Beloved - Memory, Rememory, and the Power of the Past

In chapter 9 we get a look at the old I24 and Sethe's journey when she first arrived to the house.  I24's past is full of good memories and Sethe believes she’s to blame for the end of it, “I24 shut down and put up with the venom of its ghost…Her faith, her love, her imagination and her great big old heart began to collapse twenty-eight days after her daughter –in-law arrived”.  Sethe blames herself for Baby Suggs’ death, and I24 was only what it was with Baby Suggs.  She created and kept the lively environment it had.  So when Sethe looks back she feels regret and she greatly misses the old house.  In the past days Baby Suggs would gather everyone in the clearing by I24 and lead a sermon for the blacks.  This is something that Sethe misses and it is shown when she goes back to the clearing and brings Denver and Beloved with her, “all three set out late one Sunday morning, Sethe leading, the girls trotting behind, not a soul in sight”.  Sethe was trying to show the girls a memory of her past, something that they didn’t experience.  However, when remembering the past something bad happens.  While Sethe is in the clearing with the girls she asks for someone to rub her neck, pretending it was Baby Suggs, and ends up getting strangled.  “‘I saw your face.  You made her choke.’  ‘I didn’t do it.’  ‘You told me you loved her.’  ‘I fixed it, didn’t I?  Didn’t I fix her neck?’  ‘After.  After you choked her neck.’  ‘I kissed her neck.  I didn’t choke it.  The circle of iron choked it.’”  Beloved lies to Denver about choking Sethe and blames it on the “circle of iron”.  This is a sign that coming back to the clearing with Beloved was bad, and maybe the “circle of iron” Beloved talks about is a reference to Sethe’s past of slavery.  When Sethe tried embracing her past she ended up getting choked, which is a sign that she shouldn’t embrace her past.  Or it is a sign that she still has to figure things out in her past, and Beloved is involved with it somehow.  Either way I believe this shows that Sethe’s past is not good and Beloved was involved in some way or another.