Symbolism In Toni Morrison's Beloved

is a firm believer that too much love is bad for a person. In order to keep his brutal past behind him, he believes that one should only love a little. After Sweet Home, Paul D. attempts to kill his new owner and is forced into a chain-gang in which he is performs oral sex on white men. He realizes that even a rooster has more importance than him to white men. He has trouble committing to a woman who offers him shelter and eventually finds himself at 124, where he discovers Sethe’s overwhelming love and madness and Beloved’s presence. He keeps his memories and feelings in a rusted tobacco tin. When Beloved has sex with him, possibly in a vision or dream, the past comes rushing back to him. “He didn’t hear the whisper that the flakes of rust made either as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave he didn’t know it. What he knew was that when he reached the inside part he was saying, ‘Red heart. Red heart,’ over and over again” and then wakes himself up with his screaming (138). Beloved is both Sethe’s daughter and a symbol for the past generations of slaves. She opens Paul D. to love again, a cruelty in an already cruel world. Keeping love at bay has helped Paul D. and others like Ella feel safe from their pasts. At the end of the novel, when Beloved is gone, Paul D. goes back to 124 to help Sethe. Morrison shows the human capacity to love after so much has been taken or removed from the human

Although this event is repeated several times, it is never repeated for the some reason or in the same way. We go from meeting Amy before Denver is born, to the actual birth on the boat, and finally the story of naming the baby after she is born. This sequence of events, and the use of the story over and over again, show its significance in Sethe’s life so far. Not only was it the start of a wonderful relationship with her daughter, but it was also the start of some pretty horrible memories. This is referring to Sethe’s sudden urge to try to kill her children as protection from future slavery. While she thought this was a good idea at the time, it turned out to be yet another horrible memory in her life. Using this story a number of times in the text shows the overbearing weight Sethe must carry with this

First, she “moves” him to the rocking chair in the kitchen, then to Baby Suggs’ old room, then to the storeroom, and then finally to the cold house. Her “moving” of Paul D meant that he wasn’t physically near Sethe as much as he once was, fulfilling Beloved’s selfish intentions to have Sethe for herself. For Paul D, the fact that Beloved was “moving” him meant that he was being controlled once again, as shown in the passage, “he had come to be a rag doll—picked up and put back down anywhere any time by a girl young enough to be his daughter” (Morrison 148). Being controlled like this, much like he once was by the hands of the schoolteacher, was a source of shame and humiliation for Paul D, for “there was nothing he was able to do about it” (Morrison 148), making him feel like he was back at Sweet Home and a “slave” once again. In addition to moving him, Beloved also requests that Paul D, “touch [her] on the inside part” (Morrison 137) and to call her by her name. For Beloved, this is sexual action symbolizes Paul D’s betrayal of Sethe and shows that he does not truly love her, perhaps giving Beloved the idea that the relationship between the two will eventually end and she will have her mother to herself. Paul D, on the other hand, wants to believe that the requests mean absolutely nothing. However,

Both Sethe and Denver see Beloved reincarnated at the age she would have been in if she had not been killed earlier. I believe that they both were imagining that Beloved was their because of the trauma they had been through. Towards the end of the book, Sethe becomes depleted and even sacrifices her own need for eating, so Beloved can continue eating. Eventually, it seems like Sethe has given up on life. Doctor Melinda Smith believes that one symptom of PTSD is feeling emotionally numb. She states, “That victims often avoid activities, places, thoughts, or feelings that remind them of the trauma. Also, they lose interest in activities and life in general and feel detached from others.” (Help Guide) At the conclusion of the novel, Sethe is completely worn out because Beloved consumes her spirit slowly. Another symptom of PTSD is not being capable t let go of the past. Sethe has a hard time letting go of what happened. Sparknotes.com states,

Destruction of identity, another theme of the novel, relates to the violent scenes. In the second part of Beloved, Sethe takes a stand and expresses her feeling on the violent acts being performed on her. “Nobody will ever get my milk no more except my own children. I never had to give it to nobody else—and the one time I did it was took from me—they held me down and took it. Milk that belonged to my baby” (Morrison 200). Sethe finally comes to terms with her past and vows to never let such a horrendous act happen to her again. Beloved’s reincarnation occurs because Sethe needs to face her dark past head on and free herself from living in shame. It took time, but, Sethe eventually overcomes the odds and begins to live freely and peacefully in her house.

Paul D then leaves 124 and with him goes all sense of harmony. Sethe begins to believe that Beloved is the ghost of her daughter and complies to her every wish out of guilt. Denver recognizes that Beloved is taking over Sethe’s life and gathers those in their community and together they rid 124 of Beloved. The novel finishes with Denver as a part of the community and Sethe and Paul D together, with no memory of

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.

84). In these two passages, water signifies birth. Denver was thought to be dead until Sethe reached the river, a large body of water. Also, Denver is actually born in the water because the boat that Sethe was in was filled up with water. When Beloved first appears at Sethe’s house, Sethe leans in to look at the woman’s face. As she does so, she suddenly feels a great need to relive herself. “She never made the outhouse. Right in front of its door she had to lift her skirts, and the water she voided was endless. Like a horse, she thought, but as it went on and on she thought, No, more like flooding the boat when Denver was born'; (p.50). When Sethe looked at Beloved’s face, her bladder filled up. When she was relieving herself, the amount of urine reminded her of flooding the boat when her water broke at the time Denver was born. Denver’s birth is associated many times with water.

As Sethe's demise and Beloved's mischief become overwhelming, Denver assumes the responsibility to assure the survival of her family. Due to Beloved's presence, Sethe loses her job and soon all of her savings is spent. There is no food, however, Beloved's demands do not cease. Sethe begins to wither away from frustration and a wounded conscience and Denver becomes "listless and sleepy with hunger" (242). Denver realizes that, "she would have to leave the yard; stop off the edge of the world, leave the two behind and go ask somebody for help" (243). Denver must face her terror of a mundane society to keep her sister and mother from starvation.

In the novel, Beloved, Toni Morrison uses color to show the reactions of some of the main characters. Color represents many things in the book. Freedom is an example because once the slaves were free, they noticed the beautiful colors all over. They see that the world is not just black and white and two different races, there are many beautiful things that were unnoticed. When Baby Suggs was free, she was able to spread happiness and joy to the community. When the community did not accept that, she fell into depression, but still enjoys freedom, in a different way, more by herself than with others. It was when she wanted to see bright colors. She loved color. In his journey to the

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

The water reclaims the memories of the past. After choking Sethe in the clearing, Beloved looks at herself in the water. “[Beloved] turned finally and ran through the woods to the stream. Standing close to its edge she watched her reflection there (101).” , As Beloved gazes at herself through the stream she acknowledges how much Sethe means to her and the love she has for her. However, after the encounter with the famous clearing, Beloved recalls what Sethe did to her and her anger causes an inexplicable physical attack on Sethe. The love Sethe has for Beloved inevitably destroys her while causing her past to come back and haunt her. When Sethe sees Edward Bodwin walking down the street, her fear of her past repeating itself causes her to try to attack him. “He is coming into her yard and he is coming for her best thing… And if she thinks anything, it is no. No no. Nonono. She flies. The ice pick is not in her hand; it is her hand (262).” The frozen water encapsulates her past. Since the past remains frozen and forever permanent, Beloved’s death captures the essence of Sethe’s anger and desire to kill Bodwin. Although the past appears as horrific events, it nevertheless brings Beloved to life.

Knowing the value of this rarity, Sethe was extremely attached to her children, and refused to lose them, lest she lose herself.  The link between mother and child, then, is an important underlying theme throughout Beloved, and one with which Sethe became obsessed.

As Sethe arrives back from the carnival and see the stranger, Sethe has an urge to pee. The reader is to assume that this represents her water breaking because of the statement, “there was no stopping water breaking from a breaking womb

The novel beloved is based on the livelihood of slaves after their time in slavery and reinstatement back in society. The novel revolves around the maternal relationship between a mother and daughter, Sethe and Denver. The relationship is however, distracted by the introduction of Paul D, Sethe’s husband and beloved a supernatural being or ghost haunting the family.