Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, addresses the long lasting and far-reaching chains of slavery. The book is noted for its brutal honesty of the lives of slaves, revealing the violence, dehumanization, and loss of identity. One family’s history is uncovered bit-by-bit and out of order through a combination of dialogue, narration, and prose. The overall tone of Morrison’s writing is mysterious and heavy.
Each character in this story represents a different effect of slavery. Sethe, the mother of four children, demonstrates the desperate love of a slave mother, and her selflessness. She ignores the horrible things that happen to her as a slave by focusing on how these incidents will affect her children, rather than their implications for her. Paul D, an escaped slave who worked on the plantation with Sethe, represents the dehumanization and loss of masculinity caused by slavery. He gradually reflects on his time as a slave both on the farm and on a chain gang. He recognizes that he has kept those memories locked away for a reason. As the story progresses, Sethe and Paul D. share their stories with one another, dealing with the necessary pain of memory.
Baby Suggs, Sethe’s mother-in-law, represents slavery’s bondage over even the will to live. When the reader first meets Baby Suggs, she is lost in depression, waiting for death. It is later revealed that Baby Sugg’s son, Halle (her only child whom she sees grow into adulthood, and Sethe’s husband) had bought her freedom. By the time she is set free, however, she feels she is too old for it to mean anything. She was a slave for so long that she doesn’t know what it means to be free.
Another important character in this novel is Beloved. Her reality and identity are never explicitly determined, but her presence in the story is essential. It is said that she is the reincarnation of Sethe’s murdered two-year-old daughter. Beloved first appears as a ghost in Sethe’s house in Cincinnati. After Paul D.’s arrival, however, Beloved appears as a very emotionally and physically dependent young woman. It is unclear whether Beloved is seeking revenge or merely the love she was robbed of. She seems to represent the haunting envelopment of slavery. The child’s murder was committed as a result of the dehumanization and desperation caused by bondage. Beloved’s presence seems to question whether life in slavery is better or worse than death as a free human.
One major theme addressed in this book is the paradoxically intertwined notions of repression and “rememory.” Both Sethe and Paul D. try to forget everything that happened when they were slaves. The more time they spend together, however, the more they realize how freeing it is to remember. By keeping these memories locked inside them, they are still bound to slavery. Once they remember, their memories are released, as they are as well. I think this notion has not been directly addressed in the material we have read so far, but a very essential process to undergo in order to gain emotional freedom.
I found that the paradoxes, conflicts, and structure made this book very compelling. Since the characters’ pasts were revealed gradually, the story had my undivided attention, and I was very eager to learn the outcome. It was a very enjoyable read, and I think it would make a fine addition to our course reading. Its focus is not merely on the characters’ lives as slaves, but also their lives in freedom. This creates a seamless transition from the horrors of slavery to its lasting impacts.