To Be Loved or Not to Be loved

 From my experiences with life, family and reading various novels the question of whether the past ever dies is a hard one. For some people it is easy to live by the saying "Forgive and Forget" but to what extent is that saying true and to what extent do the people really live by that saying. I would say that the past does not die and stays with us but it takes the person to be able to not dwell in the past and move on with the present and subsequently the future.

The past cannot ever die metephorically speaking because it is a composition of memories that we as humans might find important. No matter how much we fool ourselves and say that the past never happened all we are doing is further sinking ourselves in a hole of misery. In the case of Berniece from the piano lesson, her inability to let go of the past (not forget) affected her, and the people that she loved in a negative way. The person that was being hurt the most was her child. All the talk of the ghost and and the constant fighting between Berniece and Boy Willie added up and affected the mental stability of the child so much so that she feared sleeping up stairs for fear of the ghost. One reason that the past cannot die is because we are constantly reminded of the past by things that area associated with the past in out everyday lives. Using the piano lesson, as an example again, the piano for Berniece was a constant reminder of the past, of her parents of which she felt that she could not give away, destroy or throw out. It is because of this constant reminder that some people often get consumed by the past and cannot lead normal lives. This example is also present in  the novel Beloved, where Paul D. Garner and Seathe's daughter Denver are a reminder to Seathe, of Sweet Home and the atrocities that she survived through. The Painfull memories of being raped and Wipped like a dog. Theses reason are why the past cannot "die", but like I said before it takes a strong someone to acknowledge the past with all that it bears and move on.