Isolation In Toni Morrison's Beloved

Sethe’s relationship is in a balance at the beginning. She has the two poles of attraction, Paul’s desire to settle down and start a family, and Beloved’s desire to draw Sethe back into the past. Throughout the novel, acts of cruelty wind into her life and alter the outcome of her days. Cruelty in Beloved affects both the perpetrator and victim in that the perpetrator becomes consumed by such acts, and the victim simply devolves to be more and more vulnerable to such acts. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Beloved’s acts of cruelty reveal how one’s inner desires can overcome the perpetrator, and dehumanize victim in the long term.

Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved, allows for one to experience slavery through three generations of women. The complex development of the horrors of black chattel slavery in the United States intertwined with a story a freedom helps the reader to understand the ongoing struggle of the Afro-American population after emancipation. Denver, although never a slave, is at first held in bondage by her mother's secrecy about her past and only sets herself free when her mother is forced to cope with her memories.

It is shown that after the act of taking the life of Beloved and attempting the life taking of Denver, Howard, and Buglar, that Sethe truly does love her children. The way Sethe tried to go about saving her children seems unethical and horrible, but there did not seem to be all too many options for Sethe to save her children from the slave life. Howard and Buglar left Sethe and Denver to get away from Sethe, they had even warned Denver about what she had attempted to do to them. Although Howard and Buglar ran from Sethe and there was the attempted murder in the barn, Sethe still thinks of them because they are her children. Denver was tossed as an infant that day in the barn, and she clearly survives. Even after all the events and situations created from the presence of Beloved there is still a strong bond of love between Sethe and Denver. Sethe loves Denver very much, she is her one surviving child that is still with her.

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

Sethe understands that her history, filled with the pain of slavery, grief over losing her children, and guilt over Beloved's death, and tries to hide from all the anguish. However, she admits that the past seems to "always be there waiting," thereby emphasizing the idea that past horrors of life continue to haunt forever. It appears as though the power of her experience in slavery influences her so greatly that the memory triggers great pain, causing the horrifying incidents to "happen again." Even though Sethe understands that she cannot ever fully escape her history as it will come back to trouble her, she still tries to avoid them and thus attempts to shield her daughter from the horrors of history: "As for Denver, the job Sethe had of keeping her from the past that was still waiting for her was all that mattered" (45). It seems as though Sethe tries to deny the fact that history does not simply disappear. She still tries to protect Denver "from the past" even though history "waits," prepared to cause trouble and inflict the pain Sethe tries to repress. It appears as though Sethe continuously tries to fight against her memories and ignore her past in part one. For example, after she wakes, she begins "Working dough. Working, working dough. Nothing better than that to start the day's

Beloved is seen as the resemblance of Sethe’s dead baby. Beloved is portrayed as a teenage girl, however she is different from other black teenager, “…and younger than her clothes suggested – good lace at the throat, and a rich woman’s hat. Her skin was flawless except for three vertical scratches on her forehead so fine and thin they seemed at first like hair, baby hair before it bloomed and roped into the masses of black yarn under her hat.” (Morrison 62). Beloved unexpectedly came to 124, the house where Sethe, Denver, and Paul D lived. However, Sethe became attracted to her, “Sethe was deeply touched by her sweet name; the remembrance of glittering headstone made her feel especially kindly toward her. Denver, however, was shaking. She looked at this sleepy beauty and wanted more.” (Morrison 63) represent Sethe’s fascination towards Beloved, because she made Sethe recall her dead baby, which also has the word Beloved engraved in the gravestone. The name Beloved itself makes Sethe sentimental from

The theme of isolation as in many of the other pieces of literature that we have read this year can been seen in this novel Beloved. The theme can be seen in the isolation of Sethe and her inner self. It can also be seen with Denver and her separation from society because of the children at school. There is also the detachment of Sethe’s family from the rest of the world because of her past and what people think of the house and

Notably, being a loving child was very important to those around Denver. After the tragedy of Sethe losing three of her four children, the town she and Denver lived in began shutting her out. Denver was well aware of how the town treated her mother, so Denver did all she could to support her mother. She strongly respected her mother and cared for her deeply, no matter what happened. When Sethe remembered her past and horrible experiences, Denver could always be counted on to help. Additionally, after Beloved became apart of the household, Denver was more than willing to accept her. Denver always considered Beloved the sister she never had, which meant a lot to Denver. Beloved and Denver often relied on one another when they needed someone to

Sethe is the main character of Beloved, and the entirety of the book analyzes her behavior and appearance during the many transitions that she faces. Sethe was a former slave and has made some grueling decisions that has shaped her character along her journey. The book begins in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio, at 124 Bluestone St. Sethe and her daughter, Denver, have been living there for approximately eighteen years; but, wait it gets much better. They’re not alone…there’s one more “person” living in that house too. A ghost!

The repercussion of Sethe’s decision was that Beloved had many unanswered questions and knew only one thing: she loved Sethe. Because she loved Sethe, she would go to many extremes to keep everyone away from her making sure that Sethe can only love her only. Her motives are made apparent when she says, “...I am not separate from her... there is no place where I stop...her face is my own and I want to be there in the place where her face is and to be looking at it too... a hot thing…”

Nevertheless, Beloved’s reign of terror continues; she drives Paul D out of the house, and consumes so much of Sethe’s attention that she neglects her job and fails to provide food for the household. Both Sethe and Denver are fixated on Beloved. To Sethe, Beloved represents an opportunity to repent for her past infanticide, and explain herself to Beloved. To Denver, Beloved represents the company she yearns for because her two brothers abandoned the home long ago. Time freezes for Sethe and Denver as a result of this fixation, which keeps both characters locked inside of I24 and removed from the outside world.

 Toni Morrison’s powerful novel Beloved is based on the aftermath of slavery and the horrific burden of slavery’s hidden sins.  Morrison chooses to depict the characters that were brutalized in the life of slavery as strong-willed and capable of overcoming such trauma.  This is made possible through the healing of many significant characters, especially Sethe.  Sethe is relieved of her painful agony of escaping Sweet Home as well as dealing with pregnancy with the help of young Amy Denver and Baby Suggs.  Paul D’s contributions to the symbolic healing take place in the attempt to help her erase the past.  Denver plays the most significant role in Sethe’s healing in that she brings the community’s support

Beloved's first meeting with Sethe, Denver and Paul D. foreshadows her relationships with the three. Paul D. and Denver try to quench Beloved's thirst by serving her several glasses of water. Her poor health is what causes Denver to step out of her selfish character, and care for Beloved. Up until Beloved's arrival, Denver is

Beloved appeared after the arrival of Pauly D to the house, and most of us could assumed that she was a human-like representation of the ghost-like who used to haunt the house. Nevertheless, nobody else knew who Beloved was or where she came from better than Denver. Beloved explained Denver where she came from when Denver asked her why she called herself Beloved, and Beloved said, “In the dark, my name Beloved.” In fact, Denver did not know what she meant by dark and she asked her, “what’s like,” for which Beloved went on explaining that where she came from was a dark and hot place where there was not enough room for her to move. Denver was astonished by this fact, but she did not want her mom to know it because after all, Beloved was in a certain way a human-like representation of Sethe’s eldest daughter who came from the afterworld.

The text of Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, is doused, in an impenetrably dense fashion, with spiritualism. The stream of consciousness monologues of Sethe’s, Denver’s, and Beloved’s (Chapters 20-23) are a prime example of this. The characters outvie under the aegis of hierarchy, and peaks are found in their sensations, present and past: all perceived cohesively. Their lyricism triumphs utterly transcendent, ... dangerous. Chapters 20 through 23 of Beloved communicate that the feelings found in the descant of the characters on the topic of possession are primarily felt as a rebound to the trauma of loss, but also independently function to represent the wrought intellectual freedom of the characters.