Toni Morrison 's Beloved Are All Too Familiar With Inequality

Since the beginning of civilization, humanity has experienced the same kinds of hardships and sorrows. From rape to loss of basic rights, people have continually been plagued by the same trials and tribulations that stem from oppression. In the novel Beloved, Toni Morrison details the life of Sethe, a social pariah, living with her family in Cincinnati. Literally haunted by the atrocities from her past, she symbolizes many in America who have suffered the brutalities of an era of extreme repression and abuse. Although the story of Sethe may take place during the time of the emancipation of slaves, the ubiquitous struggles and concerns still translate into the issues surrounding today’s society.

The past comes back to haunt accurately in Beloved. Written by Toni Morrison, a prominent African-American author and Noble Prize winner for literature, the novel Beloved focuses on Sethe, a former slave who killed her daughter, Beloved, before the story begins. Beloved returns symbolically in the psychological issues of each character and literally in human form. The novel is inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner, a slave in the 1850s, who committed infanticide by killing her child. Barbara Schapiro, the author of “The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”, Andrew Levy, the author of “Telling Beloved”, and Karla F.C. Holloway, the author of “Beloved: A Spiritual”, present ideas of the loss of psychological freedom, the story being “unspeakable”, Beloved being the past, and the narrative structures of the story rewriting history.

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.

Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a genius piece of literature that stands out from the others. Following its publishing date in September of 1987, it was rewarded with a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction only a year later. This novel holds an abundance of literary merit for numerous reasons but the main one being that it combines the powerful forces of history and literature into a pure work of art. Not only does this book display vivid historical accuracy in the perspective of a slave during the Reconstruction era in the United States, but the language that explains this particular situation is rich in figurative language and challenges readers line by line.

Toni Morrison’s Beloved takes place in Cincinnati, Ohio at house 124 and centers around Sethe, a run away slave, her daughter Denver, and Beloved, the ghost of Sethe’s daughter that she killed eighteen year earlier. An unknown force has haunted House 124 for eighteen years. One day Paul D, a slave that Sethe knew from the plantation she worked on called Sweet Home, arrives to 124, soon after the spirit leaves the house. One day, Sethe, Denver, and Paul D meet a strange young woman who calls herself Beloved. Although Paul D is very suspicious of Beloved, Sethe is captivated by this woman and allows her to stay at 124. While Beloved is at 124 she asks Sethe about numerous thing which no guest would know about. This causes Denver to grow apprehensive about Beloved, but Sethe is enamored with her and cannot see through her love for Beloved

Slavery was abolished in 1865, freeing all enslaved African Americans in the United States. But even after it was abolished slavery left a lasting Toni Morrison’s Beloved protests the injustices and trauma of being a slave and how it persists even after freedom is attained. Through the characters Sethe and Paul D, Toni portrays the pain and terrible memories they carry with them from their time of being enslaved. In the novel Beloved Morrison is protesting slavery and the lasting trauma it leaves on the character’s lives after freedom through flashbacks, the ghost who haunts house 124, and the character’s individual fears.

Morrison’s Beloved uses characters in her story to show the long lasting effects of slavery. Characters such as Sethe, Denver, and Beloved all show a different point of view of the effects of slavery and what life it can conjure up for over protective mother, hermit like daughter, and the spiteful ghost.

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.

The atrocities of slavery know no bounds. Its devices leave lives ruined families pulled apart and countless people dead. Yet many looked away or accepted it as a necessary part of society, even claiming it was beneficial to all. The only way this logic works is if the slaves are seen as less than human, people who cannot be trusted to take care of themselves. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved the consequences of a lifetime of slavery are examined. Paul D and seethe, two former slaves have experienced the worst slavery has to offer. Under their original master, Mr. Garner the slaves were treated like humans. They were encouraged to think for themselves and make their own decisions. However, upon the death of Mr. Garner all of that changes. Under

     Toni Morrison's Beloved - a novel that addresses the cruelties that result from slavery.  Morrison depicts the African American's quest for a new life while showing the difficult task of escaping the past.  The African American simply wants to claim freedom and create a sense of community.  In Beloved, the characters suffer not from slavery itself, but as a result of slavery - that is to say the pain occurs as they reconstruct themselves, their families, and their communities only "after the devastation of slavery" (Kubitschek 115).  Throughout the novel, Morrison utilizes color as a symbolic tool to represent a free, safe, happy life as well as involvement in community and

Krumholz argues that Beloved is a mind healing recovery process that forces the characters to remember and tackle their past. In her essay, “Toni Morrison”, Jill Matus regards Beloved as a form of cultural memory that analyzes vague and possibly removed history. Furthermore, in his book, Fiction and Folklore: the Novels of Toni Morrison, Trudier Harris focuses on the issue of ownership and slavery in Beloved. In all, historical background is a huge player in understanding Beloved. Morrison set the novel during the Reconstruction era, after the Civil War, which sets the entire tone and plot for the main character, Sethe.

Beloved is a novel by Toni Morrison based on slavery after the Civil War in the year 1873, and the hardships that come with being a slave. This story involves a runaway captive named Sethe, who commits a heinous crime to protect her child from the horrors of slavery. Through her traumas, Sethe runs from the past and tries to live a normal life. The theme of Toni Morrison’s story Beloved is how people cannot escape the past. Every character relates their hard comings to the past through setting, character development, and conflict.

In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, community is emphasized as the best thing for people who have gone through trauma together as a way to move on. Written in 1987, Beloved is a narrative of a black woman, named Sethe, and her family in the 1800’s in two different times in her life: when she was a slave and after she ran away with her kids, 18 years later. By the end of the novel, Sethe’s past catches up to her and she falls into taking care of the woman she believes is the embodiment of the baby she killed, and she has to be saved by the town that, formerly, rejected her. In fact, the community liberates people from the memories of the past.

Slavery has been a vital part of America’s history since it began in 1619. Such history must be preserved in order to understand its ongoing influence in issues today, but thousands of stories of those enslaved have been lost or forgotten in time. Toni Morrison expresses why the narrative of slavery must be continued on by integrating the life of Margaret Garner into her novel Beloved. In Beloved, Toni Morrison intertwines fiction with the story of Margaret Garner in order pass it on and explore what might have been if the circumstances surrounding Garner had been different.

 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