Beloved By Toni Morrison: Literary Analysis

After reading Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, I could not help but feel shocked and taken aback by the detailed picture of life she painted for slaves at the time in American history. The grotesque and twisted nature of life during the era of slavery in America is an opposite world from the politically correct world of 2016. Morrison did not hold back about the harsh realities of slavery. Based on a true story, Toni Morrison wrote Beloved about the life of Sethe, a slave and her family. Toni Morrison left no stone unturned when describing the impact slavery on had the life of slaves. She dove deeper than the surface level of simply elaborating on how terrible it is to be “owned” and forced to do manual labor. Morrison describes in detail, the horrors and profoundly negative impacts slavery had on family bonds, humanity of all people involved and the slaves sense of self even after they acquired their freedom.

The dysfunctional relationship between sethe and her family, resembles the chaos that slavery have caused. This is stated as throughout the whole book, bad memories and past plays as a motif as it is repeated that Sethe’s 2 sons ran away and that she killed her own baby. This motif is used to convey the theme of inescapable suffering even after they were released from being oppressed slaves. Moreover slavery have caused a major turbulence in the familial love as sethe states “i did it, so she doesn’t have to go through what I went through”. This was Sethe’s reasoning to killing her own baby daughter during slavery times. Hence this is what caused the house of 124 to be haunted by this child’s soul. Furthermore Toni Morrison uses a brutal

Gothic Literature normally, if not always, has a haunting. In “Beloved” by Toni Morrison there is a haunting of 124. 124 is being haunted by Sethe’s daughter who is the character Beloved. The haunts in Gothic Literature can also be a non-physical haunting, a haunting in the head. Sethe has not been haunted by Beloved physically, but mentally. The bond that a mother has for a child is so tight and loving. There is no real way to understand this bond unless someone has personally been a mother. The bond is beautiful, so imagine the horrors Sethe lived in her head every time she thought of her children. Sethe attempted to take her children’s lives when Schoolteacher threatened to take them back to the South. Sethe did it to save her kids from the horrors she faced, but killing anything you love that much can be devastating.

The house alone carries much sorrow but the address carries the action of infanticide upon Sethe’s third child hence the absence of the number three. Beloved is the literal version of being haunted by the past, and now “124 is loud” (169). Although she appears to be in her late teens she has the mental capacity of a small child. She brings the past back to life and forces the characters to confront it. She seeks affection from Sethe as well as vengeance for her own murder. Sethe is blind to Beloved in the present because she is stuck on her in the past. When Beloved was buried Sethe’s mind was “homeless” and she fretted not being able to “lay down” with her daughter (204). Now she sees this as her chance to do what she couldn’t so many years ago. Denver is also forced to stop chasing the present with the arrival of Beloved, her “secret company” (205) and even goes as far back as reliving her own birth. She carries the burden of Beloved’s death just as much as her mother since she “swallowed her blood right along with [her] mother’s milk” (205). Paul D is forced to open up and confront his past through Beloved. She forces him to have sex and opens up his “red heart” (117) that he’s been hiding in his tin can for so

Novelist William Dean Howells once lamented, “Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself” (Popik). Unfortunately, the characters in Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved are all too familiar with inequality. Beloved is set after the American Civil War. Sethe, a runaway slave, begins on the journey to escape Kentucky’s slavery, and arrives in the free city of Cincinnati, Ohio. Confronted by slave-catchers, she murders her third born to protect it from a fate Sethe considers worse than death: slavery. The spirit of the dead daughter haunts the house in which Sethe, her mother-in-law Baby Suggs, and the remaining three children reside. Only Sethe, her youngest daughter Denver, and the spirit remain after the two eldest children depart and Baby Suggs dies. They receive a long-time friend of Sethe’s as a guest, Paul D., who forces the spirit out. A flesh-and-bone reincarnation of the ghost, who calls herself Beloved, the name on Sethe’s dead daughter’s headstone, arrives at the house. Paul D. learns about Sethe’s past and leaves the broken family. Sethe grants Beloved’s every wish, and Denver is essentially ignored. Denver finally reaches out for help to end the toxic cycle, and the black community responds with abundant support, food, and work for Denver. Beloved eventually disappears, and Paul D. returns to Sethe. Instances of inequality and racial discrimination are common throughout the course of the novel and human history. The black community,

Toni Morrison structures the novel by placing the reader into a scene where we know nothing, and unveiling events as we continue. In Beloved’s case, more information is represented through memories, whether it be Sethe’s two boys that ran away, or the death of her third daughter. This technique known as “en media res” exaggerates a major theme of the novel, memory, which is also the symbol that the main antagonist, Beloved, represents. Following the structure of en media res, Beloved is introduced into the novel with nearly no context. Unlike when Sethe meets Paul D, Sethe, and any other character does not recall ever encountering Beloved before. Yet despite all expectations, Beloved not only recalls Sethe’s memories, but becomes very blatant with her relationship to Sethe, indicated by “Tell me your diamonds.” (69) Beloved

Beloved is the tale of an escaped slave, Sethe, who is trying to achieve true freedom. Unfortunately, though she is no longer in servitude to a master, she is chained to her "hainted" past. Morrison effectively depicts the shattered lives of Sethe, her family, fellow former slaves, and the community through a unique writing style. The narrative does not follow a traditional, linear plot line. The reader discovers the story of Sethe through fragments from the past and present that Morrison reveals and intertwines in a variety of ways. The novel is like a puzzle of many pieces that the reader must put together to form a full picture. Through this style, which serves as a metaphor for the broken lives of her

Sethe is the heroine of the story. She is a black slave who lost her mother at a very young age. She was brought to the Sweet Home Plantation as a slave where she marries Halle Suggs and bears four children with him. She suffers the most atrocious behavior at the plantation by the white masters. She is whipped pitilessly and milked like a cow.

There exist a vast number of novels apropos the African American slave experience within American history, however, few capture the intensity and personal feeling that is the essence of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Written in 1987, Beloved exemplifies a perspective of African American life that is seldom explored: the lives of former slaves following being granted their freedom. Rather than setting her book in the middle of the horrible slavery experience of her main character, Sethe, Morrison opts to set this information as a flashback. Instead, her novel focuses on the woman’s struggle to deal with the inner demons of her past while attempting to build a normal life for herself and her daughter, Denver. There are many rich and deep themes that

After Paul D tells Sethe about the “bit” he had to wear at Sweet Home, she realizes: “He wants to tell me...He wants me to ask him what it was like for him” (Morrison 71). This opening of the past terrifies Sethe; however, as she looks at his face she sees: “In that unlit daylight his face, bronzed and reduced to its bones, smoothed her heart down” (71). With this invitation, Paul D discloses how he felt seeing the rooster, Mister, watching him from the top of a tub: “Mister, he looked so...free. Better than me. Stronger, tougher. Son of a

In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison utilizes a circular narrative to emphasize the similarities, or lack thereof, between her characters. In Philip Page’s article, “Circularity in Toni Morrison’s Beloved,” he writes, “The plot is developed through repetition and variation of one or more core-images in overlapping waves... And it is developed through... the spiraling reiteration of larger, mythical acts such as birth, death, rebirth, quest-journeys, and the formation and disintegration of families” (36). By repeating certain themes or images, Page asserts that Morrison is able to develop her plot in a manner that emphasizes the ways in which the institution of slavery has transformed Sethe’s life. From escaping slavery and killing her daughter, to becoming a recluse in her community, slavery has transformed how Sethe thinks and acts, even after reaching freedom. Through her circular narrative, Morrison highlights the similarities between Sethe and Beloved as each is hoping to find a new life as they arrive at 124 Bluestone Road. However, this narrative also enhances the inherent differences between Sethe and Beloved, Sethe’s actions are usually based on a selfless desire, whereas Beloved can only selfishly consume. With these similar and contrasting qualities, Morrison is able to describe the complex nature of Sethe and Beloved’s relationship.

In the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, Sethe, a former slave on a plantation, is deeply affected morally and psychologically by her current physical and geographical location, in addition to her past physical location at the plantation, Sweet Home. Sethe is affected psychologically by her current location of her home at 124 Bluestone Road and her geographic location in a border state. In addition, Sethe is affected morally by her past surrounding as Sweet Home Plantation. Sethe’s surroundings, present and past, are critical to who Sethe is and how she is used to portray the moral of the novel.

The complex relationship between identity, which is commonly defined as the awareness of one’s characteristics and self, and slavery are explored in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. This novel is set in the 1870’s in Ohio and Sethe, a runaway slave who lives in the house at 124, kills her baby daughter to free her from the horrors of slavery. Therefore, Sethe and other characters encounter appalling and inhumane circumstances as slaves on the Sweet Home plantation. This novel, which is narrated through multiple points of view and incorporates several fragmented flashbacks, includes various symbols that express an important purpose of this work as a whole. Thus, in the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, the symbolic use of animals, checkers, and names stress that although the institution of slavery dehumanizes slaves, they are still able to assert their identity.

Let’s begin with evaluating the characters first, Sethe is the protagonist of the novel beloved. She is a freed slave from Sweet Home plantation, she lives in 124 {a house on 124 Bluestone

Within the novel Beloved, it is clear for the reader to view slavery as the overlying cause of the events that occur throughout the protagonist Sethe’s life. Slavery has so clearly shaped the history of the United States, and Toni Morrison expertly incorporated fictional characters with this very real topic to describe the many different ways that trauma can change the lives of so many. The characters all act very different following their personal encounters with the impacts of slavery. Morrison incorporates these contrasting reactions within the actual plot of Beloved, and they become a major part of the novel's structure. One major theme seen within Beloved is the way that powerful past experiences, in this case slavery, can impact the ways that individuals not only act towards their loved ones, but the actual ways in which these people display their love.