Beloved Literary Analysis Essay

The novel Beloved is a work of literature so compelling, readers must allow themselves to submit to the author’s literary genius in order to understand her message. Toni Morrison destroys the barrier that is censorship in African American history by giving account to real life events through fiction. The novel is raw and uncut, and leaves the reader with a new perspective on society. Morrison acts as an advocate for racial and social equality, and the importance of accurately represented history. She also explores gender perspectives and the roots of humanity itself. Morrison’s use of symbolism is, although bold, subtly powerful and gripping. These symbols in the text give dimension to the characters and allow

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.

Power and control plays a big role in the lives many. When power is used as a form of control, it leads to depression and misery in the relationship. This is proven through the themes and symbolism used in the stories Lesson before Dying, The fun they had, The strangers that came to town, and Dolls house through the median of three major unsuccessful relationship: racial tension between the African Americans and the caucasians in the novel Lesson before Dying, Doll’s House demonstrates a controlling relationship can be detrimental for both individuals and The Stranger That Came To Town along with The Fun They Had show that when an individual is suppressed by majority they become despondent.

Sethe’s consciousness is always working, always a part of her decisions affect her children, the best things in her life. She is indeed, ambivalent too what would destroy her mothering. As strong as Sethe is, she cannot stop her children from leaving; and her strength is what scares some of them.

In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison spins an intricate web between names and numbers for the reader to unravel. The deep connection that lies between names and numbers is a direct correspondence to the identity and worth of black people during slavery. Beloved begins with the identity of the house which is characterized by a number. The house is given a temperament as if it is a living, breathing entity and yet it still referred to as a number. The significance of this is symbolic to the plight of the black slaves. Regarded as little above the common animal, slaves were defined by their selling price, essentially they were reduced to a number. Viewed as nonbeings they nevertheless feel and suffer their place in the south. The character Beloved is similar in this regard as well. All that defines her is an age and a name that remains unfluctuating through time. In an insufferable and cruel world, names and numbers play a critical role in understanding the identity of black existence in the South. To uncover the implications and nuances that names and numbers play will be instrumental to delving into the lives of black slaves. Beloved contains a vast amount of names and numbers and the connections between them deepen the novel and provide mammoth insight into understanding and interpreting Morrison’s work and purpose for juxtaposing such elaborate bonds between names and numbers.

When Sethe first meets Beloved, she welcomes her with a suspiciously large magnitude. Furthermore, it is clear that Sethe never revealed her past experiences to Denver, yet the moment Beloved asks about her lost earrings, it was “the first time she had heard anything about her(Sethe’s) mother’s mother”(61). This proves that Beloved, and not anyone else, is pulling Sethe to the past, by making her recollect of her days as a slave. In addition,“it is clear why she holds on to you(Sethe), but I just can’t see why you holding on to her,” Paul mentioned(67). This shows how Paul realizes that Sethe has taken in Beloved without much reasoning, and when Beloved hums a song that Sethe happened to make up, Sethe fully but blindly embraces Beloved as family. In fact, she “had gone to bed smiling,” anxious to “unravel the proof for the conclusion she had already leapt to”(181). This shows how consumed by Beloved she is.

Denver grows up in the instant she steps off of her front porch. Morrison beautifully describes the moment of her blossoming: "Denver wrapped her hair and her shoulders. In the brightest of the carnival dresses and wearing a stranger's shoes, she stood on the porch of 124 ready to be swallowed up in the world beyond the edge of her porch" (243). Leaving her yard, Denver steps onto an endless highway of unanswerable questions, questions that she is afraid of because of her mother's failure to provide answers. Nonetheless, Denver is emboldened by hunger and a desperate love for her mother. She resolves that she must provide nourishment

Denver’s exclusion from Sethe and Beloved helps her realize the negative effects Beloved has on her and Sethe so that she can turn her life around for the better. Beloved’s distraction of Sethe brings Denver isolation and hunger. “The thirty-eight dollars of life savings went to feed themselves with fancy food and decorate themselves with ribbons and dress goods” (283). Sethe spends all of her savings, which are meant for an emergency, on Beloved to make up for her murder of Beloved. After Sethe stops going to work, she put her full focus on Beloved and tries to please her with the most expensive food and goods that she can buy. Sethe’s actions allow Denver to realize that Sethe is spending all of her money to please Beloved who is manipulating Sethe. Denver starts to isolate herself from Beloved because she is seeing the effect on her mother and does not want to be near someone who is going to manipulate her. Denver’s removal of herself from Beloved, helps improve her life and brings her closer to being an independent

Beloved, like many of the other books we have read, has to deal with the theme of isolation. There was the separation of Sethe and Denver from the rest of the world. There was also, the loneliness of each main character throughout the book. There were also other areas of the book where the idea of detachment from something was obvious. People’s opinions about the house made them stay away and there was also the inner detachment of Sethe from herself. The theme that Toni Morrison had in mind when the book was written was isolation.

Through character development, the story also portrays the theme of escaping the past. Sethe’s actions are influenced heavily by her dead child, Beloved. When the “human” form of Beloved arrives while sleeping

Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Beloved, is a historical novel that serves as a memorial for those who died during the perils of slavery. The novel serves as a voice that speaks for the silenced reality of slavery for both men and women. Morrison in this novel gives a voice to those who were denied one, in particular African American women. It is a novel that rediscovers the African American experience. The novel undermines the conventional idea of a story’s time scheme. Instead, Morrison combines the past and the present together. The book is set up as a circling of memories of the past, which continuously reoccur in the book. The past is embedded in the present, and the present has no

These constant beatings in Maggie Johnson’s home, furniture thrown from parent to parent, and every aspect of her family life as being negative, her family situation is not an extremly healthy one. But, despite her hardships, Maggie grows up to become a beautiful young lady whose romantic hopes for a more desirable life remain untarnished.

One perspective in the novel Beloved is the nearness of an extraordinary topic. The novel is spooky. The characters are spooky by the past, the decisions made, by tree limbs developing on backs, by child murder, by bondage. Sethe, Denver and Paul D are spooky by the past that extends and handles them in 124 in its expanded digits. A frequent, Beloved, incorporates another extraordinary domain, that of a vampire. She sucks the spirit, heart and brain of her mom while depleting the connections that exists amongst Denver and Sethe and Sethe and Paul D.

Lena Grove’s absence of family involvement in her life causes a series of outcomes that affect her life forever. The death of her biological parents, withdrawal from reality, and harsh comments from her brother reflects in her isolation and pregnancy. “When she was twelve years old her mother and father died in the same summer” (Faulkner 4). For eight years Lena lived with her brother and sister-in-law, who “for almost half of every year was either lying in or recovering” (Faulkner 5). During this time, she was forced to abandon herself due to her new priorities in life. Lena had no time to ponder on her childhood fantasies, she had to become a mother, before even having children of her own. She “did all the housework and took care of all the children”, while living “in a leanto room at the back of the house” (Faulkner 6). Without parental guidance or a responsible guardian her naïve being would ultimately result in a young, sawdust Casanova sweeping her off her gullible feet and impregnating her. Pregnancy alone can isolate a teenager to depths of imaginable depression, nonetheless traveling alone to an unknown city, in pursuit to find the father of your child can undoubtedly feel lonely as well. She was burdened with a bastard child, an orphaned past, and an unsupportive family. It was bound for her to

Thanks to the lack of financial stability, Roxana faces a decision that no mother wishes to encounter, she had to abandon her children. It took several years of her amounting a great fortune before she is able to reach out to her children. Those same years of amounting wealth came at a price, Roxana’s mind. She begins to think about her life and her choices. These thoughts included her children to the point that her maternal aspects that seemed to be dormant come into fruition. She attempts to support her children upon locating them and does so financially yet anonymously. Being so close yet so far to her children aids in the deterioration of Roxana’s mind even more. Her guilt and fear of being found grew heavy on her thoughts.