through to keep those memories contained, Paul D has made her reconsider the foundation of her current life and her future.