Beloved

The post-modern literature Novel Beloved written by Tony Morrison, speaks to many different themes surrounding freedom and the treatment of African Americans after the abolishment of slavery. It portrays a multitude of different relationships within a family as well as the impact slavery has on an individual from a physiological standpoint.  The novel takes place is 1873, which falls in the post-Civil War era. While slaves were being freed during this time, the novel portrays more than the idealist mass freedom for African Americans and delves into how they were actually treated during this time of change in American History.

 While set in the past Beloved, speaks to family relationships, hardship and discrimination that are still relevant in today’s society. This relevance as well as historical unveiling of truth is perhaps what makes Beloved, such a wildly respected novel.   Beloved is based on the true story of a woman named Margaret Garner, who fled from slavery in 1856 by relocating to Ohio, which was one of the free states at the time. Margaret chose to kill her daughter once her slave owners found her in order to save her from a life of slavery.

From the first page we are introduced to the two main characters, Sethe and her daughter Denver. They have escaped from “sweet home” a plantation in Kentucky where they were slaves. The Novel opens with mention of a ghost who is haunting their house in Cincinnati “124 Bluestone Road”. The fist line in the novel is “124 was spiteful. Full of baby’s venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children” (pg.9). The ghost is presumed to be the child that Sethe had killed. This ghost brings up many different physiological points of interest perhaps the most interesting being why the haunting eventually stop for a period of time.

 Paul D, a slave who had also come from sweet come, comes into the house of Denver and Sethe and attempts to reinstall a sense of reality, as the mental state of the women is house have been rapidly declining as they get more and more bothered and obsessed with the ghost they believe in haunting their house. “She knew Paul D was adding something to her life – something she wanted to count on but was scared to. Now that she had added more: new pictures and old rememories that broke her heart.” (113) Paul D was a positive influence but the novel showed the dangers of forgetting one’s past. Truly letting your past go is a difficult task and a theme of the novel Beloved.

Love and mother- daughter relationships were a theme that I found particularly interesting, perhaps because it is such a common and relatable relationship. However, the circumstances of Denver and Sethe made it new and intricate. Their complicated relationship and dependence on each other was brilliantly woven through the novel, seemingly revealing more and more about their relationship as the story unfolded. “For a used to slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love” (57) Sethe’s relationship to her children is prefaced by a confusing reality. She had killed one of her children, but not at all out of hate but rather to save her from a life she did not think was fit for her child. This passionate love is seen throughout the novel in her treatment and relationship with her living daughter, Denver. Sethe attempts to protect her daughter by confining her to house, failing to realize that she is unable to become the women she would want her daughter to be without interactions outside of the home. This reminded me of case studies I had read in multiple psychology classes, and seems to be a recurring problem parent’s encounter. I would imagine it is difficult to find the correct balance between attempting to save your children from the harms of the world and allowing them to become adults and make their own decisions. This complicated relationship is one aspect of this novel that makes it so relatable and relevant even in modern day.

Beloved provided a unique perspective on slavery and the mental toll it took on the human brain as well as the spirit. It comments on what defines who you are, is it what you think of yourself or how others view you. The setting and timing of this novel allowed Tony Morrison to divulge vast amounts of information about her characters without specifically giving a long description of characters past. This is an n example of “show don’t tell” that I would like to use in my own writing for this course and beyond.