Category: Beloved

Toni Morrisons Beloved is a story told against the backdrop of slavery in America. An African-American herself, Morrison weaves a powerful tale that reveals the real ugly psychological and historical truth about slavery. Most of the characters in the novel, including the protagonist Sethe, have been victimized by slavery in differing ways. Just as all human beings have been born with the gift of fighting against odds in life , these characters too resist by developing their own series of responses to the various adversities that confront them.

Sethe, a black woman, endures a series of horrific adversities. She responds positively several times while her seventh response is negative. Her first response, when she is molested by the nephews of a schoolteacher, is to report the misbehavior to Mrs. Garner in the hope that the perpetrators would be severely reprimanded. Her protest falls on deaf ears as and instead gains her a merciless whipping despite being pregnant. Seeing the futility of her action, her next response is to flee into the forest. From there, with the help of Amy Denver and Stamp Pad, she manages to reach the safety of Baby Suggss home. Sethes next adversity comes when the schoolteacher finds her and attempts to forcibly make her children and her return to Sweet Home. Her response to his is to run away with her children to the woodshed, where desperate at having no solution in sight, she exercises rough choice, namely, opting to kill her children rather than let them return to the horrors of slavery that she experienced {and split to the woodshed to kill her children (Morrison 158)}. She succeeds in killing one of them  her elder daughter  with a handsaw. Sethes next faces adversity comes in the form of shamefully waiting in line for food with the rest of the black community in Cincinnati. She responds by thinking of herself as superior to the rest of the blacks, shunning the free food and instead of robbing food from the restaurant {I pick up a little extra from the restaurant is all (Morrison 67)}. Adversity next comes in the form of Beloved, who she is certain is the incarnation of the daughter she killed. Her response is to try her best to make up for her crime by satisfying each and every demand of Beloved to the extent of literally enslaving herself to the girl. Her next adversity is a mistaken one and takes place when Mr. Bodwin is wrongly believed by her to be the schoolteacher. She responds by rushing at him furiously with an ice pick with the aim of killing him. Her final adversity comes when Beloved disappears in response to the incursion of members of the Cincinnati black community at 124. Her response this time is negative. She gives up hope and retires to Baby Suggss bed to await death.

Sethes daughter Denvers first adversity is years of relative isolation from the black community of Cincinnati. She responds bypassing long periods of time secluded in a secret haven within boxwood bushes that she fondly calls her emerald closet {Denvers world [was] flat, mostly, with the exception of an emerald closet standing seven feet high in the woods (Morrison 37)}. Her second adversity is a feeling of exacerbated loneliness when the residential ghost of 124 is forced to depart by Paul D. Denver responds by resenting Paul D ferociously. Her third adversity occurs when Paul D and Sethe become lovers and the latter gives more and more attention to him, thereby making Denver feel jealous and isolated. Her response is to increase her resentment of Paul D. Denvers final adversity is a combination of Beloveds increasing tyranny over Sethe and her mothers escalating submissiveness. She responds by leaving the house and resolutely creating her own identity in the Cincinnati black community by first asking for help from them to look after Sethe and Beloved, and then following it up to educating herself first by Miss Bodwin and later by joining the Oberlin College.

Although Beloveds identity is elusive and complex, there is evidence in the book that reveals she is a normal woman who has been brutalized by a long period of slavery. Her response to adversity in the form of years of oppression is to respond by directing her pent-up emotions at Sethe. Beloved develops an obsessive attachment towards Sethe based on the latters guilt at murdering her elder daughter {Sethe was trying to make up for the handsaw; Beloved was making her pay for it (Morrison 251)}. Beloveds next adversity begins with the arrival of Paul D at 124 and the subsequent sexual relationship that develops between him and Sethe. Beloved becomes jealous and responds by resenting Paul D, harassing him by directing him forcefully around the house {she moved him from room to room, like a rag doll (Morrison 221)} and forcing him to have sex with her. Beloveds final adversity comes when Ella and other members of Cincinnatis black community come to 124 {they fell into three groups; those that believed in the worst; those that believed none of it; and those, like Ella, who thought it through (Morrison 255)} to exorcise her from it. Seeing no way out, Beloveds response is to quietly run away, never to return.

Baby Suggs response to several years of ill-treatment and degradation brought about by slavery is, upon becoming a free woman, to provide agitated and spiritual inspiration to Cincinnatis black community by organizing religious meetings at the Clearing {a wide-open space deep in the woods (Morrison 87)}.

On the other hand, the response of Paul D to several years of slavery involving physical and emotional trauma is to suppress his bad memories and take a firm decision that the only way to survive is to not develop an attachment to anything in life.

Halles response to the adversity of being forced to watch his pregnant wife Sethe being violated by the schoolteachers nephews who steal her bodily secreted milk {they took my milk and he saw it (Morrison 69)} is to become so horrified that his sanity snaps and he becomes mad.

Lady Jones response to adversity in the form of isolation due to societal disapproval for being a mulatoo is to retain a strong feeling of societal obligation and educate children of Cincinnati who have been deprived of social privileges and rights in her unique house-school {Lady Jones sat in a straight-backed chair; several children sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her (Morrison 102)}.

In conclusion, Beloved does well to lay bare the inhuman treatment meted out to African-American slaves during what was undoubtedly the blackest period in American history. Morrison does well to pay tribute to the indomitable spirit of mankind by showing how the African-Americans resisted the various adversities that came their way by developing their own unique responses ranging from the powerful to feeble . Toni Morrison, the author of powerful novels like The Bluest Eye and Sula, has written another masterpiece in Beloved thereby proving that she has few equals in the field of African-American fiction. It is no wonder therefore that she holds the distinction of being the first African-American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993.

Reference

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Plume. 1998.

Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved used a number of theoretical perspectives including psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human behavior is the result of the interactions among the three component part of the mind. These components include id, ego, and superego. Using the psychoanalytic theory, Beloved can be analyzed as a character, a source of displacement and defense mechanism of denial. As a result of the traumatic events throughout the novel, Toni Morrison focuses on the significance of 124 Bluestone Road. Sethe, Denver, and Paul D subconsciously uses denial to help them move on in life.

The house at 124 Bluestone Road affected Sethe, Paul D and Denver through its action of the character Beloved. “…If you go there – you who never was there – if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there for you, waiting for you” (Morrison, 18). Sethe believes that past trauma will continue to re-enact themselves for an unlimited and unspecified period of time. She sees the past as a physical presence, something that is “there” to fill that space. Paul slowly moves out of 124 because he lead to suspect that Beloved was using some kind of supernatural to play with his mind and body. “But she moved him nonetheless, and Paul D didn’t know how to stop it because it looked like he was moving himself. Imperceptibly, down right reasonably, he was moving out of 124” (Morrison, 57). Denver sees 124 as a fort because she constantly feels the need to lookout for her mother. “…there sure is something in her that makes it all right to kill her own (Morrison, 102). As the people around her abandon her she lives in final because of her mother’s actions. Freud’s topographical model is important when analyzing the unconscious aspect of these characters. According to Quinodoz, “the psychoanalyst looks for the repressed unconscious wish that is fulfilled in the dream; ‘a dream,’ Freud writes, ‘is the (disguised) fulfillment of a (suppressed or repressed) wish’” (Quinodoz, 19). For Sethe, her rememorizes have been repressed by her unconscious but at the same time suppressed by her conscious. As a result of traumatic events, symptoms occur a way of coping. As a symptom, Freud has speculated that neuroses is one. Beloved symbolized the dark side or shadow of Sethe’s nature.

Displacement is related to the psychoanalytical aspect, but can also be protruded as metaphorical. The psychological definition of displacement is a “defense mechanism in which negative feelings are transferred from the original source of the emotion to a less threatening person or object (Cherry). This is the theory that explains Sethe’s actions of illusion of Beloved. She represents the daughter Sethe killed in order to cope with her memories of the act. It is also for her to feel the pain related to killing a child within a year of birth.

The haunting of 124 Bluestone Road from a psychoanalytic perspective is to haunt the reader into a psychological state, getting them to use all their senses. Morrison uses diction, imagery and metaphorical devices to get her readers to use their senses. Sethe and Denver interact with the baby’s ghost as they live in the house. Baby Suggs observed, “every house wasn’t like the one on Bluestone Road. Suspended between the nastiness of life and the meanness of the dead” (Morrison, 1). The baby’s ghost of the house represented the unconscious of Sethe and Denver. From Freud perspective, Sethe suffered from “traumatic neuroses” to show that she has repressed her memories of the death of her child into her unconscious. Sethe repressed the memory of her infanticide in categories to deal with the psychic effects that it played in her life. Sethe was forced to work through with living with her daughter because the past can not repressed in the unconscious mind.

Denver perspective of the haunting was different from Sethe. She had her own demons that she had to work with. “For a baby she throws a powerful spell” (Morrison, 2). In the haunted house, the spirt was company in her lonely existence in the haunted house. This shows that she was a psychological prisoner. The house was a place where Denver could grow psychological because she gained hearing from her mother’s re-memories about the past. Denvers starting point is in 124. Sethe explained that nothing bad can happen to Denver since she was able to call upon her mother, Amy Denver. She also survived the horrific event when Schoolteacher arrived. She was free and would eventually gain the knowledge from her mother’s re-memories. Her traumatic past gave her the tools to help her overcome of her at 124 and eventually start a life of her own.

In Paul D past life as a slave, he is traumatized from his psychological emasculation. He wanted a life with Sethe when he arrived at 124. He immediate assume that his job was to protect and desires whenever he wanted. In the makeshift exorcise, he drives out the spirt. This temporarily serves Sethe from her daily work of repressing the past this baby ghost. His arrival is a sign for hope in the future. He locks up his own unconscious shadows and past demons in a “tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be” (Morrison, 36). He wander for year not being able to stay in one place because was afraid to be brought into slavery again. When he reach 124 with Sethe, he wanted to settle down and create a family of his own. Beloved supernaturally forced him out of Sethe’s house and moves him to a room outside 124. Paul D and Sethe has to take down ghost of their past ignorer to love each other. Paul D manhood was damage and was too weak to stand up to his past, but he was able to find his way back to Sethe. He was able to overcome his issue by asking Sethe to have a baby with him to prove that he is a man, but he did not admit to the flaws in her personality. With the help of Denver and the women of the community, Paul D was able to make a reappearance and fulfill his love to Sethe.

Denial as a defense mechanism is used unconsciously by those who want to avoid dealing with painful situations or actions that they do not want to admit. Sethe wanted freedom for her and her children. She gained freedom, but not from her mind because she is constantly being haunted by Beloved. The Garners, the owners of the plantation, are considered liberal slaveholders. Salves are taught how to manage the plantation rather than beaten or tortured. Black slaves are consider to be different than white people. As a results of her days as a slave in Sweet Home plantation, Sethe suffers from repression because she choices to kill her own kids than to put them through slavery. After she killed her kids she began to isolate herself and her daughter from the outside world so that she wouldn’t remember what she did. As Sethe continues to live in the present, she does not plan for the future. The future to Sethe is “a matter of keeping the past at bay” (Morrison, 21). This defense mechanism helps Sethe to live with out any burden of the tragic memories and the guilty feelings of kill her own child. She accepts the guilt that she left Beloved behind and asks her for she forgiveness. She wished to explain her reasoning, but there was no effect: “Sethe was trying to make up for the handsaw; Beloved was making her pay for it” (Morrison, 124). Sethe did not totally want Beloved forgiveness because she was guilty for what she had done to her. She wanted to be punished and suffered from depression after the disappearance of Beloved. Sethe acknowledge her feeling because she was hurt since her mother did the same thing she did. She can heal from her past when she finally accept her guilt from her past and is able to look forward to the future.

The Schoolteacher represented a typical brutal masculine colonizer because he treated the slaves a sub-humans. He tried making them believe that they were inferior and also played a central role in Sethe’s psychology repression. After the death of Mrs. Garner, and the arrival of Schoolteacher, her Sweet Home became a plantation where slaves were touted and treated terribly. Sethe escaped sending her children ahead of her to her mother-in-laws’s. Sethe was raped and her breast milk was taken by the Schoolteacher’s nephew. The rape did bother her, but it was the violation of her humanity and her role as a mother. Sethe uses repression so that she can cope with the anxiety of losing her sense of self. Sethe could not accept the same fate for her children, so she decided: “no notebook for my babies and no measuring string neither” (Morrison, 98). Paul D observed “schoolteacher arrived to put things in order” (Morrison, 4). This showed how the Schoolteachers actually treated their slaves. They lost their identities under his rule.

We can use Freud’s psychoanalytic theory to analyze Beloved. Slavery was a hard time, and it is hard to live a normal life when there is a constant reminder of the traumatizing past. Sethe, Paul D, and Denver all suffered because they were constantly being haunted by Beloved after she was killed. Beloved comes back to haunt them because she wants her to learn from their mistakes and to move on in the future with a clean slate. They all had a hard time moving forward because of the constant haunting by Beloved’s spirit. The haunting of a spirit can cause someone to act out and have behavioral issues, as shown through Sethe, Paul D and Denver.

Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Tori Morrison’s Beloved portray two black women Janie and Sethe, who are victimized by both racism and sexism, constantly dealing with the legacy of slavery, and trying to construct a new world for themselves. Slavery does not only impact the ones who are experiencing, but also the ones who have already gone through, and even who were born after the end of slavery.

Both novels demonstrate the lasting impact of racial oppression resulted from the institution of slavery. For Janie, even though she lives in the period after slavery ended, the principles of slavery still affect her community and individual identities. Janie’s early life is largely shaped by perspectives of her grandmother Nanny, an ex-slave who firmly believes “de white man is de ruler of everything”(14) and prevents Janie from marrying no one else but Logan Killicks because he, as a socially respectable and financially stable man, can give the protection that Janie needs. Nevertheless, the marriage of Janie and Logan proves to be an unhappy and destructive one. As Janie questions her submissive role as Logan’s wife, Nanny thinks Janie is too young to realize the importance of stability in a black person’s life. Security should be prioritized over love and happiness. The conflicting arguments between Nanny and Janie not only epitomize the failure of many black women’s pursuit of true love, but also reflects how slavery continues to circumscribe the lives of black offsprings. In Beloved, the impact of slavery is demonstrated through Sethe’s inability to rescue herself from her traumatic experience as a slave. Even though she runs away from Sweet Home, Sethe is constantly immersed in her rememory. Events from the past intrude upon her present. “The picture is still there,” as Sethe says, “if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there for you, waiting for you.” More than scenes of being whipped, raped and her milk stolen by white men, the most haunting memory for Sethe, perhaps, is killing her own daughter Beloved out of protection from slavery. Indeed, she tries to resist the past by repressing her memory, leaving things “the way they are”. She often thinks about what Baby Suggs has told her, “‘Lay em down, Sethe. Sword and shield. Down. Down. Both of em down. Down by the riverside. Sword and shield. Don’t study war no more.’” She tries to follow Baby Suggs’s advice and goes to the Clearing where Baby Suggs used to preach, trying to feel the power of healing by reconnecting with Baby Suggs. Nevertheless, she is choked by Beloved and fails to put down the past. The idea that “nothing ever dies” is further demonstrated when Sethe confines herself to 124, completely picks up her distorted maternal identity, and becomes consumed by Beloved, who sinks Sethe into the horrors and suffering of the past. It is the ghost of slavery that keeps Sethe from moving forward and takes over her resistance against the past.

While both Sethe and Janie experience a profound influence from the aftermath of slavery, their image as black females exerts a greater extent of vulnerability and difficulties on their journey to rebuild self-value and seek protection for themselves and ones they love. Janie is constantly influenced by Nanny’s warning that “menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit cup” out of her”(20). The cruelty of being a black woman is revealed in Nanny’s narrative,

“So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see” (14).

Hurston has come to the conclusion that due to the social hierarchy based on race and gender, black women have the worst condition of all groups of people. Although Janie’s second husband, Joe, is not like Logan, who treats her like a labor and even threatens to kill her, Joe restrains Janie’s freedom of speech, involvement in town, and even her appearance in front of townspeople. Not only does he forbid Janie to go to public events, Joe also demands her to “tie up her hair” (55) because he only sees her as his trophy that is “only for him to look at, not those others”(55). Facing Joe’s attempt to shut her off from the community and destruct her identity, Janie tries to step out of Joe’s silencing control but fails. She gradually “pressed her teeth together and learned to hush” (71). In fact, her role as the “mule” of her husbands is not changed from Logan to Joe. The similar bestial symbolism of black women is also suggested in Beloved. Sethe once overhears the schoolteacher giving a lesson about her in which he instructed the white boys to categorize her “characteristics”(228) as either human or animal. To slaveholders, female slaves were their possessions that can be used in any means. They are a mere piece of flush that can be easily degraded and mutilated. For women slaves like Nanny, Sethe, and Baby Suggs, rape is a usual and acceptable thing because they equal to procreation machine for the white men and have no rights over their own bodies. With the absence of their husbands most of the time, their suffering is exacerbated by witnessing their children being physically and mentally destroyed by the institution of slavery just like themselves. In Sethe’s case, the return of schoolteacher provokes her action of killing Beloved because she cannot bear her daughters being whipped and raped by white men. It saves her own daughter from going through the feelings of humiliation and disgrace she has suffered as a female slave. The maternal instinct of protecting children is distorted under gender oppression and dehumanizing effect of slavery. In these novels, we see that the pressure from men, either white or black, imposes a further barrier upon women slaves over racial oppression. This layer not only annihilates their ability to assert their own sense of self but also warps their motherhood into an extreme and destructive one.

As a result of both racial and gender oppression, Sethe and Janie use different coping mechanisms to free themselves from the lingering influence of slavery and reclaim their identities. For Janie, her physical runaway from Logan, similar to Sethe’s escape from slavery, does not automatically create individuality and self-assurance for her. “Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another” (Morrison, 112). Janie’s real transformation only takes place when she realizes that she has always been living the way other people hope her to. Realizing that her perception of self and love is first dismantled by Nanny then degraded by Joe, Janie states that “she hated the old woman [Nanny] who had twisted her so in the name of love”( ). While her initial verbal combat with Joe against his dominance over her is suppressed by his bossy and arrogant responses, Janie’s inner turmoil of being demeaned by her husband is surging and prompts her to realize that she needs to defend her dignity and build a freed self rather than the surface identity established by Joe. Janie directly confronts Joe publicly when he makes comments on her aging appearance, “talkin’ ’bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change of life”(79). Janie’s rebuttal is a brutal attack on Joe, which tears off his manhood and self-image in front of townspeople. Her decision to marry Tea Cake after Joe’s death, which is criticized by the community, signals the end of gender oppression and Nanny’s influence over her. Compared to Janie, who primarily achieves her quest for equal marriage and self-identity alone, Sethe would not untangle herself from the ghost of traumatic past and be in search of a new life if Denver and the community had not helped her out.

Slavery has been a part of America for a very long time. Although it might not be as present or obvious as it was in the past, it still is here in the present. Many people have been affected by slavery from those in the past to some now and how they are treated differently because the color of thier skin. Through the motif of haunting memory, Tony Morrison shows that the past never really dies. Slavery leaves its victims afraid to love, form relationships, and scarring memories.

Ella’s unforgettable experience with slavery causes her to have multiple haunting memories thorughout her life. One of the major memories that forever haunts her is when she got raped by a man and his son. She describes this experience as “the lowest yet” (301) because “Her puberty was spent in a house where she was shared by a father and son” (301). This haunts her because she never gets married and has kids later on in the book. As a result of being raped throughout Ella’s puberty she begins to believe,“Nobody loved her and she wouldn’t have liked it if they had for she considered love a serious disability” (301). By being raped by the man and son it has affected Ella’s sense to love someone or something the same. She was so hurt by this she ended up killing her own baby. Unlike Sethe it wasn’t a fast painless death, Ella starved her child for five days straight. She did this because, ‘She had delivered, but would not nurse, a hairy white thing, fathered by “the lowest yet”’ (305). Ella couldn’t handle the fact that her baby’s father was the man who raped her and couldn’t handle raising a child that was related to him, even if it was partially hers.

As a result of the personal experiences Sethe had with slavery, it caused her to make a life changing decision which then haunted her for the rest of her life. This is first shown when Beloved arrived at 124 because everyday after Beloved’s arrival, Sethe has had to re live some of her past memories. One of the biggest memories was when she killed her baby. During Beloved’s stay at 124 she casually tries to make Sethe feel guilty about Sethe killing her and “leaving her behind”. Beloved does this because she wants an explanation of why Sethe killed her. When looking for an explanation Sethe repetitively reminds herself and tells Beloved that she did it for her own good. Sethe says she will explain to Beloved by saying, “I’ll explain to her, even though I don’t have to. Why I did it. How if I hadn’t killed her she would have died and that is something I could not bear to happen to her” (236). By saying this it shows how Sethe is going to tell Beloved why she killed her and you can see how Sethe is trying to convince herself that she killed Beloved for the right reasons. When convincing herself that she made the right decision it brought her back to the day when she actually killed Beloved. While Beloved was trying to get to know more about Sethe, including a question about her mom. This brought back sad memories for Sethe because she “…didn’t see her [Sethe’s mom] but a few times out in the fields and once when she was working indigo. By the time I woke up in the morning, she was in line… She never fixed my hair nor nothing. She didn’t even sleep in the same cabin most nights I remember” (72). As a child Sethe rarely got to spend time with her mom because she was always working. In addition, Sethe didn’t know the reasoning behind her mother being hung. Even though Beloved did bring back a lot of past memories for Sethe, Paul D did as well. Paul D brought back memories such as Sethe getting whipped and getting her chokecherry tree and Sethe finding out for the first time that Halle was in the barn while she was getting her milk taken from her. Paul D first brought back the memory of Sethe getting whipped while he was comforting her with her clothes off. Sethe described how she “got a tree on my back…” (18) to Paul D, but he was confused about if there was something growing on her back. She then described how a whitegirl called her scar a chokecherry tree because of how the scar lines looked like branches on a tree. Later on in the conversation Sethe explains how she got her scar. She described how “them boys [schoolteacher’s nephews] found out I told on em. Schoolteacher made one open up my back [with a whip] and when it closed it made a tree” (19-20). When she says the nephews found out she told on them, she was referring to how she told Mrs. Garner about how they stole her milk from her in the barn. Paul D then tells her that Halle was at the barn while she was getting her milk stolen from her. She was already disturbed by the fact that her milk was taken but to add Halle along with it made her even more furious. You can see anger and distress in her reaction to Paul D telling her Halle was there, “God damn it of two boys with mossy teeth, one sucking on my breast and the other holding me down, their book-reading teacher watching and writing it up. I am still full of that, God damn it, I can’t go back and add more. Add my husband to it, watching me… And not stopping them – looking and letting it happen” (83). This memory alone for Sethe was one her most haunting memories but to add Halle into the scene makes Sethe even more overwhelmed because now she knew that her husband was watching her getting her milk taken forcefully and he did nothing about it to help prevent the situation.

During Paul D’s time as a slave he was emotionally scared which affected his self confidence and his ability to love. One way this happens is when he compares himself to a rooster, Mister. When comparing himself to Mister he said the, “he looked so…free. Better than me. Stronger, tougher… Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was” (86), making Paul D feel like he had less freedom and confidence compared to a rooster. This made Paul D mad because he is jealous of how even though Mister might not be perfect, he stands and walks around like he is. Later on in the book, Paul D has no control over the urge to have sex with Beloved. He feels the need to do it but doesn’t want to or enjoy it because he likes Sethe. This is shown when Beloved and Paul D were in the cold house where Paul D is sleeping and Beloved comes in and says, ‘“I want you to touch me on the inside part. Go on back in that house and get to bed… No. Please call it. I’ll go if you call it. Beloved”… he didn’t hear the whisper that the flakes of the rust made either as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave he didn’t know it” (137-138). Paul D doesn’t want to have sex with Beloved but once he starts to his tincan heart starts to open up to her. This makes Paul D feel less than a man because he can’t control his needs or feelings. Just like how when he was a slave, when he watched Mister and how he portrays himself, Paul D has come to the conclusion that there, “… wasn’t no way I’d ever be Paul D again… Schoolteacher changed me. I was something else and that something was less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a tub” (86). The thought of Paul D being less than a man has haunted him in the present when he was a slave and still now when living with Sethe, Beloved, and Denver. Lastly, during Paul D’s time as a slave it has affected the way he loves someone or something. Paul D learned as a slave, “… to love just a little bit… so when they broke its back… maybe you’d have a little love left over for the next one” (54). Paul D believes that even if it is your child, you shouldn’t put all of your love into them because if they hurt you and you’re heartbroken you won’t have anymore love to give to somebody else.

In conclusion, although you might dislike your past want to escape it, there is no way around it. This is shown through the motif haunting slavery and how the characters Ella, Sethe, and Paul D were all affected by their past as a slave. Ella was affected by slavery because she doesn’t want to form relationships, cause it reminds her of her past when she was raped by a father and his son. Paul D is afraid to give someone all of his love and then be broken and left with nothing. Lastly, Sethe is affected by slavery because it consumed her because of the scarring memories and it impacted her actions afterwards.

Toni Morrison’s novels normally have 2 common themes of heritage and the past effects which are clearly represented in her novels Song of Solomon and Beloved. In these novels, if evaluated closely one can see the effects of the supernatural elements throughout the story. These supernatural effects allow for the characters to develope and gives them the ability to move on and develop themselves with reference to their past. Examining the two evaluate and understand how the novels make the connection with the characters’ personal pasts and the effect that their culture have and the way communities have played a role in creating the effect past.

Heritage plays an important role when remembering how the past has a role in the portrayal of characters within Morrison’s novels. This effect is perceived through the depiction of the development as supernatural means and changes. The supernatural can be seen in many different ways in both Song of Soloman and The Beloved. The supernatural and past have an enormous effect on the characters. Seen through the portrayal of ghosts and the illusion of magic. In her novels, the characters have to face the pasts which they don’t want to remember. The growth of the characters in her novels is directly linked to the connection between the past represented by the supernatural.

In Song of Solomon and Beloved, the mystic powers of side characaters lead the main characters to discover and accept their roles within the African American community and its heritage. The supernatural has been involved and connected to the supernatural elements for many years. For example, Milkman the main character in Song of Soloman has had a connection to the supernatural presence since he was an infant. When he was born he was dead, but he lived because Pilate used voodoo and healing. Pilate uses “nasty greenish-gray powder…to be stirred into rainwater and to be put in food” (131) on milkman which she gave to Ruth for continued use. Pilate to scare Macon creates nad places a poppet on his chair . This act helped prevent Macon from harming Milkman when he was an infant. A supernatural element was critical to milk mans life because it is what allowed him to be born and life. Without that supernatural presence engraved into Milkman’s life from the beginning, he would cease to exist. Even though milkman was helped by the supernatural its not always a helping hand. Pilate and, Macon are haunted by the ghost of their father whom they saw die when they were children. Pilate forms a life to live based on what she thinks is the wishes and instructions from her father: “[Pilate] would abide by this commandment from her father herself, and make him do it too. ‘You can’t just fly on off and leave a body’” (332). Pilate life is lived in an odd manner because she has followed her father’s words even though she didn’t fully understand what they meant. What has confused her the most of the year was when he said “you can’t just fly on off and leave the body. Becasue of the life she lives and it affects the poeple in her life and their lives have forever changed. This also helps Milkman to accept his heritage because he learns more and more about his grandfather and what happened to him.

In Beloved, Denver’s life is heavily effected by the presence of the ghost within in their life. She is haunted by this ghost because its what caused her to lose her brothers resulting in her world around her to decrease. After Nelson, Lord Denver’s schoolmate who ends Denver’s education by asking her about Sethe’s past was the reason that Denver became obsessed on the ghost and stopped leaving the house: “Now it held for her all the anger, love and fear she didn’t know what to do with” (121). The ghost has caused her to lose many important people in her life, therefore forever being apart of her. It was the reason that her life was falling apart right before her eyes. Denver develops resentment for thought life Paul D because they were chasing out the ghost. “Now her mother was upstairs with the man who had gotten rid of the only other company she had” (23). Everyone in Denver’s family was gone except the believed ghost and Sethe. So she begins to latch on to the people she still has. Having such loneliness this results her to rely on Beloved later in the novel too. Each of the characters shaped and depicted by their connection to the supernatural. The supernatural is a vital part of what they stand for but it also is important to the history that is reborn because of it.

Her novels don’t just portray the supernatural as an essence it is also demonstrated in the people. Pilate, for example, is seen using some sort of magic. She gives Ruth the power that essentially causes macon to want her once again. This allows for the Creation of Milkman. Rith uses a puppet to prevent Macon from harming milkman. This doll is created using voodoo which is a craft that is linked to the African heritage. “Pilate is a true conjurer or conjure woman. Morrison gives Pilate a magical start in the world by describing her as being born without a navel” (Beaulieu 89). Pilate is important in milkman’s journey because her “conjuring” was what brought milkman in to this world and through her he grasps things about him and the love he has in his life. Through Milkman’s journey, he begins learning things about himself he hadn’t known and began making connections to aspects in his life. On his journey he came in to contact with a woman named Circe who is another “witch”, she teaches him about what happened in his past and told him things that happened before his time. Circe is a trigger for one of Milkman’s past dreams he had as a child: “dreams every child had, of the witch that chased him down dark alleys, between lawn trees, and finally into rooms from which he could not escape” (239). Circe gives Milkman knowledge about his family he hadn’t known . Circe was the woman that delivered macon and pilate, but she was also the reason they lived after their father was murdered. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica in Greek mythology(find a better source), the “Circe was a supernatural being who possessed a “talent” for shifting men into wolves , lions, and swine” . Her character is a little different in Song of Solomon. What Circe does in this novel was help Milkman in his journey to becoming a man. Supernatural beings in gernal have had a huge impact on discovering identity in the reason for milkmans existence. They are the reason that he is alive, granted him knowledge, and strengthened his spiritual connection to his heritage.

Characters that are connected in a deep way to the supernatural are effected by it. While they are effected by it it also gives them some sort of supernatural abilities. The illusion of these “abilities are seen in Milkman and Paul D throughout their novels. Durring the Beloved, Paul D has the ability to evoke intense emotions in the people who is around him. His abilities dont help him but they help others in his life. He uses these abilities to help sethe after Beloved left. As the novel wraps up his abilities grow and he evokes emotions ment to be kept in. His gift is a crutial part of of the healing process for the people in his life. Sethe feels safe when around him, she was able to face what was lying in the past which allows her to move on with her lfie.

In Song of Solomon, Milkmans abilities are more alluded to and vague. When Hagar ( milkmans cousin) tries to kill Milkman at Guitar’s apartment, there is something unnatural in the way that she freezes and is unable to move until after he is gone. There is a suggestion, that Milkman used his will to force her to stop, and in his words he “won” (130). This ability allows him to continue living, but it is not until after he has learned of his past that he can fully accept this and then he is able to “fly.” Both character have abilities that become essential to their survival and identity. Ghosts are another common element of both novels that weigh on the characters. Beloved first appears as an unseen force present in 124, then appearing in a fleshly form that allows her to get closer to Sethe. Ghost stories are present in cultures around the world: “ghost stories told within the African tradition often insist that the natural and the supernatural intertwine” (Beaulieu).

This tradition applies to Beloved, because the family learns to live with the presence of the ghost in 124 and it becomes a large part of their lives. The same applies to the ghost of Macon I in Song of Solomon, Pilate lives her life with the presence of her dead father influencing some of her actions, but not harming her in any way. The amalgamation of Western and African ghost story traditions work to show the importance in knowing of one’s heritage, as the ghost work to aid in the character’s construction of the past. David Lawrence points out that “in portraying the capacity of the past to haunt individual and community life in the present, Beloved brings into daylight the “ghosts” that are harbored by memory and that hold their “hosts” in thrall, tyrannically dictating thought, emotion, and action” (Lawrence). The past haunts the characters, both in their minds and in a physical form, which causes the characters to face their pasts and construct their own identities free from the haunting past. Morrison herself has said “I am very happy to hear that my books haunt. That is what I work very hard for, and for me it is an achievement when they haunt readers” (qtd. in Anderson). Morrison uses ghosts to make characters to realize and accept their pasts. Many of the supernatural elements have ties to African heritage and the collective past that many of the characters have little connection to.

According to The Toni Morrison Encyclopedia, “these mythic elements root the novels in the African tradition and provide a spiritual and cultural bridge between the history of her characters’ ancestors and the lives of the characters at the times the novels are set in the United States” (Beaulieu). In Song of Solomon, one of the most prevalent myths is that of the flying African. There are various myths that speak of flying Africans, many of them telling of slaves flying to freedom. According to David Carrasco, “Morrison has partially hidden in her narrative thread of magical flight one of the key meanings of shamanic transport and elevation, namely, the vital importance of finding a spiritual ally who enables the seeker to transcend the terror of one’s historical condition” (148). Not only does this legend act as a reminder of slavery, it also suggest the importance of the mystical in moving past the horrors of slavery. Milkman discovers his own family’s connection to this myth on his quest, which strengthens the affect it has on him. In the novel, Susan Byrd, a relative of Milkman’s grandmother, describes the flying African myth as “some old folk’s lie they tell… Some of those Africans they brought over here as slaves could fly. A lot of them flew back to Africa” (323). This knowledge in conjunction to the fact that the story Susan Byrd tells Milkman is about his own family grants insight into his past and self that he never knew before. The supernatural elements are tied to African heritage and a collective past, as well as the characters’ personal pasts. The most notable example of this is Beloved’s connection to the slavery. Beloved becomes an embodiment of the trauma and history of slavery through her experience in the limbo state she describes, “I cannot lose her again my dead man was in the way like the noisy clouds when he dies on my face I can see hers she is going to smile at me” (250). Beloved bridges both life and death. Melanie Anderson describes Beloved as “an intense spectral appearance of traumatic history in a physical form, a ‘becoming-body,’ and through her very ‘spectrality’ she merges and undoes rigid barriers between life and death and past and present” (Anderson). She remembers the death and horror of the Middle Passage and helps others remember, as she helps characters remember their personal past as well. Characters like Sethe and Paul D have to face the horrors of their slave past to come to terms with themselves and Beloved helps to facilitate that. History plays an integral part in the construction of identity. Morrison includes this history because she believes that it is crucial for people to know. Morrison argues that her novels are important and necessary to African Americans because “we don’t live in places where we can hear those stories anymore, parents don’t sit around and tell their children those classical, mythological, archetypal stories that we heard years ago. But new information has got to get out, and there are several ways to do it” (qtd. in Awkward 68).

Morrison teaches history and these stories through her novels. The knowledge of the past is vital to these characters, but many of them are ignorant or in denial of it, so it is important for them to learn of the past and the legacy of slavery. Beloved’s connection to the Middle Passage is just one connection to past that influences identity in the novels. The painful memories that Morrison evokes with her use of the supernatural are important elements of the character’s lives. The characters have to face these memories to grow. Through his interaction with the supernatural on his quest, Milkman is able to construct his identity by getting in touch with his history and heritage. Ultimately, Milkman embraces his heritage and grows beyond his selfish, ignorant existence. His quest was originally for gold, but ultimately he finds connection and history that leads his to build his sense of self. As Linda Krumholz states, “On his quest, Milkman learns the “discredited knowledge” of African American history and spirituality, and for the first time he sees some connection between obtaining knowledge, interpreting signs in the world, and constructing his sense of self” (Krumholz 203). In response to this knowledge, Milkman shows respect to his family and heritage by helping Pilate return the bones of her father to their rightful burial ground. Learning the history and culture of his heritage plays a large part of his identity. The story ends with his realization and acceptance of his heritage: “For now he knew what Shalimar knew: If you surrender to the air, you could ride it” (337). His journey leads him to learn and grow and stop merely floating through life. His discovery of his relationship to the Solomon of the song causes a drastic change in Milkman: “He was grinning. His eyes were shining. He was an eager and as happy as he had ever been in his life” (304). Without the knowledge that he gained through his interaction with myth and the supernatural, Milkman would not have been able to grow and become aware. Though the supernatural elements of Beloved tend to be more violent and malicious than those seen in Song of Solomon, they still ultimately have a positive effect on the characters. While Milkman’s quest brings him in touch with his heritage and more supernatural elements, it does not force revelations on him like the presence of Beloved. The revelations of identity and self that happen due to Beloved’s presence are forced and painful to the characters. Beloved is a painful reminder of the past, and forces memory or “rememory” on the characters. After having sex with Beloved for the first time, Paul D is forced face his past: “She moved closer with a footfall he didn’t hear and he didn’t hear the whisper that the flakes of rust made either as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin” (137-138). Paul kept the memories of trauma in the “tobacco tin” of his heart, which he thought was rusted shut, so he would not have to face the memories again, but Beloved forces the tin open and brings the past to the present. Sethe is also forced to face her past and her actions, including the murder of her child and the abuse that happened at Sweet Home. Beloved is a reminder that Sethe is a murderer, but her presence also forces her to remember the horrors of schoolteacher that caused her to murder her child. At the end of the novel, both Sethe and Paul D are in the process of coming to terms with their pasts and learning to move on together. Paul D tells Sethe, “Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow” (322). They are ready to move beyond the memories that Beloved brought back and that have haunted them. Denver is also changed by Beloved’s presence.

At the beginning of the novel, Denver was not a member of the community and resented that lack of connection, but Beloved’s presence forces her to seek out the connection that she has been missing. Initially, Denver welcomed Beloved’s presence, because even before Beloved has a corporal form, the ghost was her only friend, so she welcomed the opportunity to spend time with Beloved. But as Beloved began to ruin their lives, Denver learns to act for herself. According to Ella, Denver “appeared to have some sense after all. At least she had stepped out the door, asked for the help she needed and wanted work” (302). Though Beloved causes harm to the family she also forces Sethe and Paul D to face their pasts and for Denver to discover her past, resulting in all three of them being able to heal and thus rejoining the community and moving on with their lives. Both the positive and the negative aspects of the supernatural cause the characters to change for the better. Morrison uses the supernatural as an embodiment of the past that characters must face in order to grow. By learning and connecting to their pasts through these supernatural means, the characters are able to understand who they are and the importance of their pasts. An understanding of their heritage is vital to these characters’ identity and their ability to function in their communities.

The supernatural allows the characters to become spiritually connected their heritage, which allows them to become a member of their communities and move past their painful memories. In these two novels, many of these characters need supernatural intervention to resurrect the past in order for them to grow.

Have you ever unconsciously done something that wasn’t wanted, something beyond your will? In Beloved, by Toni Morrison, Sethe embodies the archetype of motherhood through the conscious and the unconscious mind throughout the book. Motherhood is shown throughout the book in Sethe, as she is below the surface of awareness. In this book we’ll find that the unconscious influences the conscious actions of Sethe in the term of Motherhood.

The functions of myths in Jung’s-Theory of archetypes and individualization are psychological, to show the inside workings of the unconscious mind. Myths and dreams are the expressions of the collective unconsciousness, in that they express main ideas that are part of the nature of humans. Archetypes are patterns that are accepted world wide that come from the collective unconsciousness, from what you do with thought, and are the opposite of instinct. They are the thoughts that people hold which are put into the world when they enter consciousness as images or patterns in the way you act with the outside world and the people in it. Individualization is a process of becoming mentally different, for its goal is the development of one’s personality. An example of this transformation of the unconscious mind in everyday life is misspeaking. This is part of the unconscious mind which happens when they slip through unconscious content which comes out to the surface. Like when you are thinking about something and then someone asks you a question and you answer with what you were just thinking of instead of the answer the person was looking for. It can also bring feelings to the surface as a way of confession. Another example is when talking to someone and you suddenly forget what you were going to say or forget the meaning of a word. This happens because they’re feelings associated with the desires, fears, or any other content you haven’t processed yet. You forget the task your mom gave you because you don’t want to do it, the name of a person you don’t like or have bad feelings about, like your ex, or what you were going to say before disagreeing with someone. These are all examples of the manifestations of unconsciousness within everyday life.

The Complexes within Sethe are shown in the form of Motherhood, abandonment, obsessiveness and many more, but those are the ones we are going to focus on. Starting on Motherhood, Sethe’s obsession about motherhood stems from her earlier trama, starting with Seth’s own mother being a stranger to her. When, as we see in the book, Sethe tries to identify with her mother by asking for a brand, but when she asks, her mother slaps her. This action permanently taints any form of relationship with a sense of mistrust. It causes Sethe to be deprived of any healthy mother-daughter relationship, which ultimately leads Sethe to believe that killing her own child to save her from slavery is a legitimate escape. Furthermore, Sethe becomes so afraid of being abandoned because of her own childhood that she not only forces that fear upon her children but herself as well. This shows in Denver who is an 18 year old girl but she acts as if she is a 6 or 7 year old. Denver has been isolated for most of her life, which makes her lonely most of the time, resulting in Denver being highly dependent on Sethe, and what little affection Sethe gives her, resulting in her acting like a child, acting like how Sethe wants her to act to get any attention. Like Sethe, Denver has no future because of Sethe’s fear of being abandoned. Another place where we see this is in Beloved, where at the beginning of the book Sethe believes that Beloved is just a normal person who hasn’t been let outside by her master, but as the novel progresses Sethe begins to see Beloved as her dead daughter. With her limited speaking abilities, and baby-soft skin, not forgetting her emotional instability, also with Beloved being the same age as Sethe’s dead child would have been if she hadn’t been killed and as well as the spirit bearing the name which was on the tombstone of her dead child. In addition, having the same scar as where Sethe slit her child’s throat that night, and the first time that Sethe saw her she was soaking wet, as if she had just been born, and Sethe having the sensation of her water breaking when she saw Beloved. Beloved changes with Sethe’s desire of motherhood. This also shows when she sells her body for her dead child’s tombstone, but also stopped seeing colors, the last color she sees being that of the tombstones. Even though years have passed since the killing, Sethe still mourns her child’s death as it monopolizes her life so much that Beloved comes into the picture. Additionally, when Sethe was thrown in jail she didn’t let anyone take Denver away from her and breastfeed her. Well this is a show of motherly love, in this scene Sethe still has blood on her from murdering “Beloved” and feeds Denver the blood of her sister as well as her milk.

The scene where Sethe is being held down and robbed of her own breast milk shows how Sethe is being robbed of her own very bodily capability to be a nurturing mother.

As well as Sethe losing her ability to be a good mother in some scenes, shown with Sethe killing her own child. The act can be taken in many ways: one way is including it representing an act of the deep motherly love: Sethe saving her children from having to endure slavery, believing that death is a better option. But it can also be seen as Sethe refusing to be a mother under slavery, seen when she was with the Gerners, she was actually given the choice out of 5 slave men, who would be her husband and she would have the good fortune of bearing his 4 children. This freedom that she was given made her start thinking about the future with herself and her family. This was an option very few slaves possesed. Sethe dared to think about a future that her and her family could escape the clutches of slavery. This is what I believe is a factor in Sethe killing her children when the slave holders came to collect them again. So when they escaped slavery and started making a life for themselves, the slaveholders coming back made Sethe kill her children both out of love and out of not wanting to be a mother as a slave again, as she had already gone through that and decied that death would be better.

Not only did the treatment of her in Sweet home leave physical scars, like the tree on her back, but also deep emotional scars. Shown when Sethe gets her breast milk stolen, since she was not only deprived of nursing from her mother as a child for more than the first few weeks of life, because of an absent mother, but she was also nursed last by Nan and left hungry. Sethe understood the importance of breastfeeding for both mothers and children. This was also the reason that I believe Sethe was so concerned about providing milk for Denver in the cell. It was not only for Denver but for herself, to give her some sense of relief from her past but also from the horrors of not only a few hours before hand.

Memories create meaning in our lives, and allow us to remember what we’ve been through. Not all memories are good ones however, and In Beloved by Toni Morrison, memory is debilitating in the lives of Sethe and other characters. Sethe is imprisoned in her mind, and can’t escape the memories of when she was enslaved. Sethe’s daughter, Beloved, represents the past, and personifies Sethe’s memories. Beloved represents the past, and proves how memory and rememory of the past has power over people.

Sethe’s memories of her slave days never seem to fade, and she is constantly reminded of her days at Sweet Home, when schoolteacher would torture her and the other slaves. For example, one slave by the name of Sixo “is hunted like a dangerous animal…hit in the head with [a] rifle… [and] a hickory fire is [lit] in front of him while he is tied at the waist to a tree” (Morrison 266). Despite being past these terrible times, Sethe experiences psychological pain that is nearly equally as harmful. This pain however, is self inflicted by Sethe and her mind, and demonstrates the life long scarring effects that slavery has on people. Traumatic memories from the past psychologically damage people, and it is very difficult to take power over the past because it has so much power over our minds. Sethe demonstrates the “historical trauma [and] continuing apocalypse of racism” (Berger 115) and the effects it has on her present-day self, despite being past the worst of times. Sethe is obsessed with the past. It always haunts her, so she can never really live in the present.

The dehumanizing effects of slavery leave Sethe stuck in the past and unable to escape the “continuing apocalypse of racism” (Berger 115). Sethe reminisces on days where her and the other slaves were treated like animals, locked in boxes, bits put in their mouths, chained, beaten, killed, and even sexually harassed and raped. These disturbing experiences never leave Sethe’s mind, and it is safe to say they have a similar effect on the other slaves. Even reading about such acts disturbs the minds of a reader, and one can only imagine the effect it would have on those who actually experienced and witnessed such terrible events. Walking by a school for whites, Sethe overhears schoolteacher teaching the kids to put the animals and slaves in one category. He says “ “Which one are you doing? One of the[m] said ‘Sethe’…No. That is not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right. And don’t forget to line them up” (Morrison 228). This affected the way Sethe saw herself and the rest of the slaves. While they initially think they are a part of the community at Sweet Home, the arrival of schoolteacher demonstrates to them that they are seen just like any animal on the farm, and their only value is their labor production, and physical reproduction. Slavery and racism’s message is that white people are superior to black people. This is one of racism and slavery’s worst affects becuase it will affect how former slaves and even those who have experinced racism for the rest of their lives.. Even after her slave days, Sethe continues to believe she is inferior to the white man because that is all she has ever been told. Sethe and the rest of the freed or escaped slaves are “still haunted by slavery, [and] confront an overhwleming legacy of physociological scars” (Mathieson 1). While Sethe is now physically free, mentally she is still enslaved.

The physologicial affects of slavery are so harsh, even those who never experinced slavery are affected by them. Denver, Sethe’s daughter, is affected by Sethe’s past. She hears so much from Sethe about her past that she almost wishes she experienced the same things in order to connect with her mother. At the start of the story, Denver is rather immature and only wants to hear stories about herself. However her innocence is lost when she learns that her mother killed Beloved and planned to kill her and her brothers. She says, “I love my mother but I know she killed one of her own daughters, and tender as she is with me, I’m scared of her because of it” (Morrison 243). Instead of running away from 124 like her brothers, Denver does the opposite and never leaves or goes beyond the yard. She is stuck as a child, dependent on her mother, 124, and the ghost of her dead sister. Denver knows that something from her mother’s past drove her mother to kill her sister, and she knows that thing is still out there. Denver says, “Whatever it is, it comes from outside this house, outside the yard. So I never leave this house and watch over the yard, so it can’t happen again and my mother won’t have to kill me too “ (Morisson 242). Despite her growing up and becoming older Denver’s behavior could still be classified as immature. It isn’t until much later in the story do we see Denver develop. She, too, is stuck in the past and can’t get past what Sethe did. Sethe’s inability to escape her past also traps her daughters in the past. Beloved remains a baby, roaming the house as a ghost, and Denver acts as a kid, never venturing out of the house. Sethe’s past and past actions directly affect Denver because she is scared of her mother. She says, “I’ve seen my mother in a dark place, with scratching noises. A smell coming from her dress… She cut my head off every night. Buglar and Howard told me she would and she did” (Morrison 243). Despite loving her mother, she is also scared of her because she knows what she did in the past and can never get over it. Later, Denver becomes dependent on Beloved, saying “ I am Beloved and she is mine” (Morrison 253). Because Beloved represents the past, Denver has become one with the past. Her and Sethe both become extremely attached to Beloved and she becomes part of their identity, demonstrating how memories and the past control our minds. In The Parturition of Memory, the author states:

The legacies of these past experiences cannot be eradicated by Sethe, Paul D and Denver, however hard they try; for each of them, in both interconnected and seperate ways, such seeds have taken root in the hidden places of self and inevitably grow until such time as they can be ignored no longer but must be delivered up by memory into the harsh light of present day. (Lucas 39)

The past affects Sethe, Denver, and others, in the present. Memories are ingrained in their minds and affect how they live currently despite having already taken place. They are possessed by their memories, and Beloved serves as a physical manifestation of these memories. While physically big enough to be a young women, when Beloved returns she has the mind, skin, and behavior of a baby, demonstrating she is the same as she was in the past when she was killed. Beloved arriving at 124 marks the beginning of Denver maturing. Denver devotes and loves Beloved entirely, even saying “her face is my own” (Morrisson 248). Beloved takes over 124, and Sethe’s role in the house weakens. Denver recognizes this, and knows the family is depending on her. She finally steps outside of her comfort zone, outside of the yard of 124, into the real world. Denver took control of the past, learned from it, and used it for good. By the end of the novel, she has her own life, and a future ahead of her; something she, and Sethe, lacked. In Sethe’s case, Beloved weakens her and almost as if she wants her to feel the remorse she wants to forget. It is essential that Sethe feels this pain and remorse to finally move on with her life. Sethe, too feels a deep connection to Beloved, and therefore becomes blind to the power Beloved has over her. Like Denver, she also says, ““ I am Beloved and she is mine” (Morrison 248). Again, Beloved represents the past, and her taking control over multiple characters in the novel demonstrates how the past dictates our current decisions and has a heavy influence on us, controlling us in a way.

Like her mother, Denver is also stuck in the past. Despite never meeting her dad, she is obsessed with the thought of him and his return. She constantly reminisces on stories her grandma, Baby Suggs, has told her about her father. She is convinced he will one day arrive at 124 and is always waiting for him. She idolizes him, repeating her grandma’s statement, “He was too good for the world” (245). Denver, too, is stuck in rememory and loves her father more than her mother, describing him as “an angel man” (246). While Denver has only heard great things about her father from Baby Suggs, idolizing her dad is most likely partially a coping mechanism. She cannot fully love and feel comfortable with Sethe because of her past actions, and her dad is a safe space, an angel who has done and could do no harm. Denver sees it her duty to protect Beloved, therefore protecting the past. She says, “She… always came to me whenever I needed her. She’s mine, Beloved, She’s mine” (247). Denver’s connection to Beloved shows her connection to the past.

To be loved. So reads the name of Beloved. But the importance of the story lies not around whether Beloved is a product of imagination. Instead the novel weaves itself around nothingness, the almost imperceptible trace of extinction, and nothing else is the history of American slavery. This is in the centre of this book; a discussion with all language, with all precision and fragility of form, of what has been made speechless.

It is a novel that fascinates one like an evil spirit. It forces you to continue to read when you don’t want to and to ponder upon about things you don’t want to think about. A lyrical, sad, powerful, disturbing book. It tells of the consequences of slavery, of trauma, of loss and of pain, and highlights of the infinite power of resistance.

It begins in 1873, in 124 in Bluestone Road, Cincinatti, where Sethe, lives in seclusion with her fourteen-year-old daughter Denver. The house is evil, treacherous like a toddler, they say. It is the setting that tells of the inconceivability of slavery, an evil and treacherous tale. It is told in such a way that the inconceivability of this story becomes vivid, that with every addition, with every further turn, the tale becomes more urgent, more intense, more present. The unthinkability of this American form of slavery, these 60 million people and more who were taken from their homes. The so-called Middle Passage, in which their African culture, their heritage, their language and history were lost, so thoroughly, that their culture has remained unimaginable to this day. Morrison’s novel seeks to make this incomprehensibility available, this ignorance of an erased history, a language and a culture. It is in its inaccessibility that memory that is fragmentary in every sense acts as the only channel to truth to arise and be expressed.

Beloved is not a ghost story, rather, it expresses the experience of extinction to such an extent that nothing will ever be able to make good this extinction again. Nothing can be made good; no annihilation can be undone. Thus, it is the trauma of Sethe and her actions which form the centre of the novel. The annihilation of self

Sethe, for the first time in her life, becomes aware of being a human being of her own, of having children, there is Baby Suggs, the house in which they live, the neighbourhood, black people, like them former slaves. She is just beginning to feel a sense of freedom when one morning she sees her former owner riding towards the house with the sheriff and a slave hunter. Nobody warned her. She packs her children, locks herself in the little shed behind the house and tries to kill them. At least they should be spared the experience of slavery, which is worse than death. She injures her two sons, kills her two-year-old, the tiny Denver can barely be torn from her hand by Stamp, who hastens to her. This horror story, this raging of the devil, who drove as effect of slavery in Sethe, shows the fate of a visitation, similar to the one coming from Beloved. In order to escape the devil, Sethe herself becomes the devil, and she becomes it for freedom’s sake. Her children should be free, even if they have to be dead to be free. That is the logic of slavery.

Their deed at least brings those who wanted to bring them back into slavery, back under their lawless, devilish, sadistic rule, to fear it. They abandon her, abandon her plan to bring her back into slavery. As if they were sure that what Sethe now expects is even worse than slavery – to have become the devil yourself, who can only protect his freedom by death.

‘This is not a story to tell.’ That’s what it says at the end of the book. ‘This is not a story to pass on.’ Which exactly names the dilemma of the memory work that this book dares to do: This story is not a story to tell. At the same time, it is also the story that must be told, one that can never be ignored.

The novel Beloved is based on the tragic story of Margret Garner, a runaway slave, and her kids, whom she attempted to kill to seek a “fate worse than death” than allowing them to be taken away from her by slave catchers. She, however, is only successful with one–two year-old Beloved–before she is caught. This traumatic event leads to the basis of the story being a ghost story where an eerie presence haunts the grounds of 124 Bluestone Road. Margret Garner is the inspiration for the character “Sethe” in the novel. Paul D is her close friend from the past that becomes her lover. Denver, one of Sethe’s daughters, is a child who fears leaving the house and interacting with the community. She becomes attached to the character “Beloved”, a mysterious character that emerges suddenly in the novel. The story is set in the past, which presents flashbacks about the traumatizing moments of slavery, and the present–after slavery. The author, Toni Morrison, uses motifs of love and slavery throughout the novel to reveal how the experiences of slavery promote suffering through a loss of identity and leads to a lack of compassion and emotion. The narrative acknowledges America’s relation with slavery and promotes the idea of which stories are passed down and defined in American history.

Love is widely represented in this novel and is a great symbol of connections between people; however, it is also suppressed by the characters as a coping mechanism to attempt to forget about the past and its treacherous memories. This can be seen during an interaction between Paul D and Sethe. As Paul D shares his memories with Sethe about his past in slavery, he tries extremely hard to numb his emotions: “He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be. Its lid rusted shut. He would not pry it loose now in front of this sweet sturdy woman, for if she got a whiff of the contents it would shame him. And it would hurt her to know that there was no red heart bright… beating in him” (86). Sharing the memories of his past scares Paul D into thinking that revealing too much might cause him and Sethe to be sucked into a past where they won’t be able to escape. Paul D and Sethe have established coping mechanisms for themselves in the prevention of dealing with their pasts. Paul D functions by sealing his memories up in his heart, which is imagined as a “tobacco tin”. This ultimately, however, is self-destructive and leads to a loss of identity because of how the suppression of emotions causes one’s own identity to be less recognizable through a lack of self-consciousness. The separation from his emotions means that his affection is estranged and shows how willing Paul D is to forget about the traumatization of his past.

Originating from this, Paul D talks about how he is concerned for Sethe and her emotions and concurrently confused as to why Sethe is so sentimental about her children: “For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit” (54). Stemming from his ideology of suppressing emotion, Paul D believes love is risky, especially for slaves. Since children were an asset to slave owners and no regard was given to family love, Paul D feels it is easier not to love at all, seeing as there is nothing to lose. The author is displaying how Paul D’s past in slavery has crippled his ability to fully express and feel emotion. This disability has now led to his loss of identity because of how he cannot fully be sentimental, which leads to his lack of being able to understand himself; therefore, a part of his existence is lost.

Slavery in this novel is established as the basis of the plot, representing the sadistic experiences most of the characters have gone through. It is represented through motifs in the novel, included in the flashbacks of the characters. These experiences have introduced a loss of identity that has led characters to make abnormal decisions that don’t correspond with their personalities. This can be examined where the author talks about how slavery deteriorates one’s own personality and, in a way, makes decisions for the characters through Sethe: “That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn’t like yourself anymore. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn’t think it up” (295). Sethe genuinely wants Beloved to understand that slavery degraded her to the point that made her decide to kill her own children. Slavery has tainted her and others like her, but those not born into slavery are still pure. Sethe knows that she will not be able to protect her children from the life under cruel slave owners. So, she makes the decision to attempt to kill her children, pursuing the idea without a doubt or emotion. Her trauma is almost making decisions for her without her consent, numbing her of any apprehension.

Another illustration of when the trauma of slavery has affected one’s own identity was when Stamp Paid was talking to Paul D about when his wife was repeatedly raped by their owner’s son: “I looked at the back of her neck. She had a real small neck. I decided to break it. You know, like a twig—just snap it. I been low but that was as low as I ever got… I changed my name” (275). Stamp’s story exposes the brutality and injustice of slavery. Since Stamp has no power to prevent the rapes from happening and cannot channel his rage toward the white man, he decides to focus it on his wife. Stamp then mentions that he has taken on a new name, which indicates that he no longer has to oblige to anyone. This reveals that the anguish of slavery has messed with Stamp Paid’s compassion because of how he thinks of hurting his wife instead of feeling sorry for her. This has led to Stamp changing his name, and in turn, lose a significant part of his identity.

One of the overall messages of the novel is the acknowledgement of America’s relationship with slavery and the decision of which stories should be passed down. The main point of where this is illustrated is at the end of the narrative where the people of the community have begun to forget about Beloved and who she is: “They forgot her like a bad dream… It took longer for those who had spoken to her, lived with her, fallen in love with her, to forget, until they realized they couldn’t remember or repeat a single thing she said… So, in the end, they forgot her too. Remembering seemed unwise” (323). Beloved’s story is not even one that she herself can control since “they” are the ones that pass it on. “They” can fabricate and lie about any story that has occurred, and no one would know since they were not present for them. Remembering seems to be unwise because it itself seems to do so much damage, for example, triggering PTSD and a damage to one’s own identity. This relates to America’s relationship with slavery because it describes how the writers of history get to choose what gets passed on and what doesn’t. Morrison is forcing her audience to recognize that the story she is telling is an important story that no one knows because it hasn’t been widely passed on throughout history. The act of remembering is just too shameful for America to acknowledge, so it has been decided to just suppress those memories in order to avoid embarrassment and shame.

Briefly, Morrison has expressed how slavery has tainted the minds of the affected through trauma and a loss of identity, which has led to an unfortunate inadequacy of compassion and sentiment. This, overall, has opened up eyes to reconsidering how history should be passed down and why it is important to acknowledge such stories like this.

In the famous novel “Beloved” by the well-known author Toni Morrison, I have come to realize that the theme touches on many different themes. The main themes it focuses on is the key concepts of slavery, masculinity within men, motherhood, freedom, and memories. The work of literature starts off with two important characters, Sethe and her daughter Denver. It is explained that the current home the family is living in seems to be possessed by Sethe’s firstborn daughter of whom she killed in the early chapter of her life. She tries her hardest to suppress this crucial memory, but it only seems to divulge into something much more.

Back when Sethe was enslaved some time ago she was held in Sweet Home, a plantation down in the South. While on this estate she was able to get away to freedom but of course she is still tied to her past because that same day she was met with Paul D, someone she was at Sweet Home with. Being here brought pain and misery to Sethe and it jumps into the first theme of the novel: slavery. Slavery is the cruel act of owning an individual and forcing them to do agonizing and harsh labor in return of no freedom at all unless under certain circumstances.

Throughout the novel, the author introduces us as readers to multiple characters whom of which were slaves. Each one of these dramatis personae have their own background and tribulations that they are exposed to. All their experiences show how dehumanizing living on Sweet Home truly was, but some that struck me the most were when Sethe was brutally assaulted both sexually and physically and the point in the novel where it is said that Sixo is burned alive for attempting to seek out freedom. These are crucial because it is very gut-wrenching in many ways.

“After I left you, left those boys came in there and took my milk. That’s what they came in there for. Held me down and took it. I told Mrs. Garner on em. She had that lump and couldn’t speak but her eyes rolled out tears. Them boys found out I told on em. The schoolteacher made one open my back, and when it closed it made a tree. It grows there still” (Morrison 19-20); draws a picture of the inhumane treatment was displayed without a second thought. Seeking out freedom and the opportunity to have a better life seems to put fear in the white races’ hearts, therefore, the book displays the lengths slave owners go to reverse that fear.

Having slavery as a theme in his novel defiantly builds it into a more intense work or literature. In a sense it allows you to somewhat feel the same emotions as the characters at the time, such as pain, trauma, grief and much more. Doors are opened to empathy except you clearly cannot physically express that to such fictional characters; however, this was based off the real-life experiences of a former slave, Margaret Garner. During 1856 she made an escape in 1856, much like Sethe. That makes the story feel even more real because you think about how these events took place once upon a time.

I have come to notice that motherhood is very prominent for the duration of the novel. It is displayed through various explicit and intense acts, one being when Sethe slit the throat of her first-born baby. She did this in hopes of freeing her chilled from the chains and restraints of slavery. Although it is not an ideal thing for a mother to do, her reasoning was genuine. Mothers are meant to protect their offspring and provide them with a life that differs from their own.” Collected every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged them through the veil, out, away, over there where no one else could hurt them. Over there. Outside this place, where they would be safe” (Morrison 192); Sethe made a crucial decision that in the end was motivated by her maternal side.

Freedom seems to be hard to come by in this novel at some parts, but I believe it was mainly because of the time period that it was set in. Slaves didn’t have a say at all, and they were subjected to no educational rights or human rights in general. It took Sethe a few times until she was free in a place where she still dealt with certain issues, but she was able to raise the only child she had left, Denver. In a similar predicament to Sethe, was a fellow slave mate that went by the name Sixo. He was one of the first few individuals that came up with the plan of trying to escape from Sweet Home Plantation, however he was caught by slave catchers and was brutally burned alive. Burned for trying to emancipate himself; goes to show how ignorant and barbaric the consequences were.

The last major theme I noticed in Beloved was masculinity within the male culture. There were many instances where men played a dominant role and took charge almost in a way where it was just automatically assigned to them. Of course, with men making up majority of the slave owning “industry”, it’s sort of a given that they’d men would oversee Sethe during this period. The men use their manliness to place fear in Sethe’s heart, but they go the extra mile by harming her in a way that no man should ever hurt a woman.

I feel like the author tried to compare white masculinity in men with the black race, but it showed how there was a great contrast within it. When Sethe was brought into slavery at a very young Age there was mostly men around her. Her being a young attractive black female they felt that attraction, but instead of carrying out those fantasies they let her in a way choose who she wanted to be with in the end, which was her husband Halle. Of course, with Halle kind of disappearing she found a new love connection with Paul D, another fellow slave.

However, the contrast in masculinity is mostly in the way these men from different cultures and sides of the spectrum carry themselves through personality, actions, and more. The black men in the novel seemed to hold themselves in a manner that was more so tamed and at ease. When it came to the nephews whom were white, they had such an evil atmosphere to them and they portrayed it in more than on nasty way, such as beating Sethe to the point where her b ack was viciously scarred into what looked like the formation of a tree. In many parts, you really feel for her and others in the novel.

Everything listed above just confirms they fact that this novel was very well written and a great read all at once. There were parts that defiantly struck some chords with myself, and I am sure other readers as well, however it is beneficial for people of today’s time to understand the hardships that were faced in the past. The past was a concept that isn’t meant to be repressed, just merely understood. Every concept that aided to the plot mad it a challenging and explicit read, although it is very understandable why Toni Morrison presented it in that specific manner.