Beloved Contexts

Stories are empty without their contexts. Though we may not be initially and deliberately aware of a novel’s rich settings, everything is subjective and carries meaning. Readers can recognize Beloved through its multiple layers of context.  At a historical level, the setting of the plot takes place in Post-Civil War United States, a time in which slaves were being freed. Morrison gives us clear evidence of this historical setting, stating that the novel takes place in 1873 on the first page.  This roots the story in history and makes it relevant to reality.

At another angle, we can understand this novel as inspired by a single, true story of Margaret Garner, an escaped slaved who euthanized her daughter from the suffering of slavery.  Morrison finds this story appealing and uses it to inspire her Beloved because of  “the intellect, the ferocity, and the willingness to risk everything for what was to her the necessity of freedom” (Morrison, foreword). This intensifies the novel by giving it an additional heroic aspect.

We can also understand the novel on a more personal level, which was written during a time when the author, Toni Morrison was reconsidering her own life and creative freedom. This gives personal authorship to this novel. In the Foreword to Beloved, Morrison states that the “shock of liberation” in her own career led her to think about “what ‘free’ could possibly mean to women,” the initial spark to this novel (Morrison, foreword).

In the novel itself, the most prominent setting takes places in 124 Bluestone Road.  There is also another house in the novel called Sweet Home. I find the juxtaposition of the names of these two houses interesting.  Whereas 124 Bluestone Road is a home occupied by former slaves, Sweet Home is a plantation owned by ‘benevolent’ slaveowners. Despite it’s name, Sweet Home sugarcoats its detrimental truth. Whether the Garners are kind or not, they are still slaveowners. Calling them benevolent slaveowners is ironic. On the other hand, 124 Bluestone Road is a real home, with a real address.  Morrison throws us into this house, as if we are another resident, experiencing it in isolation.  Morrrison “wanted the reader to be kidnapped, thrown ruthlessly into an alien environment as the first step into a shared experience with the book's population-just as the characters were snatched from one place to another, from any place to any other, without preparation or defense” (Morrison, foreword).  This home is a place. It is an objective object that has the utilitarian function of giving shelter.  However, Morrison shows readers that a setting can carry so much energy in itself. In the novel, 124 is called “spiteful.” The house is being personified, making it less of an objective place.  Towards the end of the novel, as Edward Bodwin revisits the house, he remembers “very few of the interior details” but “did remember that the cooking was done behind the house” “and that the women died there” (Morrison, 298).  This is an example of how the house’s physical features are not as significant as the memories that took place within the house. Bodwin “felt something sweeter an deeper about the house” (Morrison, 299).

In my own work, I want strong setting and historical/social/personal contexts to anchor my work and make their roots really strong. Building a strong foundation will help create a strong piece of work. Setting adds real-life meaning to a novel that may otherwise seem completely fictional and/or abstract.  It also offers readers a familiar environment in which characters and plots flourish.

Morrison, Toni.  Beloved.  New York: Vintage International, 2004.