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Read below our complete notes on the novel “Beloved” by Toni Morrison. Our notes cover Beloved summary, themes, characters, and analysis.

Introduction

Chloe Anthony Wofford, aka Toni Morrison (1931-2019), was an African American writer and a Nobel laureate. Her first novel was The Bluest Eye, which was published in 1970. She worked as a teacher as well as a fiction editor at a famous publishing house. Before writing this novel, she left her job there and sensed a feeling of freedom, which she wanted to express in her novel, and thus it came in the form of Beloved .

Beloved was an attempt to make the world feel what freedom meant for black people back then when there was slavery, and now when still there is segregation, though not explicit. It was written in Albany, NY, and published in 1987. It is a portrayal of slave women who were  treated as birth-giving machines and produced as many slaves as they could. There were no families, and whites used them like animals. It is the reenacting of the “civilized” life of white slave owners.

She started working on this novel in the early 1980s but gave it full-time attention when she left her job. The inspiration behind the story was a newspaper clipping regarding a slave woman’s story of escape in 1856. This story inspired Toni to write the novel. Her name was Margaret Garner, and she was born a slave. She escaped with her husband and children because she didn’t want her children to live life like them in chains. 

They escaped to Cincinnati and secured a place in a safe house. They were chased by their master (slave owner) and tried to capture them. She slit her two-year-old daughter’s throat and wounded her other children. She was captured later. This was an audacious attempt to rebel against slavery.

It tells of the conditions of black women in American society and the Fugitive Slave Act, which gave slave owners the right to chase slaves. It gave them the right to get back their fugitive slaves who had fled from south to north. Thus slaves were reclaimed this way, and new horrible stories of cruelties were created. Women were raped, men and children were starved, and civilized American society prospered. 

If American history is studied, the secret behind its prosperity is innocent people’s blood, whether it is that of native Americans or black slaves. And still, it continues, though tools and forms of exploitation have changed.

Toni wrote this story as a tribute to those whose blood has been shed, but nobody remembers them. It is a work of fiction and an assurance to black people that their miseries can never be forgotten. Some critics have criticized it for its dedication, which is ‘Sixty million and more,’ and they think it as a comparison between Jews killed in Holocaust and African Americans who perished in slavery. But a simple which is worthy of being asked that weren’t African Americans humans or Jews something more human?

Beloved earned much fame and won several prizes; one of them is the Pulitzer Prize. It is considered one of the best novels written after the second world war. It was a unique attempt to write about black women and their rights. Toni was given the Nobel Prize in 1993 for her black women’s writings. She taught at different universities and died in 2019.

Beloved Summary

This novel is divided into three parts, and inside these sections, there is no clear division based on title or chapter number, rather page break divides the chapters.

A child’s soul haunts 124 Bluestone Road; her throat was slit by her own mother. It is Cincinnati, and Sethe lives with her ten years old daughter, Denver, here. She is a former slave, and her sons have fled. On the tombstone of the child, ‘Beloved’ is engraved. For this engraving, she didn’t have money and had to fulfill the physical desires of the engraver.

She comes to wash her feet at a pump in a chamomile field. This evokes in her mind memories of her days in slavery and fellow slaves. Paul D, a fellow slave at ‘Sweet Home,’ a plantation, arrives there and meets her after 18 years. She tells Paul of the cruelties of their supervisor then, and he embraces her at the retelling of the horrible past.

Paul D had always desired her and wanted her to be his wife. He is happy at his luck to find her. They grow intimate in a little while, and Paul fulfills his physical desires from her. After that, they feel shy, and she mildly regrets having him allowed to do this. She thinks that all men are the same and try to reach their ends through any possible means. He has revived some bad memories back in her life that she wanted to forget. Then she remembers her husband and his mother. Her mother in law, Baby Suggs, had six husbands. From them, she had eight children, but all were taken away except Halle, her husband.

Denver remembers the time when she came back home, and a ghost was there to welcome her. This leads to the recollection of the story of her birth, which was told to her. Her mother worked on the plantation and got pregnant with her. She fled and was found by a good woman named Amy Denver, half dead. She rescued her and helped her deliver the child who was named Denver.

She then remembers the story told about the pink tombstone and red blood of the child, which her mother related to the ghost. Sethe remembers Mrs. Garner’s brother-in-law, who came there after her husband’s death and did oversee them.  Paul D stays there and asks if Denver has any problem, but Sethe tells her that she lives a charmed life and would be fine.

Denver asks Paul D about his stay that how much time he will spend with them. Sethe reprimands her over this question and asks her never to ask it again. Paul asks her if she asks this question from every man who comes there to stay, which angers Sethe. He asks her not to love her daughter that much because she is a former slave. Then they go to the carnival together, holding each other’s hands. Sethe thinks this as a good sign. Denver is happy with the attention she receives. This instance is a single instance of their normal family life.

A woman arrives at 124 and stays there for a night. When Sethe, Denver, and Paul arrive, she stands up and asks them for water. Sethe, at the sight of her, feels the need to water as she had felt when she was delivering Denver. They take the woman home, and she sleeps for four days. She only asks for water and is ill. When asked about her name, she tells them it is ‘Beloved.’

Denver stays with her day and night and takes care of her. Paul thinks there is something strange with her and she is pretending to be ill. He and Denver have seen her lift chair with one hand. Her appearance seems funny to Paul.

Beloved is attracted to Sethe, and she asks her about her diamonds. She remembers the diamonds that Mrs. Garner gave her at her marriage. She feels amazed because she wants to tell Beloved a story that she had decided to keep a secret. Then she tells her about her mother, who was hanged and the fact that she was her mother’s only child and named after her father. Denver is not interested because there is nothing about her in this story. A strange question that is raised in Sethe’s mind is that how  Beloved came to know about that story.

Paul D questions Beloved incessantly about how she came here and who she is, which she is unable to tell. He wonders how Sethe and Denver have come to accept her this way. Beloved likes to ask questions, but she doesn’t want to be questioned. Paul D wants her to be taken out of this place and be kept somewhere else. Then Denver comes to her rescue and takes her away to her room.

Sethe and Paul discuss her husband, Halle, who has left her. Paul tells her that he was aggravated by the incident that took place in the barn, and this made him leave the barn forever. She tells him that he should have come to her rescue, which Paul responds by saying that he couldn’t. The last time Paul saw him, he had his face buttered, and he was in a miserable state.

Beloved and Denver dance in Denver’s room, Denver asks her about the place from where she came. She tells her that it was a dark and closed place in which there were many people, some of them were dead. She tells her that she came there to see Sethe. Then Denver asks her to stay there, and she agrees.

Then she asks Denver to tell her about the story of her delivery, and she relates of her birth in the boat and Amy Denver, who helped Sethe deliver her. She also tells her that she was almost dead at the time of delivery, but it was Amy who revived her and saved her from death.

Sethe wants to make a decision about Beloved, Paul D, and Denver. She misses her mother-in-law, who was so helpful in such situations and gave valuable advice. She takes Beloved and Denver with her and goes to the rock near the river where Baby Suggs used to sit. She remembers her soothing hands and how she welcomed everybody to her home. She remembers her own arrival there. She decides to keep Beloved there and spend her life there, but she feels that somebody is strangling her. Denver tells her that it can’t be Baby Suggs’ because her hands were soothing.

Sethe decides to live her life with Paul D, and this upsets Beloved. She leaves for river clearing Denver chases her there. She blames her for strangling Sethe, and she denies it. She decides to stay careful if Beloved tries to kill her mother. When Sethe looks at them, they look like two sisters.

This chapter is a flashback to the time when Paul D was held by his white masters. He was sold by his former master to a new one who was innovative in his cruelties. He used to bind all workers with a chain and made them sleep in wooden boxes. These boxes were sunk in a deep ditch. After raining for several days, they were able to free themselves and reached a Cherokee village. There they were freed of their chains and asked about the way to the north. They told him to walk in the direction of the flowering trees, and thus walking on this blossom track, he was able to reach 124.

Paul D has left 124 gradually, and he sleeps in the storeroom. Beloved visits him and asks him to have intimate physical relations with her, which he refuses. He tells her that the only person he loves is Sethe. He is sure that Beloved can’t harm him, but it is happening, and he is unaware of it. He, at last, fulfills her wishes and accedes to her demand, and at that, the lid of tobacco tin opens. While making love, he repeatedly says, ‘red heart, red heart.’

Denver feels dissatisfied with the attention she receives from Beloved. When she pays attention to her, she feels it as a lovely experience. Sethe asks Beloved questions regarding her past, which she is unable to answer. She assumes that she was a white man’s slave who exploited her, and now she has erased her bad memories. Denver believes that she is the ghost of her sister, who died long ago.

One day she and Beloved go to the cold room to fetch cider jug, and there in the darkness, Beloved disappears. She looks for her, but she is nowhere, suddenly she appears in front of her. She tells her not to go anywhere because she can’t bear this loss after numerous others.

Paul D thinks about his past when he was one of the ‘men’ who Mr. Garner listened to, but with the arrival of another supervisor, he made them believe that they were not humans. He again thinks if he is a man because he is entranced by Beloved, and he, without any resistance, has sex with her. He considers telling this all to Sethe, and he leaves for her restaurant. When he arrives there, he decides not to tell her.

He then asks her to have his child; she responds that the two girls at home are enough. She thinks that she has got her dead daughter back in the form of a beloved.

Paul D and Sethe go upstairs to bed. Beloved asks Denver to make Paul go away. Denver thinks that if this happened, her mother would be mad at Beloved. Beloved’s tooth comes out as she is pulling it and feels if her body will fall apart. She always has a fear that her body will fall apart into pieces. When Denver tells her why she didn’t weep, she starts weeping. Denver holds her in her arms, and she is assured that she would be fine.

In this chapter, there is a flashback to Sethe’s coming at 124. Baby Suggs delayed the celebration of her coming because she didn’t want to be an immature celebration and lost soon. This was a great celebration, and ninety people were fed. There is also a remembrance of how Baby Suggs herself came there.

She was a slave and freed after paying when she broke her leg. Her slave name was Jenny Whitlow, she changed it after her husband’s name, which was Suggs, and he used to call her baby, so she chose the name ‘Baby Suggs.’ Her son Halle made efforts to free her and to pay for this, he worked hard and ultimately was able to do so. She, after her liberty, tried to find her children but lost this cause.

The flashback continues. At 124 sheriff, Sethe’s master, his nephew, and a slave catcher arrive. At their arrival, they see a man and an older woman near the shed. They enter there and find a woman who has killed her own child and is trying to kill another baby by hitting its head against the wall. This kid is saved in time. The sheriff comes to take hold of the kids, but Baby Suggs interrupts and saves them. Then she replaces the dead child with the living one and takes the dead child to another room.

The sheriff calls for a wagon and takes Sethe in it; she proudly steps out of the house and enters the wagon. Denver is in her arms, and she firmly holds her.

Paul D has a newspaper in his hand and looks at the picture of a woman and tells Stamp Paid that it is not Sethe. Stamp knows the story, but he doesn’t tell him what has happened. Instead, he reads him the story from the newspaper. He knows what the incidents that took place in the shed were. He wonders if this all has happened.

Paul D takes that clipping with him and shows it to Sethe. She, instead of laughing, tells him all that had happened. She tells him that she has not shared all the details with anybody, not even Baby Suggs. She tells him how elated she felt at securing her children from that place. The idea of making them free made her ecstatic. She didn’t want them to go back to plantations. He tells her that her love is thick, and she responds by saying that the love that is thin is not love.

He tells her that the path she chose was not right while she defends her decision by saying that she has two feet, not four. Paul leaves without saying goodbye.

Paul D is coming towards 124; he hears loud sounds coming off the house. He feels responsible for Sethe because he is the one who saved her child. He has come to this place just once and not ever after that. Sethe now firmly believes that her dead daughter is back because she hears the sound of the song that she herself made for her children. Stamp thinks about why she killed her own child and after a lot of thinking comes to the conclusion that white had forced her to do so.

Sethe has decided to live peacefully with her children. She remembers the escape plan Halle had made, but only she was able to escape with her children but later recaptured. Stamp believes that 124 is occupied by dead slaves, and he knocks the door, but no one comes, and thus he leaves.

Now, when she has started believing that Beloved has come back to her. She thinks about how to tell her about the reason behind her killing. She thinks of life at Sweet Home, where she was abused, and she told Mrs. Garner. This led to the schoolteacher’s outrage, and she fled with her children. She looked for Halle, but he was nowhere, and she couldn’t see him ever after that.

Later, when they came back to recapture her, she killed her child because she didn’t want them to be abused in slavery by their masters. She recalls the time she wanted to die and be laid with her daughter in the grave, but then she remembered her children. She decided to live for them. Now she is serene because Beloved has come back.

In this chapter, Denver confesses that she had swallowed the blood of her sister with her mother’s milk. She remembers the time when she started growing intimate with the ghost. She reminds of the reasons that made her mother kill Beloved. She wants to tell Beloved to be careful of her mother and stay away from her.

She doesn’t feel easy with Paul D and wants him to leave. She wants to reunite with her father, and if her mother leaves with Paul, she would be fine. She wants a happy family, which would be she, Beloved, and her father.

Beloved talks like babies and tells of the same experiences as Sethe. She relates the hard times when they were shackled and men with no skin given them food. The place was extremely unhealthy. She sees a woman with the same face as her. She wants to separate her from herself, which Beloved doesn’t want to. She then sees this woman in 124, and the face is Sethe’s. She and Sethe can be together.

Beloved continues in the stream of consciousness, and Sethe, along with other people, went into the sea. Denver, Sethe and Beloved talk with each other. Sethe promises not to leave her again, Beloved tells her of her coming from the other side while Denver warns her not to be close with Sethe.

Paul D is sitting in front of the church and remembers the time of his slavery. He thinks of the difference between Mr. Garner and the schoolteacher and finds none. To both, they were slaves. He again doubts his manhood and thinks of Sixo and Halle as men. He remembers how they tried to escape, and Sixo was burnt tied to a tree. He was laughing because one fugitive slave woman had his child in her womb. He at that time thought about Sethe, who, with her children, had left, and he was sad because he couldn’t see her again.

Stamp Paid and Paul talk, they discuss how Stamp changed his name to this and helped fugitive slaves in their freedom. Paul expresses his doubts regarding the presence of the killed girl in 124. Stamp asks him if he is sure this is the girl who was killed. He also asks him if it is the reason he left 124.

XVI, XVII, XVIII

The situation worsens at 124, Sethe has become insane at the sight of Denver’s employer. She thinks he is the schoolteacher and tries to kill him, but he is saved. Paul D returns and finds Sethe alone at home and feels the same sentiments for her what Sixo had felt for Thirty-Mile Woman. He asks her to stand with him and make tomorrow together because they share their yesterday. Beloved is gone, and there is no trace left of her, nor do the people want to remind of that bad memory. They think of it as a story that shouldn’t be passed on.

Beloved by Toni Morrison Characters Analysis

Sethe is the protagonist of the novel. She is an escaped slave and is a proud, noblewoman. Her ideal role in this novel is that of a mother; she tries to do anything possible for her children. She has lived a miserable life herself, but she doesn’t want her children to live life like this and, for this purpose, escapes the plantation.

She kills her daughter because she thinks its better to kill her than to hand her to the slave owners. She, like her mother-in-law, is a character that is a representation of the true human spirit. Society thinks unfair of her, but she doesn’t care about it. Instead of accepting help from others,  she prefers to earn her livelihood by working herself, and that shows her desire not to hurt her ego.

She is not hurt by physical and sexual abuse, but the schoolteacher’s verbal abuse hurts her. She doesn’t want encounters with her past but still is entrapped in it. She is a strong woman, accepts her past, and moves to the future, trying to lead a new life with Paul D.

Beloved is Sethe’s murdered daughter. She was two years old when her mother escaped saving her children from slavery. She was caught by her master, and to save her daughter; she killed her. She comes to their life years later in the form of a ghost. She is disguised as an eighteen-year-old girl and tries to occupy the home. 

She attempts to drive her mother’s lover out of her home but fails, and instead, she is driven out. Her character is mysterious in the novel. There are chances that she has been kept enslaved by a white man to fulfill his sexual needs, and now she is an ordinary woman.

There are some chances that she is a ghost because, at her sight, Sethe loses control over her urination. Another instance of it is the knowledge that she has regarding Sethe’s past life. There is a sign of scar near her chin, and it may be the sign of a wound that had been there when Sethe killed her daughter. Some scholars muse that it is the ghost of Sethe’s dead mother.

Whoever may be, she but it is clear that she is an allegorical figure, and she represents enslaved black women. She vanishes at the end of the story, but she is nowhere gone. She is forgotten by people, but the novel preserves her. She is a past that is both painful and destructive. She revives the repressed memories and gives people a chance to tell the stories they didn’t want to remember.

She is the most intelligent girl and a dynamic character. She is an introspective and sensitive person who stays in her closet and thinks about the matters in her life. She is a charmed child and thought to have contacts with supernatural beings. She is eighteen years old and still doesn’t want to get out of her home and wants to live life in seclusion. She is the most affected in the events of the novel.

She has been told that her mother has killed her elder child and spends life in fear that she may be killed too. She wants her father back in her life and doesn’t like Paul D’s coming into their life. She is a teenager who is in search of her identity. She craves attention because,  in contrast to normal children, there is a lot that is missing in her life. She evolves throughout the novel and becomes independent. She is the one who comes out of home and asks the community for help to drive out Beloved.

She finds a job for herself and then opts to go to college. She faces odds in the form of negligence from her mother and malevolence of Beloved.

Paul D is Sethe’s fellow slave at Sweet Home. He is, and his other friends are candidates to be Sethe’s husband, but she chooses Halle. After this decision, they still fantasize about marrying her. He has suffered physical and emotional brutality. He has buried emotions in his heart and never expresses them. He has been through his hardest times and believes that one shouldn’t attach himself to anything too much.

He tried to escape from his master like Sethe and others but failed and was captured. He was sold to a new owner, and he tried to kill the master. He was kept in chains, but he tried to escape and was fortunate in this attempt. He then wandered at different places and didn’t try to settle at any place. He was in love and wanted to marry her and ended up in 124. He came to her house, and they came to a relationship, but he was disliked by Beloved and Denver. He left Sethe’s house.

He came to know how Sethe had killed her daughter and started to hate her for it. He then reconciled himself with this incident and came back to her intending to spend life with her.

Baby Suggs was Halle’s mother and a former slave. She has died before the start of the novel. She spent her life with different husbands, and each child had a different father. Her last child was Halle, and he was the only child she was able to raise. She had become crippled when he was growing up. He bought her freedom, and she set up a matriarchy.  She was a generous person.  She had a prominent role in her society and helped those in need. She was the one who gave Sethe and Denver shelter and tried to be their support.

For people of Cincinnati, her personality is an emotional and spiritual inspiration. Her health starts to fail after Sethe’s killing of her young child. She is the inspiration behind Denver’s coming out of the house when due to Beloved, the condition has worsened. She has been the head of black people’s gatherings in the past. This is the reason people help Denver when she comes and asks them for it.

He is a figure of salvation and has saved many people from slavery. He is welcomed at every home in the town. He saves Denver and Sethe’s life. His life is changed by a sacrifice during enslavement, and he vows to help people in need. He feels angry about the society’s neglect of Denver and Sethe and questions their responsibilities.

Schoolteacher

He takes charge of the plantation after the death of Mr. Garner and is a cruel man. Like the rest of slave owners, he doesn’t consider slaves as human beings. He brings rigid rules and punishments at the plantation for the slaves. Shortly, he is an evil incarnate.

Halle is Baby Suggs’ son and Sethe’s husband. He is a kind, sincere, and generous person. He understands the reality of slave owners and isn’t in any misconception regarding it. He goes mad at Sethe’s abuse by the schoolteacher’s nephews.

She is a woman of mixed races. She has blonde hair, and she hates it. Though she is alienated in society, she still understands her responsibilities and helps those in need. She is doubtful of what Denver tells her, but still, she arranges to send food to Sethe’s household.

She is also a former slave. She was abused by her owner and his son. She believes that bad memories should be forgotten. She leads the people when there is an attempt made to get out Beloved of 124.

Mr. and Mrs. Garner

They were the owners of Sweet House and the plantations where Sethe and her fellows worked. They are apparently benevolent to their slaves but are after all slave owners. They strategically manipulate the slaves and use them for their purpose, thus keeping them away from thinking about rebellion.

Mr. and Mrs. Bodwin

These are siblings and white abolitionists. They are the ones who bring Denver and Sethe freedom. These characters are somewhat contradictory, but they are far better than the rest of the white people. They believe that all human beings are holy regardless of their color.

She is a young, compassionate white girl. She is an indentured servant and helps Sethe deliver Denver. She is an idealistic and talkative girl. She helps Sethe when she is ill. Denver is named after her by her mother as a tribute to her services.

Paul A, Paul F, Sixo

Pauls are Paul D’s brothers, and they work on the same farm with him. Sixo is their fellow slave who dies with Paul A in an attempt to escape from the plantation.

Beloved by Toni Morrison Themes

Slavery erases all the human feelings of a person, and the same is the case with love. Paul D knows this fact and believes that while being in love and being a slave at the same time is risky. The same happens with Sethe, who tries to give her children maternal love and, as a result, loses her daughter. 

She earns guilt as an additional supplement. There is a clear line drawn between love and slavery. Love and freedom are defined in this novel as the ability to choose things which is impossible in slavery. In slavery, one doesn’t even have the choice about oneself, then how can he/she chose other things.

Guilt is an undeniable reality that accompanies a wrong. In Beloved, Sethe is haunted by the guilt and becomes incarnate in the form of Beloved. She remembers the wrong she has committed to her daughter and tries to reassure her that she did it out of love. She tries to take care of her and pays much attention to her neglecting Denver. This is done to atone for the crime she has committed. For this purpose, she even forgets herself and tries to please Beloved. She gets rid of this guilt, ultimately when Beloved is driven out of her house.

Loss of Identity in Slavery

Slavery brings physical, emotional, and spiritual destruction. The memories of slavery and the miserable days are not forgettable even after their freedom. Slaves lose identity as human beings, and the only thing they know about themselves is being a slave. There are multiple examples in this novel which show the self-alienation of different characters. Paul D hears screams and is not sure whether these exist in real. Slaves were considered animals by their owners and traded as a commodity.

The majority of the characters in this novel are in doubt whether they are human beings in real or not. There are feelings of mental and physical disintegration in slaves, and all these contribute to the loss of identity.

Past Vs. Present

If people have some past memories, there is a constant fight going on between their past and present. In this novel, Sethe tries to bury her past. She tries to get rid of the memory of her daughter’s murder but isn’t able to do so; her ghost haunts her. Paul D’s arrival adds to the misery, and she remembers all the things that happened on the plantation and incidents that took place after that.

Paul D has buried his memories in his heart, though they come back and haunt him, he is able to show no emotional reaction to them. Beloved comes and revives the buried memories in Sethe’s mind and ruins her mental stability. She starts raving and is recovered only when Beloved is driven out of the house.

Supernatural

There are a lot of supernatural elements in this novel. For instance, there are ghosts, charms, risen babies, and this shows the expression of the past in the present. These are the past memories and incidents which express themselves in present dominating the conscious. Human beings often accept these delusions as supernatural elements. In this novel majority of the characters believe in the supernatural and, in some cases, have experienced the supernatural. This shows their bad memories from the past.

Importance of Community Solidarity

The importance of the individual in his survival is of prime importance, but society’s role can’t be neglected. Individuals need support from society before taking any step. This is shown in Beloved when Sethe comes to Cincinnati. The fugitive and freed slaves are supported and provided by the community at Cincinnati, and an example of it is the residence provided to Sethe at 124. Another instance of it is Beloved’s arrival at 124; she occupies the house. The residents are not able to live their life normally, and then again, society comes to help Sethe and her daughter to get rid of Beloved.

The community’s role is important; it becomes necessary in societies like that of former slaves. They don’t have families or blood relations; rather, their community plays this role, and they share good and bad times together.

The Powers and Limits of Language

Language is manipulated by those in power, and it is shown in this novel. The slaves try to use language in the same way if it could change their fate. They change their names to get rid of their memories. They try to forget their bad days by renaming things. Once the schoolteacher tells the slaves that they are the definers and they interpret or redefine things. He tells the slaves that they have to obey and not to argue. This shows the abuse of rhetoric by the powerful.

In normal cases, home is a term which signifies comfort and security. In the case of this novel, the concept is the opposite. The former slaves have led a life in which all the terms have changed their meanings, and home is an inclusion. Before their freedom, they had no homes, and their residences were uncomfortable places, which instead of rest were a source of jeopardy.

Now after freedom, all the memories of that life haunt them, and when they are given a comfortable life, they don’t fit with it. This novel term ‘Sweet Home’ is used for one place, and it is the farm owner’s residence. This shows the ironic existence of such a place and the inability of the former slaves to adjust to it.

To the general public, slavery means evil, and the slave owners evil incarnate. In Beloved, the author has attempted to find its denotations and connotations in a different way. She has explored the good and bad aspects as well as the grey areas. She has shown slave owners in the evilest form. 

There is also a portrayal of slaves in dark aspects when Sethe kills her own daughter. There are also some slave owners shown who consider slaves human beings. The issue of slavery is thoroughly discussed in this novel, and it is the reader’s choice to make an opinion regarding it.

Beloved by Toni Morrison Literary Analysis

Beloved is a masterpiece of African-American literature, and it encapsulates the experiences of slaves in a relatively short time and space. It expertly tells of what miseries the slaves had to face, and this is shown through artistic use of the imagery. Figurative language is employed successfully to let the reader imagine and place him/herself in place of a slave. 

It gives an exquisite experience of the “great” American civilization. It puts forward the ironies of the society, which presents itself as the protector and champion of human rights. Above all, Beloved is an immortal human experience that is understandable and can be felt in any period of time.

It is a work of Gothic fiction that relates a family drama and coming of age of some characters. Denver is the most evident example. It can also be credited as historical fiction because it tells the story of millions of slaves and people’s history of the United States.

The tone of the novel is elegiac, mourning the miseries in the lives of African Americans. It can be inferred from Sethe’s talks and thinking as well from the dedication which dedicates it to sixty million and more. It is an obvious reference to those who suffered.

There is also hope in the tone, telling of the good days, as Paul D thinks that he will have happy days with Sethe. There is a lot of love and an indication not to look back, and that makes it optimistic, asking the reader to make life beautiful.

Setting of the Novel

Spatially this novel is set in a small country house, and there are references to different places in Kentucky and Ohio. 124 Bluestone is not just a house; it is a small world that tries to depict all the experiences of slave life. Temporally this novel is set in the pre-civil war era. There are references to Sweet House, which is situated in Ohio, Fugitive Act of 1851, and many other references that clarify its setting.

Point of View

The author doesn’t stick to a single narrative style and uses more than one. She switches between many styles, and that happens before informing the reader. Often the switching is so subtle that the reader doesn’t understand it and is stuck in one place. Third-person omniscient and third-person limited are used in a major part of the novel. There are also traces of universal omniscient and first-person narrators.

Significance of the Title

The title plays an important role in creating drama in this novel. The reader is confused about who is beloved and of whom. There are numerous people who can be called beloved in this novel, and it can be inferred that humanity is beloved. This is evident from the dedication which doesn’t dedicate it to specific people. It’s for all, though it figuratively refers to African Americans.

Significance of the Ending

In the end, we see that everything has changed. Sethe and Paul D dedicate themselves to each other and decide to start a new life. Denver gets a job and will enter a college while Beloved is driven out. The story doesn’t end here. Beloved has gone, but her story isn’t easy to forget, she will be remembered. The Past will be used to move the present.

Epigraph and Dedication

The epigraph and dedication make the message universal, and it is a ray of hope for all those bearing hardships. The epigraph is taken from the Bible, and the dedication is to sixty million and more, which makes it ambiguous but clear for humanity.

Writing Style

Toni Morrison, like the rest of modernist novelists, writes in a complicated way. She writes with all her senses, and that ofttimes makes the novel hard to understand. Her metaphors are laden with meanings, and an example of it is ‘rusted tin box of tobacco’ for the heart, which conveys the compact message. She is an impressionist writer and employs the same tool here in this novel.

More From Toni Morrison

  • The Bluest Eye

Short Stories

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Beloved: A Case Study in Storytelling Analysis

"It was not a story to pass on." Beloved

Introduction

I originally encountered the novel Beloved about a month before I was to teach it to an International Baccalaureate English 12 class eight years ago. When I read it for the first time, I was instantly struck by the power of the narrative, the complexity of Morrison's style, and absolute fear that I did not understand the novel well enough to teach it. I understood the basic plot ideas: murdered child returns in the flesh to haunt mother and family while they, the living, are attempting to walk a fine line between past, present, and future that will allow them to move forward. However, I needed help in understanding what the subtleties of Morrison's language, symbols, and narrative structure signified and how best to illuminate that for my students. Despite several fevered searches of both internet and library, I struggled to find appropriate strategies and activities for an upper-level high school classroom. This novel has invited many scholarly interpretations; there are also no shortage of summaries aimed at students, like Sparknotes—the bane of every teacher who attempts to encourage students to wrestle with a text independently. However, for a high school teacher working through the many different elements and attempting to convey those elements to my students, I felt the resources available were lacking. I put forth a brave face and a humble attitude and we slogged through the novel as neophytes together, united in our lack of understanding. Since then, I have read and taught this novel several times, increasing my comfort level as the facilitator and providing students with a deeper understanding of its many facets.

Great literature should always include an engaging plot and an innovative approach to literary elements; Beloved offers both, and upon every reading of the novel, I find something new that I did not see previously. I am also certain to tell my students this nugget of wisdom, many of whom would rather pull out their own teeth than reread a text. There are so many different lenses that one can use to interpret and critique the novel, which is one small part of its brilliance. There is no question why Morrison won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for Beloved , followed by a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. It sparks a passionate level of interest for me as both a reader and a teacher, and I know that my students sense my excitement when we delve into the text together. While students don't always love the novel with the same near-fanaticism that I have, (almost) all of them come to respect and appreciate the novel for its literary value. Approaching the novel from the vantage point of storytelling encouraged me to bring a fresh eye to the text and to reevaluate my understanding of the story it ultimately tells the reader and the ways in which it does so.

Curricular Context and Rationale

For the last two decades, this novel has consistently been one of the most frequently taught on college campuses. As a teacher for both the Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, I know that practically all of these students are college-bound and are voluntarily enrolling in an academically challenging and rigorous course that will prepare them for higher education. Additionally, both programs require that students move beyond comprehension and be able to interpret and analyze rhetorical and thematic elements of writing, also valued skills at the university level. Beloved provides ample opportunity for this; it is an appropriate challenge because of the sophisticated writing style, symbolism, and motifs. When students are given parameters for understanding a difficult text like Beloved , it can lead to stimulating classroom discussion and the application of significant analysis. I usually approach this novel in second semester for two reasons: it builds up to this novel's difficulty through other works in first semester and because students find this novel incredibly useful as an exemplary text for their exams, which occur in May.

AP English Literature and Composition is traditionally taught in the twelfth grade and is designed for students to think critically about literature and develop analytical skills equivalent to an undergraduate literature course. The students are generally high-achieving, goal-oriented students who are accustomed to being successful at school. The College Board must approve the syllabus of the course, and students are expected to take the AP exam in May; a successful score is one that will gain college credit, typically a 4 or 5 (on a 5 point scale). The exam incorporates a multiple choice section with several fiction-based passages and questions that I have categorized as comprehension, interpretation, analysis, and technical or literary vocabulary. Students also write three essays in two hours; two essays are based on previously unseen literary passages chosen by the College Board, and the third essay is an open-ended question that they will answer and support based on a text read during that year. This is where Beloved 's usefulness truly becomes evident, because it is a text that can be applied in so many different ways.

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program takes place during eleventh and twelfth grades. It is a rigorous curriculum that takes a more holistic approach to education; in addition to core academic classes, IB students are required to take Theory of Knowledge, a course designed to evaluate learning processes and illustrate connections amongst disciplines. IB students must also complete an Extended Essay of four thousand words and community service hours in the categories of creativity, action, and service (CAS). In English A1 HL (IB-speak for 12 th grade literature, read in English), students are required to examine multiple genres of literature from different cultures, and each work is studied in-depth for a number of weeks. Choosing particularly rich texts that can be critiqued from a variety of stances is an important requisite factor for being placed on the syllabus. In May, IB students take an essay-based exam and received a score of 0-7; when combined with their other IB scores, they may receive an IB diploma or certificates for completed courses.

By the end of a four-week unit for a class that meets every other day for ninety minutes, students will have read the novel in its entirety, discussed their evolving understanding of the plot and character development, established an understanding of the non-linear chronology of events, analyzed the significance of storytelling in its multiple meanings, and showcased their ability to critically analyze the novel from various points of view.

My goal as an educator, and particularly as an English teacher, is for students to learn to think critically and to apply those analytical skills throughout their lives. Often students think that all we do in class is read and discuss novels, and they don't see the benefits that the critical thinking and analysis skills they have learned and applied in my class can have in multiple areas of their academic lives and beyond. I know I have been successful, however, when a student tells me that she never thought of something in that way before, or that he brought up our reading or discussion in another class or at home. That shows that the boundaries of the physical classroom have been broken, which is exactly what I want. Beloved is the type of novel that encourages this boundary-breaking; I have eavesdropped on students in the hallway arguing over the morality of Sethe's decision and I have been told from other teachers that the students frequently tie in the reading to their other coursework—sometimes to that teacher's chagrin because of a perceived slight to their own classwork, or ignorance about the novel itself. I, however, am delighted that students are making connections.

By the end of this unit, students will have a different concept of the word 'storytelling.' Using the word in a high school setting is tricky because it is associated with much younger children: as in, "story hour" or "tell me a story." There's also a cultural connotation that to "tell stories" is to be lying, and that only leads to trouble and punishment. In the context of this novel, however, storytelling takes on multiple levels of significance that relate to but also diverge from standard associations with the word. In any literary work, there is a narrator telling a story to the reader. In this novel, that is accomplished by an omniscient third person perspective, but there are important moments when the novel's narration is entrusted to its characters—not only through dialogue, but also from a first person point of view. There are also the stories that the characters tell each other—personal stories of physical and psychological trauma that raise the question, what stories should be told, and who decides when, how, or why they are told?

The very idea of storytelling is rooted in the historical and cultural reality of the novel in two ways, and this will be explored in the curriculum unit. First, the oral tradition of storytelling, a key component of sharing and maintaining African and African-American history and identity at the time of the novel's setting, is a key element in the relationships that exist among the characters. This is further complicated by the idea of oral versus written storytelling, when a newspaper clipping shown to an illiterate man becomes a revelatory and symbolic plot device. Second, the central conflict of the novel is based on a historically true event, which circles back to and questions the idea that storytelling must be fictitious. Punishment in the novel comes from historical truth—the institution of slavery is the root of all pain and each character has suffered from it in some way. Even though the novel is a work of fiction, the emotions that are characterized are realistic. Storytelling is a way of processing and making real that pain and punishment; it also encourages an emotional reaction from the reader. All of these different elements of storytelling will be outlined in the discussion below.

In this unit, students will recognize and analyze the different writing styles and narrative techniques that comprise the storytelling structure of Beloved . The novel is considered a cornerstone of postmodernism because of the way that it fuses so many styles that have come before, including stream of consciousness, magical realism, flashback, and the bildungsroman. Evaluating setting and chronology are important when considering the structure as it relates to and impacts storytelling. The novel shifts in both place and time with minimal cues, creating a beautiful fluidity to the narrative but also potential frustration, as it can be easy to lose the when and where of the plot.

To meet these objectives, reading and discussing the novel should take some time, which is why four weeks for the unit is strongly recommended. I have made the mistake of expecting students to move too quickly through the text, and they end up frustrated and confused. This is especially true for high school students encountering the text for the first time, for whom this may well be the most complex piece of literature they have ever read. By breaking the novel into purposeful sections and working through it as a class, the students are allowed time to process the text, to discuss it with their peers, and to approach and work through its most powerful moments together (my chunking suggestions are in the Strategies and Activities section below).

Background Information

There are many resources available for a standard biography of Toni Morrison, so this short section will focus on the pertinent parts of her background that specifically inform the creation of this novel. As the focus of this curriculum unit is the theme of storytelling, that idea will also serve as the central touchstone biographically.

Toni Morrison, a pen name, was born as Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio; the year of her birth is an important fact because "Morrison was twenty-three years old when the 1954 school desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education was handed down; she was thirty-seven...when the Civil Rights Act was passed. Thus, the activism, violence, and radical changes of the civil rights era formed the backdrop of almost her entire young adulthood." 1 This history could not fail to inform her writing and, indeed, her novels grapple with many different aspects of the African American experience, even those that she did not personally live through, like the Middle Passage and slavery in Beloved . One critic claims that "Morrison's most revolutionary—and most defining—act has been to write for black readers about black people...[S]he has credited the complexity and originality of African American life by working within its intricate and rich system of meaning, language, and art." 2 She achieves this through the representation of dialect, symbols, and a sense of authenticity in her fiction.

Morrison's grandparents were sharecroppers in Alabama; they became part of the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North when they moved first to Kentucky, and then settled in Ohio. They brought with them not only their personal experiences, but also the oral tradition of storytelling or "the black vernacular tradition," which was passed down to their children and grandchildren. 3 Morrison has repeatedly highlighted the importance of these stories, most recently in an April 2012 article: "At night her parents told R-rated ghost stories, like one about a murdered wife who returned home holding her own severed head. The following evening, the kids had to retell the tales with variations: Maybe it was snowing, or there was blood dripping from the head." 4 This immediately brings to mind the passage in Beloved of the childish but disturbing stories that Sethe's children tell each other about their own mother, from Denver's point of view: "[S]he remembered...the pleasure they had sitting clustered on the white stairs—she between the knees of Howard or Buglar—while they made up die-witch! stories with proven ways of killing [Sethe] dead." 5 This presents an interesting contrast of familial comfort, found in the physical closeness of the siblings and the unity resulting from the storytelling, and the unsettling plotline of murdering their mother. At this point in the novel, the reader is unaware why making up stories of Sethe's death would bring "pleasure" to the children, although there is an interesting connection to the idea of "proven ways of killing her dead." The children are aware they live with the ghost of their murdered sister, so death itself is not an end but simply a different kind of existence. The specific phrasing calls to mind the idea of ending a person in both body and spirit—when they "kill" Sethe in these stories, she cannot return to haunt them.

Morrison was in a unique position to marry the oral tradition of stories with the canon of Western literature because of her family's decision to move north in order to provide her with better access to education and, historically speaking, the increase in available avenues for black writers as the twentieth century progressed. "[F]rom a very early age, she had a deep connection to the Western literary tradition even while she maintained her grounding in the black vernacular tradition." 6 She went on to graduate from both Howard and Cornell and says she became a writer when "I realized there was a book that I wanted very much to read that really hadn't been written." 7 This is a powerful statement in context of the novel Beloved because I am not aware of a work that approaches its handling of morality, trauma, and the dangers of memory in such an eloquent and literary manner, while still being accessible to students.

In the quarter-century since the publication of Beloved , the novel has developed its own story to tell. While the novel won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1988, it was not without controversy. The novel failed to win the National Book Award for that year, prompting a large group of renowned, self-identified "black writers" to publish a protest in the New York Times Book Review . This group, including such figures as Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "here assert ourselves against such oversight and harmful whimsy" and claim that "the legitimate need for our own critical voice in relation to our own literature...no longer be denied." 8 In 2006, a group of writers and critics polled by the New York Times voted that Beloved was the best work of literature of the last twenty-five years. 9

Finally, the novel has a story to tell as a banned or challenged text and a teacher should be aware of that history before assigning it in the classroom. The same year that Morrison's novel was voted to be the best work of fiction, it was also on the top of the American Library Association's list of most challenged books for "complaints [of] offensive language, sexual content, [and] unsuited to age group." 10 Having taught the novel, I know from experience that there are sections that must be handled cautiously. Prior to any classroom discussion of a delicate passage—for example, the references to human-bestial intercourse in the first chapter—I remind my students that the novel contains adult themes that require us to be sophisticated, mature readers, and that our language and tone must reflect that. 11

Analysis of Storytelling

There are myriad ways to critique, analyze, and interpret this novel, and there is no shortage of academic resources to look at for inspiration. My goal here is to provide high school literature teachers with a departure point for analyzing the novel based on the concept of storytelling, and the following analysis will be broken into "Structure and Culture" and "Narrative Truth, Historical Truth." The categories are neither superficial nor definitive; rather, they provide me with broad parameters in order to guide my students through the novel.

I have structured these sections in a way that will allow teachers to see how the novel can be interpreted in the classroom. Creating day-by-day lesson plans is not the most effective introduction to this analysis because, as is evident upon reading this unit, teachers will benefit most from having all of these elements in mind when beginning the novel with students.

Structure and Culture

Oral Tradition

There is a beautiful complexity to the novel that is revealed each and every time it is read, but it can certainly be intimidating to a reader of any age. In addition to the specific literary techniques that Morrison weaves throughout are the overarching styles of writing that coalesce and make it such an engaging and challenging read. The modes of storytelling must be examined so that students can comprehend, break apart, and interpret the text in a meaningful way. This is not a novel that can be read just for plot or character or structure because of the way that the elements have been woven together. I will not divorce the author from a text, thus the cultural perspective of African Americans necessarily informs the structure. For example, one notices the use of parallel structure and repetition almost immediately; the first sentence of each of the three parts of the novel are "124 was spiteful," "124 was loud," and "124 was quiet." 12 However, when one recognizes that Morrison embeds the black vernacular tradition into the structure, we see how it contributes strongly to the story that the novel tells and the way that it is revealed. "The vernacular is a complex oral discourse characterized by such tropes as call and response and signifying (a means of repetition and revision)." 13 In literary terms, we tend to call this repetition or parallelism, but specifically naming it within the African American tradition brings with it the cultural weight and significance that it deserves.

The character of Baby Suggs exemplifies the oral traditions of African Americans. Several of the terms used above, like call and response and signifying, along with witnessing, are directly connected to religious practices. We discover in chapter 9 that after she was purchased from slavery by her son Halle, "she became an unchurched preacher...uncalled, unrobed, unanointed". 14 After Paul D tells Sethe that Halle lost his mind after seeing her violated, Sethe aches for the support that Baby Suggs would have provided and she hears the voice of Baby Suggs saying, "Lay em down, Sethe. Sword and shield. Down. Down. Both of em down. Down by the riverside. Sword and shield. Don't study war no more. Lay all that mess down. Sword and shield." 15 There are several techniques at work in this passage and it is a worthwhile exercise to have students identify them and examine how they work together. First, the characterization of Baby Suggs is as a soothing source of comfort for Sethe, placing Baby Suggs in the mold of a mother figure. The use of dialect reveals class and status, but it also makes her seem approachable and human. This passage serves to connect the techniques of parallelism and repetition to the culturally-rooted terms of witnessing and signifying (defined in the paragraph above). Even though Baby Suggs' comments are just for Sethe, they could easily be used in one of her sermons—the "sword and shield" has biblical connotations—that she delivers in the Clearing to other escaped and former slaves and their children. The imagery, repetition, and structure also create a melodic flow that seems to envelope Sethe and the reader, similar to repeating a mantra or prayer can induce a calming effect.

The story begins in medias res , but it quickly establishes the main characters and setting within the first paragraph. Reading this passage aloud is an excellent way of introducing the novel and allowing students the time to process the text and ask questions (not that they will all be answered). Some examples of useful analysis that can be performed on the first paragraph begin with the first sentence: "124 was spiteful." The house has already achieved its own significance by virtue of opening the novel and being personified, and "spiteful" is a loaded word worthy of a brief discussion of connotation and association. The second sentence, a fragment really, "Full of a baby's venom," contrasts that idea of personification. It opens with an angry house and follows with the image of a dangerous, bestial baby, purportedly the most innocent of all creatures.

I would also ask students to think carefully about the specific number of the house. This is a good time to point out that nothing in the novel is accidental, so why the sequence 124? They will typically point out that the number three is missing, which is a powerful symbol as one continues to read—Beloved, the murdered daughter, being the third of Sethe's children. When asked what the sum of 1+2+4 is, they quickly and proudly shout out "Seven!" The follow-up is, what does the number seven symbolize, particularly in a biblical sense? Some students will point out that God created the world in seven days, which means the number seven is symbolic of completion. This then prompts the final question of, how can the sequence be symbolically complete when it is so clearly missing a component? Revisiting this question at the end of the novel, students recognize that the family is complete without Beloved; she does not belong. Additionally, the numbers may come to symbolize the three characters that can make a new family—Sethe, Denver, and Paul D—by the end of the novel.

Flashback and Time Shifts

That the novel will shift quickly in time is established in the fifth sentence, "The grandmother, Baby Suggs, was dead, and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time there were thirteen years old—as soon as merely looking in a mirror shattered it (that was it for Buglar); as soon as two tiny hand prints appeared in the cake (that was it for Howard)." While the third sentence states the present time as 1873, the reader is quickly alerted that events of the past will frequently collide with the present. (One of the most useful activities in the classroom is to have students create a chronological timeline of events; this is elaborated in the "Activities" section.) The teacher can point out cues to the students that a time shift is going to occur in order to give them confidence. A strong example for this is found in the extract: "'No more powerful than the way I loved her,' Sethe answered and there it was again. The welcoming cool of unchiseled headstones...". 16 Through the phrasing, "and there it was again," a careful reader will recognize that as a cue that we are entering a flashback, and those verbal signs are important in identifying moments of time shift.

Flashback has its own narrative significance in the novel, clearly demonstrating the power of the past on the present. "[T]he leveling out of different time frames enable[s] the novel to mimic and reflect the process of memory: the actual act of remembering as well as the incorporation of told memories into the oral tradition." 17 This connection does not just provide background for the novel's events, but is a powerful reminder that past events create memories and memory can be dangerous. Sethe admits that "she worked hard to remember as close to nothing as was safe," indicating a tenuous relationship between remembering, forgetting, and deliberate memory suppression. 18 The danger of forgetting is exemplified for Sethe on the following page as she describes a moment of walking home: "Nothing else would be in her mind...and suddenly there was Sweet Home rolling, rolling, rolling out before her eyes, and although there was not a leaf on that farm that did not make her want to scream, it rolled itself out before her in shameless beauty. It never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too." 19 This is one of my favorite passages to examine and analyze with a class because there is so much power in the use of figurative language, repetition, and allusion, which connects to the characterization of Sethe and the theme of memory.

Breaking down these early passages in the classroom is an important and valid use of time because it shows the students the depth of analysis that is possible while also giving them the benefit of working through it together, even when following a teacher's modeling. It is critical that students understand the importance of flashback as more than just a literary device, but a stylistic element that informs the structure, characterization, and meaning of the novel as a whole.

Magical Realism

In addition to the subtle flashback, the fifth sentence of the novel also sets up one of the key writing styles, magical realism. "Magic realist novels and stories have, typically, a strong narrative drive, in which the recognizably realistic merges with the unexpected and the inexplicable and in which elements of dreams, fairy story, or mythology combine with the everyday, often in a mosaic or kaleidoscopic pattern of refraction and recurrence." 20 It becomes clear in the fifth sentence from the text that while the house is the vessel for supernatural occurrences, the creator of the disturbances is the venomous baby, as displayed through the disconcerting image of the "two tiny hand prints...in the cake." This style is reinforced on the following page when "Sethe and Denver decided to end the persecution by calling forth the ghost that tried them so. Perhaps a conversation, they thought, an exchange of views or something would help. So they held hands and said, 'Come on. Come on. You may as well just come on.' The sideboard took a step forward but nothing else did." 21 In this passage, the two characters make a conscious decision to communicate with the spirit that they believe is causing "the outrageous behavior of that place," and it is treated matter-of-factly, without any special introduction. "When Morrison recreates these elements in her art, she purposely departs from consensus reality, not to foreground the supernatural as a unique expression of the black community, but as a way to signify the difference between culturally imposed ways of seeing. Morrison's assumption in her writing, her consensus reality, is very different...because the supernatural does exist [and] presumes a truth that is unassailable." 22 Morrison is not asking the reader to suspend his disbelief; trust in supernatural occurrences is a cultural truth in the African American community and she will not explain or apologize for it.

It can sometimes be a challenge for students to treat magical realism in the commonplace manner that the author intends; teenagers, not surprisingly, are prone to dramatic interpretations. However, because Morrison has embedded the supernatural from the very first sentence and makes it a common, if complicated, part of the characters' lives, the students are much more likely to develop a way of seeing the supernatural in the way it is meant to be treated. The definition quoted above names "recurrence" as an important element of this style as a way of normalizing it. This is specifically reinforced in this passage in a subtle way, but one that demonstrates Morrison's craft as a writer.

At the beginning of chapter 8, Denver is basking in the joy that Beloved is exuding. Beloved seems to be delighted to have a physical body and performing with it: "Beloved put her fists on her hips and commenced to skip on bare feet. Denver laughed. 'Now you. Come on,' said Beloved. 'You may as well just come on.'" 23 The spoken language here doesn't quite fit, but nor does it stick out as being particularly wrong. The reader has noticed Beloved's language skills developing and the first two fragments seem appropriate, but the last sentence is a developed thought that seems more advanced. In class, I would ask the students about Beloved's use of language here and then point them back to the beginning of chapter 1 and give them the open-ended direction of finding the connection to this extract. Thankfully, the passage appears on the second page, so it doesn't take long for them to find Sethe's original invitation to the ghost form of Beloved (referenced in the paragraph above). The next question is obviously, what does this mean about Beloved and her consciousness? Students then realize that when Beloved's presence in 124 was spiritual, not physical, this proves that she could hear the family and her form of participation was through making objects move or presenting herself as "a pool of red and undulating light." 24 It also demonstrates how purposeful Beloved's physical presence is. She does not feel the need to present herself tangibly until Paul D arrives, creates a sense of intimacy with Sethe, fights back against "the screaming house," and gets "rid of the only other company [Denver] had." 25

Stream of Consciousness

The technique of entering a character's unfiltered thoughts and following wherever s/he may lead is one of the cornerstones of Modernist and postmodernist literature. My students have already encountered A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce and are usually adept at identifying stream of consciousness passages in Beloved . There are short examples of this throughout the text but the most significant and difficult are the chapters that are from the points of view of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved respectively, and then the chapter that is the marriage of all three voices. One of my favorite aspects of the novel is the way that Morrison prepares the reader for what will happen next, and this is achieved in the final sentence of the nineteenth chapter: "Mixed in with the voices surrounding the house, recognizable but undecipherable to Stamp Paid, were the thoughts of the women of 124, unspeakable thoughts, unspoken." 26 At this moment the reader may not exactly know what the next few chapters will hold, but the first line of chapter twenty, "Beloved, she my daughter," does not come as a surprise, and clearly defines Sethe as the speaker. The following chapter belongs to Denver as established through its opening sentence, "Beloved is my sister," a parallel to Sethe's. Students usually do not struggle with these two chapters, but it is chapters 22 that tends to need thorough class discussion and analysis.

The first sentence of chapter 22 provides some comfort—it creates a parallel to Sethe and Denver and ends in traditional punctuation—but, alas, it is the only such sentence in the chapter. I will now take this opportunity to freely admit that given the chance, I would ask Toni Morrison to explain every word in this chapter. Short of that, however, I begin by reminding students that this is the strongest example of stream of consciousness in the novel for multiple reasons. First, Beloved still speaks like a child; we have seen many examples of this through the text. Children tend to describe things as literally as possible and she wrestles with her lack of language: "how can I say things that are pictures". 27 Second, we know that Beloved has a divided consciousness. She is here physically, but having come from the other side, part of her self is still connected to the non-physical world. Beloved laments, "there is no one to want me to say me my name I wait on the bridge because she is under it there is night and there is day". 28 Understandably, the "she" that Beloved wants so desperately is Sethe, and this is confirmed through the imagery of Sethe's earrings that she dangled for the baby and that Beloved asks her about in chapter six: "Tell me your diamonds." 29

One strategy to increase student confidence in their understanding of the chapter is to ask them to find examples of imagery that they recognize and to establish its context in the stream of consciousness narrative. There are several examples of repetitive imagery from within the chapter, but none is as dominant as "a hot thing," repeated ten times in five pages. It is always its own complete thought, an image connected to but separate from what is around it. Considering Beloved's lack of vocabulary, "a hot thing" strikes me as something dangerous, requiring caution. It seems, though, that the most common reference surrounding "a hot thing" is Sethe—Beloved's mother, a source of love. For example: "her face is my own and I want to be there in the place where her face is and to be looking at it too a hot thing"; "she wants her earrings she wants her round basket I want her face a hot thing"; and perhaps most conclusively, "Sethe's is the face that left me Sethe sees me see her and I see the smile her smiling face is the place for me it is the face I lost she is my face smiling at me doing it at last a hot thing now we can join a hot thing". 30 Students want a definitive answer: "What is the hot thing??" I have been accosted at my door, in the hallway, and even while getting out of my car after assigning this chapter.

One of the best methods I have found for dealing with this difficult passage is structured small group discussion. Offering students some comprehension-based questions, like the imagery that they recognized from earlier in the novel, gives them a boost of confidence. In regards to "a hot thing," I tell them that my teacher's edition of Beloved just has all of these notes in the margins, and none of them define what "a hot thing" is (the notes, of course, being my own annotations). I admit to having my own theory, but I would like to hear theirs before revealing my own. Despite the lack of a concrete answer, this makes students more comfortable in their own suppositions about the chapter. When they assign meaning to "a hot thing," they must defend their response based on textual support and interpretation, and I have heard some interesting theories. At the end of class, if no one has landed on it, I share my own thoughts: that "a hot thing" is the emotion or relationship that exists between Beloved and Sethe. It is rooted in love, a "hot," powerful, passionate sensation, but it is also tainted with Beloved's anger that Sethe abandoned her. There is a sense of desperation, longing, and control in the image itself and in its repetition.

Bildungsroman

Beloved may seem the obvious choice as the character for whom the novel is a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, but it is actually Denver who rapidly matures and becomes an adult in the year that the text covers (in present tense, spring 1873 to spring 1874). It is a worthwhile activity to have students trace specific moments that showcase Denver's maturation throughout the novel, and what follows is an example of guiding them.

Morrison does not hide the fact that Denver is practically a woman in the first chapter; we know that it has been eighteen years since Paul D saw Sethe and, he says to Denver, "Last time I saw your mama, you were pushing out the front of her dress," a reference to Sethe's pregnancy. 31 It is, however, remarks like Sethe's response that lead the reader to forget Denver's age: "Still is, provided she can get in it." The students I teach are seventeen to eighteen years old, about to enter the world of independence; they cannot imagine either themselves or a peer wanting to crawl into a parent's lap or re-enter the womb. Denver is consistently characterized as being exceptionally childish, even from the first moment she arrives: "the girl who walked down...was round and brown with the face of an alert doll." 32 She is also quite jealous of the relationship between Paul D and Sethe, particularly because it creates an intimacy of which she is not a part. Students tend to perceive this as an immature, childish need for attention. Additionally, there is her emotional and seemingly unprovoked outburst that begins with an impudent retort and ends with her "shaking now and sobbing so she could not speak," and lashing out at her mother: "It's not the house! It's us! And it's you!" 33 The idea of fighting with a parent is much more realistic to students, but the way in which Denver handles her emotions seems to infantilize her. Sethe's treatment of Denver encourages the reader's interpretation of Denver's immaturity, as well: "Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that supposed to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing." 34 Denver is the only child of four that Sethe has left, so it makes sense that she wants her to stay a child so that she will not leave like her brothers.

The moment Denver begins to mature hinges on the arrival of the physical Beloved. Denver has been desperate for a companion, especially since Paul D has taken her mother's attention. Once the family takes in this stranger, "Denver tended her, watched her sound sleep, listened to her labored breathing and, out of love and a breakneck possessiveness that charged her, hid like a personal blemish Beloved's incontinence." 35 Denver realizes long before Sethe exactly who Beloved is. Once Denver has set boundaries with her mother—"Leave us alone, Ma'am. I'm taking care of her"—Sethe casually wonders where their dog Here Boy is. "'He won't be back,' said Denver. 'How you know?' 'I just know.'" 36 The dog has refused to enter the house since the description in the first chapter when Beloved's spirit "picked up Here Boy and slammed him into wall hard enough to break two of his legs and dislocate his eye". 37 Denver's mysterious declaration is a good moment to ask students what she knows, and many animal lovers hold a serious grudge against the ghost for harming the dog and quickly remember that painful description in chapter 1. This moment is a strong indication that Denver knows Beloved's true identity and that she is beginning to act her age. Despite the fact that Beloved is technically older than she is (twenty to her eighteen), she senses that Beloved is developmentally the age she was at her death. This allows Denver to care for and protect Beloved, though still in an immature, possessive way.

Denver's final test of maturity comes in part three of the novel. Once Sethe realizes that Beloved is her child returned to her, "the two of them cut Denver out of the games." 38 Sethe is consumed with pleasing Beloved and Beloved refuses to be pleased. The relationship between them becomes dangerous and Denver realizes that "[s]he would have to leave the yard; step off the edge of the world, leave the two behind and go ask somebody for help." 39 Asking students why the language in this quotation is so powerful is a good strategy for understanding Denver's characterization and maturity. 124 has been her world because it has been her insulation from the judgment of others about her family, but for the first time, she is not concerned with herself. She is worried about her mother and her sister and is willing to put her own desire, to stay in the confines of the world she knows, aside so that she can save them all. Denver leaves the house and goes to the one person she knows outside of 124: her former teacher, Lady Jones. Denver admits she is seeking work because her mother is ill. "'Oh, baby,' said Mrs. Jones. 'Oh, baby.' She did not know it then, but it was the word 'baby,' said softly and with such kindness, that inaugurated her life in the world as a woman." 40 Students usually recognize the significance of this moment and I like to ask about the juxtaposition of word choice and impact. Why does the word "baby" make Denver a woman? Is it simply for irony's sake? Rather than the word itself, it is the tone of sympathy that accompanies it that leads Denver to maturity.

Denver's childish loneliness and possessiveness are swept away in this moment, and she realizes that she does not have to be alone in this struggle. The welcoming and support of the women in her community, by way of Mrs. Jones, are what allows her to achieve womanhood. She displays her maturity for Paul D once Beloved is gone. In a conversation about who or what Beloved really was, she proclaims "I have my own" opinion, and Paul D acknowledges that Denver can no longer be treated like a child. It is her final words to him, however, that have the strongest impact: "Paul D, you don't have to stay 'way, but be careful how you talk to my ma'am, hear?" 41 Denver clearly establishes that she is responsible for her mother, reversing the care relationship that has been the basis of the novel. She lets Paul D know that he is welcome as long as he is cautious, making Sethe the child that needs comfort. That Denver is now capable of unselfishly caring for another is strong evidence that her journey into womanhood is complete.

Narrative Truth, Historical Truth

Storytelling is supposed to be fictional, creative, and fantastical. Morrison begins her Nobel Prize lecture with the following: "Narrative has never been merely entertainment for me. It is, I believe, one of the principal ways in which we absorb knowledge. I hope you will understand, then, why I begin these remarks with the opening phrase of what must be the oldest sentence in the world, and the earliest one we remember from childhood: "Once upon a time...". 42 Those last four words are the cue that we are about to enter a world of fantasy, simultaneously connected to and removed from reality. There must be, however, some form of personal or universal truth to give a story its power and credibility. The characters and world of 124 Bluestone Road are entirely fictional but are rooted in multiple types of historical truth that command the reader to engage and wrestle with the repercussions of the stories that have been told to and about them, and which they tell to each other and to the reader.

Slavery and its horrors have been well-documented, even prior to its legal end in the United States a century and a half ago. There are firsthand accounts from Frederick Douglass and Linda Brent (AKA Harriet Jacobs) that speak to the violence and fear that slaves experienced even while seeking to find ways to free themselves from their bondage. Slavery has been reimagined in a variety of fictional works throughout the twentieth century; The Known World by Edward P. Jones is a recent addition to the canon that adds a unique perspective—the little-acknowledged fact that some blacks owned slaves. Part of the powerful narrative truth in Beloved stems from the historical truth of slavery, and in particular, the memory of and psychological trauma inflicted by slavery. I should acknowledge my teaching context: I am from and teach in the South (North Carolina). Despite the long separation of years and generations, there continues to be a different treatment of the history of slavery in states that fought against the Federal Army in the Civil War. I believe this to be true based on conversations with colleagues who were raised in Massachusetts or Indiana. Some students that I teach acknowledge coming from families that owned slaves. Even now, this is delicate territory.

I have found one of the novel's strengths to be the focus on the psychological, rather than physical, scars left on the characters. A strong example to use with students that iterates the dominance of the psychological over the physical is in the first chapter as Sethe explains to Paul D what she means when she says, "I got a tree on my back." 43 This off-hand remark intrigues Paul D, but for Sethe, the real story is what came prior to the whipping that produced the tree-like scar. Sethe tells him that she was still nursing her third child while pregnant with the fourth and that "those boys came in there and took my milk. Held me down and took it." This is a physical desecration on par with rape—to be restrained and suckled like an animal—but for Sethe, it violates her ability to be a mother to her child and that is what continues to haunt her. She tells her mistress what happened and while the white owner's "eyes rolled out tears, [t]hem boys found out I told em. Schoolteacher made one open up my back and when it closed it made a tree." As Paul D hears the story, he cannot believe that a pregnant woman was whipped: "They used cowhide on you? They beat you and you was pregnant?" Sethe repeats, "And they took my milk!" Many students will react similarly to Paul D; they will not fail to recognize the physical and even emotional toll that this event has on Sethe, but a teacher's guidance through the psychological territory will help them understand the heavy maternal burden that she continues to carry.

Perhaps the most significant historical reality in the novel is not addressed until the sixteenth chapter, in which the reader finally learns how Sethe's two year old child was killed. The background of the murder is now one of the more famous historical connections in modern literature. As Morrison writes in the foreword to Beloved , "A newspaper clipping in The Black Book (one of the books I had published back when I had a job) summarized the story of Margaret Garner, a young mother who, having escaped slavery, was arrested for killing one of her children (and trying to kill the others) rather than let them be returned to the owner's plantation." 44 While Margaret Garner's story was sensationalized and well-known at the time, it was forgotten over the years. When I first read the novel, I had no idea of the historical reality or the parallels that Morrison built into the narrative.

It is of particular interest from a writer's perspective that, in the foreword, Morrison goes on to say, "The historical Margaret Garner is fascinating, but, to a novelist, confining...So I would invent her thoughts, plumb them for a subtext that was historically true in essence, but not strictly factual." Morrison, however, embeds several historical truths from Margaret Garner's story in the novel that lend a tone of gravity. Sethe and Denver do not reveal last names, but Paul D introduces himself as "Paul D Garner," after the masters at Sweet Home. 45 In Levi Coffin's autobiography, published in 1876, the man hailed as the "President of the Underground Railroad" wrote that "no case...attracted more attention and aroused deeper interest and sympathy that the case of Margaret Garner." 46 He goes on to give details about the escape, including the fact that the slaves were "living in Kentucky, several miles back from the [Ohio R]iver" and that they planned to escape to a free state, which would be Ohio. Sweet Home is in Kentucky and Sethe gives birth to Denver on the banks of the Ohio River before being ferried across by Stamp Paid, where she is reunited with her three other children, who are already with Baby Suggs. Once "the fugitives were surrounded by pursuers, Margaret Garner, seeing that their hopes of freedom were in vain, seized a butcher knife that lay on the table, and with one stroke cut the throat of her little daughter, whom she probably loved the best." 47 There is no exact parallel of language in Morrison's novel, but when the slavecatchers enter the woodshed, Sethe is "holding a blood-soaked child to her chest" so "her head wouldn't fall off." 48 At the end of the novel when Beloved has disappeared again and Sethe has taken to her bed, much like Baby Suggs, she says, "[Beloved] was my best thing." 49

These are all powerful connections that students are fully capable of perceiving, and it truly deepens the significance of the novel. The historical truth is so strongly intertwined with the narrative truth that the impact is compounded, not in any way lessened, because it is a work of fiction. After students have read this chapter, they come into class, expecting an immediate discussion. Many of them have clearly formed judgments about the justice of Sethe's decision. As students walk through the door, I hand them the passage from Reminiscences with directions to read the selection and write a response to two questions prior to discussion: Paragraph 1) What similarities are present between Margaret and Sethe? Does reading this change your opinion of Sethe at all?

Paragraph 2) How do you personally deal with the situation in ch. 16, morally and/or ethically. (Philosophically, 'morality' speaks to the character, actions, and/or values of an individual; 'ethics' is the set of standards that governs a particular group.) The discussion that follows is more serious and grounded in the text, which respects the historical reality of the situation (see the Appendix for the text from Reminiscences ).

Strategies and Activities

The reading pace of the novel is, I believe, critical to guiding students and keeping them engaged. I generally expect my students to read at least 25 pages a night, but a text this dense requires a bit more time. There are important moments that students need to read about prior to one class period and there are others that necessitate a bit of time and space between them. My chapter-chunking suggestions for a class that meets every other day are as follows: 1; 2-3; 4-7; 8-9; 10-12; 13-15; 16-18; 19; 20-23; 24-25; 26-28.

Teachers have developed many different methods for checking that students have read and tried to understand the text. While many upper-level teachers check text annotations, I ask students to create a reader's journal. For the journal, students must pull a designated number of quotations from the chapters assigned and respond to them. The quotations that they choose should illuminate some significant element: plot development, symbol, characterization, motif/theme, writing technique/style, etc. They are reminded that their responses are NOT a summary or paraphrase but an explication of meaning. Below is the example that I give to my students:

  • QUOTE: "The plash of water, the sight of her shoes and stocking awry on the path where she had flung them; or Here Boy lapping in the puddle near her feet, and suddenly there was Sweet Home rolling, rolling, rolling out before her eyes, and although there was not a leaf on that farm that did not make her want to scream, it rolled itself out before her in shameless beauty. It never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too." (7)
  • RESPONSE: The string of clauses at the beginning of this long sentence reinforces the idea that anything can trigger a painful flashback to the plantation where Sethe was a slave; the length of the sentence also shows how her present life is inextricably linked to her past. The repetition of the word "rolling" seems to emphasize how unstoppable a force memory is—like a bulldozer. There's also obvious irony in the name "Sweet Home;" while it was beautiful, just the memory of the sight causes her pain and invokes an allusion to hell. While most people think of "home sweet home" as a tired but accurate cliché, this is obviously an example of harsh discrepancy between naming and reality, an important theme. I wonder what other elements in the novel are not what they seem?

I have tried to embed analytical modeling in the previous pages as a primary strategy of working through the text. In addition, however, small group work can be extremely effective in working through multiple chapters, improving comprehension, and encouraging students to think independently about interpretation and analysis.

Below are questions that students address in small groups regarding chapter one. The questions are a mix of comprehension and interpretation, and students must provide evidence for all of their answers, which requires them to interact closely with the text.

  • Who took the iron from Sethe's eyes? How is that character associated with the tree on her back?
  • What makes Sethe choose Halle over the other Sweet Home men?
  • What does the passage on p. 14 add to Sethe's characterization? From whose perspective is it?
  • What does the audience learn about the ghost in this chapter, and what is each person's relationship to the ghost (Sethe, Denver, Paul D)?
  • How does Denver feel when meeting Paul D? What makes her feel this way? Interpret the following: "Denver burst in from the keeping room, terror in her eyes, a vague smile on her lips" (21).

In order to have students thinking about the structure and literary qualities of the novel from the beginning, I also assign each small group a writing style and a theme, motif, or symbol to trace within the chapter. The students must provide two examples of each, think about its significance, and present it to the class. The pairings I have are: nature and flashback; iron and stream of consciousness; bestiality and repetition; home and Gothic Romanticism; memory and magical realism (bildungsroman isn't evident yet).

Another useful activity that requires students to think critically is to have them create their own questions. This works best when you can divide the class in half and then put each half into small groups of 3-4. Side A will create questions for chapters 11-12 and side B will create questions for chapters 13-14. Once they have crafted their questions, they must switch and answer the questions created by the other half. This also cleverly serves to have students review a large section of text because they must think carefully during both parts of the activity. In order to ensure the students are creating quality questions, I assess the questions and not the answers, though they count for participation. Also, I have found that giving the students question stems/verbs based on Howard Bloom's taxonomy of higher order thinking skills leads them to create stronger questions. Students must create five questions; two may be comprehension (knowledge or comprehension in Bloom's language) and three should be interpretation or analysis (analysis, synthesis, or evaluation).

Finally, one of the most useful activities is the timeline. This is best done after chapter 18, at the end of part I. I made some changes for my own classes, but the original idea comes from Teachit, a copyright-protected website originally created for British teachers, but which has many valuable resources for the literature classroom. I strongly encourage teachers to visit the website (www.teachit.co.uk) and evaluate the materials for themselves.

Beloved is a novel that has been and will continue to be a central piece of literature in the literature classroom for so many reasons. This curriculum unit is just a small window into some of its elements; there were many times during the writing when I thought I could not possibly do justice to the complexity of the text in the time and space allowed. However, the theme of storytelling has allowed me to center the focus on ways in which the incredibly powerful story gets revealed to the audience. While I was aware of the importance of the African American experience in the novel, examining it as storytelling has only magnified that significance—especially since I researched the particular modes of African American storytelling that inform the text. I now have a renewed respect and passion for this novel, and see myself teaching and learning it for a long time to come. My goal here is to provide teachers with a pathway into analysis that doesn't come from a summary-based perspective, and I hope that is useful.

Appendix: Margaret Garner Activity

Read the following historical account on which Sethe is based and respond on a separate sheet of paper to the following questions; it should be about a page.

Paragraph 1: What similarities are present between Margaret and Sethe? Does reading this change your opinion of Sethe at all?

Paragraph 2: How do you personally deal with the situation in ch. 16, morally and/or ethically. (Philosophically, 'morality' speaks to the character, actions, and/or values of an individual; 'ethics' is the set of standards that governs a particular group.)

The Story of Margaret Garner from Levi Coffin's Reminiscences

Levi Coffin was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, in 1798; he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, as a young man. He was a Quaker and abolitionist, and is called "the President of the Underground Railroad" for his efforts to save thousands from the institution of slavery. He wrote his autobiography in 1876 and died in 1877.

Perhaps no case that came under my notice, while engaged in aiding fugitive slaves, attracted more attention and aroused deeper interest and sympathy than the case of Margaret Garner, the slave mother who killed her child rather than see it taken back to slavery. This happened in the latter part of January, 1856. The Ohio River was frozen over at the time, and the opportunity thus offered for escaping to a free State was embraced by a number of slaves living in Kentucky, several miles back from the river. A party of seventeen, belonging to different masters in the same neighborhood, made arrangements to escape together. There was snow on the ground and the roads were smooth, so the plan of going to the river on a sled naturally suggested itself. The time fixed for their flight was Sabbath night, and having managed to get a large sled and two good horses, belonging to one of their masters, the party of seventeen crowded into the sled and started on their hazardous journey in the latter part of the night. They drove the horses at full speed, and at daylight reached the River below Covington, opposite Wester Row. They left the sled and horses here, and as quickly as possible crossed the river on foot. It was now broad daylight, and people were beginning to pass about the streets and the fugitives divided their company that they might not attract so much notice.

An old slave named Simon and his wife Mary, together with their son Robert and his wife Margaret Garner and four children, made their way to the house of a colored man named Kite, who had formerly lived in their neighborhood and had been purchased from slavery by his father, Joe Kite. They had to make several inquiries in order to find Kite's house, which was below Mill Creek, in the lower part of the city. This afterward led to their discovery; they had been seen by a number of persons on their way to Kite's, and were easily traced by pursuers. The other nine fugitives were more fortunate. They made their way up town and found friends who conducted them to safe hiding places, where they remained until night. They were put on the Underground Railroad, and went safely through to Canada....

In a few minutes...[Kite's] house was surrounded by pursuers—the masters of the fugitives, with officers and a posse of men. The door and windows were barred, and those inside refused to give admittance. The fugitives were determined to fight, and to die, rather than to be taken back to slavery. Margaret, the mother of the four children, declared that she would kill herself and her children before she would return to bondage. The slave men were armed and fought bravely. The window was first battered down with a stick of wood, and one of the deputy marshals attempted to enter, but a pistol shot from within made a flesh wound on his arm and caused him to abandon the attempt. The pursuers then battered down the door with some timber and rushed in. The husband of Margaret fired several shots, and wounded one of the officers, but was soon overpowered and dragged out of the house. At this moment, Margaret Garner, seeing that their hopes of freedom were in vain, seized a butcher knife that lay on the table, and with one stroke cut the throat of her little daughter, whom she probably loved the best. She then attempted to take the life of the other children and to kill herself, but she was overpowered and hampered before she could complete her desperate work. The whole party was then arrested and lodged in jail.

The trial lasted two weeks, drawing crowds to the courtroom every day....The counsel for the defense brought witnesses to prove that the fugitives had been permitted to visit the city at various times previously. It was claimed that Margaret Garner had been brought here by her owners a number of years before, to act as nurse girl, and according to the law which liberated slaves who were brought into free States by the consent of their masters, she had been free from that time, and her children, all of whom had been born since then—following the condition of the mother—were likewise free.

The Commissioner decided that a voluntary return to slavery, after a visit to a free State, reattached the conditions of slavery, and that the fugitives were legally slaves at the time of their escape....

But in spite of touching appeals, of eloquent pleadings, the Commissioner remanded the fugitives back to slavery. He said that it was not a question of feeling to be decided by the chance current of his sympathies; the law of Kentucky and the United States made it a question of property.

After being remanded to her owner, William Garrison's newspaper The Liberator reported that she and her youngest child were sold and were traveling by riverboat to Arkansas when their boat collided with another. Both Garner and her child were thrown overboard; the child drowned, and Garner expressed pleasure that her child died. She was sold again and moved to New Orleans, where she died of typhoid fever in 1858.

Bibliography

Allen, Robert, Maya Angelou, et al. "Black Writers in Praise of Toni Morrison."The New York Times, January 24, 1988. Http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/15084. html (accessed July 13, 2012).

Atkinson, Yvonne. "'I Been Worried Sick About You Too, Macon': Toni Morrison, the South, and the Oral Tradition." Critical Insights: Toni Morrison . Ed. Solomon O. Iyasere and Marla W. Iyasere. Salem Press, 2010.

Bowers, Susan R. "A Context for Understanding Morrison's Work." Critical Insights: Toni Morrison . Ed. Solomon O. Iyasere and Marla W. Iyasere. Salem Press, 2010.

Coffin, Levi.Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the reputed president of the Underground Railroad: being a brief history of the labors of a lifetime in behalf of the slave, with the stories of numerous fugitives, who gained their freedom through his instrumentality. Cincinnati,1880.Slavery and Anti-Slavery.Gale.Yale University Library.17 July 2012. 557-567.

Denard, Carolyn C. "Beyond the Bitterness of History: Teaching Beloved ." InApproaches to teaching the novels of Toni Morrison. Ed. Nellie Y. McKay and Kathryn Earle. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1997. 40-47.

Drabble, Margaret, ed. "Magic Realism."The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th ed. London: Oxford UP, 2000. 629-30.

Heinze, Denise.The Dilemma of "Double-Consciousness": Toni Morrison's Novels. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993.

Holland, Sharon P. and Michael Awkward. "Marginality and Community in Beloved ." InApproaches to teaching the novels of Toni Morrison. Ed. Nellie Y. McKay and Kathryn Earle. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1997. 48-55.

Kachka, Boris. "Who Is the Author of Toni Morrison?."New York Magazine, April 29, 2012. Http://nymag.com/news/features/toni-morrison-2012-5/ (accessed July 13, 2012).

Metcalf, Stephen. "Why Is Beloved Beloved?." Slate Magazine , May 18, 2006. Http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_dilettante/2006/05/why_is_beloved_beloved.html (accessed July 13, 2012).

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

——. Lecture and Speech of Acceptance, Upon the Award of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Delivered in Stockholm on the Seventh of December, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Three . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

——."10 Questions for Toni Morrison." Time . May 7, 2008. Http://www.time.com/time/ magazine/ article/0,9171,1738507,00.html (accessed July 13, 2012).

"Most Challenged Books Include 'Beloved' and 'The Chocolate War'." Washington Post , March 24, 2008. Http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/23/ AR2008032301503.html (accessed July 13, 2012).

Raynaud, Claudine." Beloved or the shifting shapes of memory."The Cambridge Companion to Toni Morrison.Ed. Justine Tally.Cambridge University Press,2007.43-58.

Reinhardt, Mark.Who Speaks for Margaret Garner?. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

Rothstein, Mervyn. "Toni Morrison, In Her New Novel, Defends Women." The New York Times , August 26, 1987. Http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/ 14013.html (accessed July 13, 2012).

Implementing District Standards

My district—and state, for that matter—has just transitioned to the Common Core State Standards, which represents a nationwide effort to provide high quality and engaging classroom practices for all students. The English Language Arts Common Core is delineated in five key standards, or strands: reading, writing, speaking and listening, language, and media and technology. The Common Core represents a shift in expectations, because all students are to meet the rigorous standards as outlined in 2012-2013.

This unit meets the criteria for a strong Common Core unit in several ways. For example, according to expectations from the Reading strand, students should "read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text." This is an essential part of this curriculum unit because students must be able not only to comprehend the plot of the text, but to engage in class discussions with both small and large groups, which will be based on providing textual support for their opinions and explaining their interpretations and conclusions. Students will also "assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text," which is another foundational element of this unit, especially due to the theme of storytelling which shapes the interpretation and analysis of the novel.

This unit was also designed for an Advanced Placement class, which must also adhere to rigorous nationwide standards. AP classes are designed to provide a college-level course experience in a high school setting; students are introduced to demanding critical thinking and interpretation skills and are expected to apply them to their literature study. An AP English Literature and Composition course includes expectations like "students reflect on the social and historical values it reflects and embodies. Careful attention to both textual detail and historical context provides a foundation for interpretation." As stated, this unit will include biographical, social, and cultural background so that students will understand and appreciate the context that plays an important role in the novel. The College Board also notes that "the approach to analyzing and interpreting the material involves students in learning how to make careful observations of textual detail, establish connections among their observations, and draw from those connections a series of inferences leading to an interpretive conclusion about the meaning and value of a piece of writing." This is a necessary component of the unit because students are expected to note details that occur throughout the text, creating a cumulative interpretation that must be open to change as the novel progresses.

  • Bowers, "A Context for Understanding Morrison's Work," 5.
  • Kachka, "Who Is the Author of Toni Morrison?", 4.
  • Morrison, Beloved , 23.
  • Morrison, "10 Questions for Toni Morrison."
  • Allen, "Black Writers in Praise of Toni Morrison."
  • Metcalf, "Why Is Beloved Beloved?"
  • "Most Challenged Books Include 'Beloved' and 'The Chocolate War'".
  • Morrison, Beloved , 12-13.
  • Ibid., 3; 199; 281.
  • Morrison, Beloved , 102.
  • Ibid., 101.
  • Raynaud, " Beloved or the shifting shapes of memory," 44.
  • Morrison, Beloved , 6.
  • Ibid., 6-7.
  • Drabble, "Magical Realism," 629.
  • Morrison, Beloved , 4.
  • Heinze, The Dilemma of "Double-Consciousness ", 159-160.
  • Morrison, Beloved , 87.
  • Ibid., 235.
  • Ibid., 248.
  • Ibid., 251.
  • Ibid., 248; 250; 252.
  • Ibid., 282.
  • Ibid., 286.
  • Ibid., 292.
  • Ibid., 314.
  • Morrison, Lecture and Speech of Acceptance .
  • Morrison, Beloved , 18-20.
  • Ibid., xvii.
  • Coffin, Reminiscences , 557.
  • Ibid., 559-560.
  • Morrison, Beloved , 175; 177.
  • Ibid., 321.

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Introduction of Beloved

Beloved was written by an African American feminine icon, Toni Morrison, and published in 1987. It took the literary world of the African American community in the United States by storm. Set in the time of the Civil War, Beloved has surpassed the actual life depiction of Margaret Garner, an escapee of slavery. When she was captured, she kills her child for fear that the child might be taken into slavery though she crossed the borders to the free state of Ohio. The depiction of that true story created ripples in the American literary circles and the novel won her Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988, making Toni a household name.  

Summary of Beloved

The story of the novel revolves around Sethe, a slave woman, who starts living in Ohio in the state of Cincinnati on 124. It happens in 1873 when both mother and daughter escape from slavery following the Civil War. The story, then, moves to this haunted house, Sethe’s daughter, Denver, her two sons, who have run away when quite young for which Sethe thinks because of the ghost in the house, and Baby Suggs, her mother-in-law, who lives with her but later dies after her sons flee.

The story unfolds in a manner of switching from the past to the present with a series of flashbacks . Sethe meets Paul D on 124 which takes her back to the days she has worked in Sweet Plantation for Mr. & Mrs. Garner along with Halle, Paul D, Paul A, Sixo, and Paul F. These men lust over Sethe but never make a move on her. Sethe chooses to marry Halle and she gets pregnant. Meanwhile, the owner of the Plantation dies leaving the responsibility to be taken over by Mrs. Garners’ Brother-in-law and his nephews. The Brother-in-law known as the school teacher among the slaves was very sadistic and racist. One day, he whips Sethe in spite of knowing she was pregnant. Sethe complains to Mrs. Garner.

Knowing this school teacher and the nephews surround her in the barn and steal her breast milk. All along this was watched by Halle who was hiding in the loft above her but doesn’t come out to save his wife since he feared losing his life. Later, in the story Paul D states that he sees Halle rubs his face with churned butter and acting like a crazy person. Later, Baby Suggs and Sethe escape from there to Ohio along with her other children. While traveling in the boat with Amy and Denver, they help her deliver the baby which is why she names her daughter after one of the girls. Sethe gets help from Stamp Paid.

Later, the school teacher comes to Sethe’s to take her and the children to work in the farm. In order, to escape the shackles of slavery and the cruelty of racism for her and her children, she tries to kill her children and herself later. So, she kills one of her daughters whose name is never mentioned in the story. When she was taken to prison, the white abolitionists-Bodwins help her release her to release from prison. The family lives in isolation after the community shuns them.

While at Sweet Plantation Sixo is killed by a school teacher and Paul D sold to Brandywine slave owner and later sent to a chain gang experiencing torture and humiliation along with other slaves because he tried to kill the owner. Luckily, rainstorms in the region helped them escape and Paul reaches Cincinnati on 124. Paul D tries to convince Sethe stating that he is the perfect man for her and continues to stay in 124 in spite of the haunted house situation. Paul D dismisses his superstitious thoughts and returns to the family to help them forget their horrible past.

However, he could not remove Denver, the revenant, from the house as when all of the return, they find her sitting on the floor and showing herself as Sethe’s daughter, Beloved. Despite his warnings, Sethe does not leave Beloved and feels charmed, while Paul D, feels highly discomfort in her presence and starts sleeping at different places. Despite this, Beloved corners him and has sex with him when he thinks about his horrible past of slavery. Soon he tells Sethe about it, but she feels gladdened over this relation, though, Paul D, does not accept it and repels her influence on him.

He also does not face any acceptance on work and gets information from Stamp Paid that the community shuns them on account of Beloved. However, he leaves after he comes to know about this event, though, Sethe, does not leave the ghost, seeing in it her dead daughter, Beloved. Spoiling the ghost of Beloved through time and money, Sethe soon loses her job yet she is unable to meet her demands and tolerate her ever-increasing tantrums. Finally, Beloved takes a toll on her, making her a skeleton and herself heavy as a pregnant woman.

Finally, Denver, her other daughter, musters up the courage and seeks assistance from her community and former teacher Lady Jones, at which some women come to help them get rid of the ghost. Meanwhile, Mr. Bodwin, too, arrives to offer them a place for work, but instead, Sethe attacks assuming it was the school teacher, while Beloved disappears from the scene forever. Denver, then, takes the lead and becomes a worker, while Paul D returns finding Sethe on the bed and making her feel that she is the best woman for him.

Major Themes in Beloved

  • Slavery and Dehumanization: The long-lasting effects of slavery and its dehumanizing impacts on the African American community is an important theme of this novel. Sethe’s final escape toward Ohio shows that despite having fled slavery, she stays emotionally in it. Paul D, too, flees to become a good human being and when all of them meet at the same house, they become hostage to Beloved, who proves that they will take time to come into their proper senses. Also, constant beatings, bad treatment such as the thrashing of the Schoolteacher’s nephews, and animal images to show this mistreatment are the influences of this dehumanization.
  • Naming: The theme of naming is significant in Beloved in that it shows the white sense of superiority that does not let this ethnic race come down to see that the African American people like Pauls, Baby Suggs, and Sethe are also humans and Christians too. The naming of Paul as different alphabets show this mentality of eliminating the true identity of an individual. Not only were they named in this way, but also they were sold and purchased on bills such as in the case of Baby Suggs’ mother, Whitlow.
  • Role of Mother: The role of the mother in an African American structure is significant in that a mother becomes a protective figure for anyone who comes to her. Baby Suggs assumes this role when she sees that she has lost almost all of her children. However, Sethe replaces after taking care of her and assumes this role to take care of the children whoever comes to her despite the fact that she has tried to kill them and even killed Beloved out of love that her children should not be damned into slavery again.
  • Slavery: The main theme of slavery reverberates in almost every part and every character of Beloved . Sethe, Baby Suggs, Paul D, and all other characters have had to face the worst on account of their being from the African American race. For example, the Schoolteacher, who owns Sweet Home, treats them brutally like animals and they are traded like livestock. That is why Paul D considers Sweet Home just another name of a center of exploitation instead of sweetness.
  • Identity: Individual identity and its elimination or erasure is another significant theme in that different characters from the African American community lose their individuality when they are exchanged for money or otherwise. Pauls are named as B, C, and D while other kids and adults are named as if they are not human beings or worse than animals. The treatment of the School teacher is quite opposite to his title, showing an entirely new way of identifying the African Americans. That is why Stamp Paid is of the view that it is slavery that has twisted and turned their identities.
  • Masculinity: Masculinity is a thematic strand, and it runs parallel to femininity that does not and cannot exist in the absence of masculinity. The life of Sethe seems incomplete without Paul after Halle and the same goes for Paul D that he cannot exist or live without the active presence of Sethe.
  • Past: Past exists in the present in Beloved in that Sethe is settled at 124, yet the scars of past slavery stay afresh in her mind, constantly haunting her into seeing the ghost of her dead daughter as if she is living with her. Despite her balanced personality, Denver, too, seems to have the impacts of the scars of past slavery. That is why she nudges Sethe to narrate her stories of Amy and others.
  • Home: The theme of the home appears in Beloved in that almost all the African American characters vie to have a home of their own. When Sethe arrives at 124, she does not seem to reconcile to the idea that she has her own home, the reason that she attacks the white man in the end.
  • Freedom: Although somewhat implicit, the idea of freedom for the African American community constantly comes to the fore when Sethe flees and then Paul D, follows. Even living at 124, it seems that the main obsession of the other characters such as Baby Suggs and even Denver is freedom; freedom from financial pressure, and freedom from social constraints.

Major Characters in Beloved

  • Sethe: The protagonist of Beloved, Sethe is the representative of the African American community and a sign of the hateful slavery that existed. Although she shows generous-heartedness by keeping everyone at 142, yet her own problem of the dead daughter and the new revenant compounds her dilemmas . She has reached this stage after having been sold to many hands and finally marrying Halle Suggs, though, she has had to take care of his mother later in life. Her passion to save her children from slavery is so strong that she reaches Ohio by hook or crook. Yet, her desire to keep the family together fails, for she could not keep her sons at home and that Baby Suggs also leaves her to her eternal abode. Finally, she stays contented with Denver, her other daughter, and Paul D.
  • Baby Suggs: Baby Suggs is Halle’s mother and Sethe’s mother-in-law. She appears when Halle buys her freedom, though, she remains passive. Finally, she becomes a sacred woman in the community at 124 when Sethe takes her to Cincinnati so that she could lead her life in peace and comfort. Baby Suggs becomes so weak that she thinks it better to withdraw from day-to-day activities and while staying at 124.
  • Denver: Sethe’s second daughter and the future breadwinner, Denver gets her name from Amy Denver, the white lady, who helps Sethe during her delivery. Her insistence on Amy’s story is perhaps an indicator of her attachment to her benefactor. To kill her loneliness, she stays with Sethe all the time and starts working by the end when going becomes tough in the household.
  • Beloved: Beloved appeared in the novel as two persons. The first one is the daughter of Sethe to whom she kills when Sweet Home’s owner and the police find her and try to forcibly take her back. The second is the ghost of Beloved who starts living with them at 124 and leaves only when Sethe is almost eaten up, making Beloved very fat. Although Beloved dies in childhood, yet the revenant becomes very touchy and temperamental and finally disappears from the scene.
  • School teacher: The role of the School teacher is very important in Beloved in that he wields power over the slaves at Sweet Home. His sadism, sometimes, surpasses his biological knowledge of slave taming. His cruelty against Sethe and other slaves reminds them of the scars they receive at Sweet Home.
  • Paul D: Paul D has lived at Sweet Home as a slave with other Pauls and Halle. He, like others, suffers at the hands of School teacher and later appears at 124 to live with Sethe including the ghost of Beloved. When Sethe finally faces mental dilemmas, he again appears to support her, though, he himself is engaged in repelling his bitter memories with his tobacco tin.
  • Mr. Garner: Mr. Garner is significant in the storyline on account of his pride in his treatment of slaves. His free handling of the slaves earns him some praise, though, he stays hypocritical in his attitude and actions.
  • Sixo: Markedly different from others due to paint color, Sixo seems well-versed in his masters’ language, the reason that he rebels wherever he goes. He is presented in the story as a gentle spirit.
  • Amy Denver: Her character in the novel defies all predictions about her being a white lady and still helping the slaves. Her generosity and free spirit win the hearts of the African American community in that Sethe names her daughter after her for whom she helps Sethe during the birth.
  • Stamp Paid: Stamp Paid, formerly called Joshua, faces very cruel slavery when his wife gets sexually abused despite his payment of debts. He appears as a problem solver even at 124 when he serves the community.

Writing Style of Beloved

Tony Morrison adopted a very unusual style in this novel, starting it by breaking the usual structure that is a non-linear story. The story starts en medias res and takes the readers to different characters who either tell their tales or a third person omniscient narrator starts telling the story. Most parts of the storyline are in the present tense in flashbacks, while some are in the past tense with the juxtaposition of the past with the present. The sentence structure, however, is quite simple, to the point, and direct, using both formal as well as informal diction .

Analysis of Literary Devices in Beloved

  • Action: The main action of the novel comprises Sethe and Baby Suggs ordeal under slavery, their freedom, and the life of their kids. However, the rising action occurs when Sethe kills Beloved for fear that she may be taken back to be a slaver. The falling action , however, occurs when Beloved, the revenant, disappears from the home at 124.
  • Allegory : Beloved is presented as an allegorical figure as she represents the past that keeps on haunting Sethe and other people living in 124.
  • Anadiplosis : Beloved shows the use of anaphora in the below example, i. Harder, harder, the fingers moved slowly around toward her windpipe, making little circles on the way (One) The sentence shows the repetitious use of “harder, harder” at the beginning of the sentence.
  • Antagonist : Beloved shows a system demonstrating itself as an antagonist . For example, slavery has been shown as an antagonist of Sethe that it does not let her free its shackles and enjoy a free life.
  • Allusion : There are various examples of allusions given in the novel. i. I will call them my people, Which were not my people; And her beloved, Which was not beloved. (Romans 9:25) ii. Maybe he should have left it alone ; maybe Sethe would have gotten around to telling him herself; maybe he was not the high minded Soldier of Christ he thought he was, but an ordinary, plain meddler who had interrupted something going along just fine for the sake of truth and forewarning. (One) iii. When the horsemen came—schoolteacher, one nephew, one slave catcher and a sheriff—the house on Bluestone Road was so quiet they thought they were too late. (Two) These three allusions are related to religion and Christianity; the first one is a direct quote, the second alludes to Christ and the third alludes to four horsemen in the Bible in Apocalypse.
  • Conflict : The are two types of conflicts in the novel . The first one is the external conflict that is going on in the African American community led by Sethe and the institution of slavery. The second one is going on in the mind of Sethe about the freedom of her children and slavery.
  • Characters: Beloved presents both static as well as dynamic characters . The young girl, Denver, and her mother, Sethe, are the two dynamic characters as they constantly change themselves according to the circumstances. However, all other characters, like all Pauls, Baby Suggs, Stamp Paid, and other white characters are static characters as they do not change during the course of the novel.
  • Climax : The climax occurs by the end of the first part where Sethe kills her daughter due to the fear that she might have to live life in slavery like her.
  • Foreshadowing : The novel shows the following examples of foreshadowing , i. 124 was spitefull. Full of a baby’s venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims. (One) ii. Out of site of of Mister’s sight, away, praise His name, from the smiling boss of roosters, Paul D began to tremble. Not all at once and not so anyone could tell. (One) iii. 124 was quiet. Denver, who thought she knew all about silence , was surprised to learn hunger could do that: quiet you down and wear you out. (One) These quotes from Beloved foreshadow the coming events.
  • Imagery : Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, i. And the wrought-iron maze he had explored in the kitchen like a gold miner pawing through pay dirt was, in fact, a revolting clump of scars. Not a tree, as she said. Maybe shaped like one, but nothing like any tree he knew because trees were inviting; things you could trust and be near; talk to if you wanted to as he frequently did since way back when he took the midday meal in the fields of Sweet Home. (One) ii. The crickets were screaming on Thursday and the sky, stripped of blue, was white hot at eleven in the morning. (One) iii. Slow, what-if thoughts that cut deep but struck nothing solid a man could hold on to. So he held his wrists. Passing by that woman’s life, getting in it, and letting it get in him had set him up for this fall. These passages from Beloved shows different images of sounds, colors, and movements.
  • Metaphor : Beloved shows good use of various metaphors , for example, i. “Whitegirl. That’s what she called it. I’ve never seen it and never will. But that’s what she said it looked like. A chokecherry tree.” (One) ii. “White people believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle” (Second). iii. “It was some time before he could put Alfred, Georgia, Sixo, schoolteacher, Halle, his brothers, Sethe, Mister, the taste of iron, the sight of butter, the smell of hickory, notebook paper, one by one, into the tobacco tin lodged in his chest” (Second). The first is the metaphor of a tree, the second of the jungle , and the third of tobacco tin.
  • Mood : The novel shows various moods in the beginning but it turns out quite suspenseful and ominous in tone . However, by the end, it becomes somewhat tragic and ironic.
  • Motif : Most important motifs of the novel are tobacco tin, jungle, black color, and 124.
  • Narrator : The novel, Beloved , is unique in that it presents different narrators and does not stick to a single narrative ; at times it is narrated in the third person point of view and at other times, it is in the first-person point of view.
  • Protagonist : Sethe is the protagonist of the novel. The novel starts with her house at 124 and moves back and forth in flashbacks to tell the story of her life and the story of her children.
  • Repetition : The novel shows the use of repetition in the poem given in the novel as the example given below, “You forgot to smile I loved you You hurt me You came back to me You left me I waited for you You are mine You are mine You are mine (One)” Although it is a type of poem, it shows various repetitions among which “You left me” and “You are mine” significant.
  • Rhetorical Questions : The novel shows good use of rhetorical questions at several places. For examples, i. ‘I took one journey and I paid for the ticket, but let me tell you something, Paul D Garner: it cost too much! Do you hear me? It cost too much. Now sit down and eat with us or leave us be.”. (One) ii. Trust things and remember things because the last of the Sweet Home men was there to catch her if she sank? (One) iii. Unless carefree, motherlove was a killer. What did he want her pregnant for? To hold on to her? have a sign that he passed this way? (One) This example shows the use of rhetorical questions posed but different characters not to elicit answers but to stress upon the underlined idea.
  • Setting : The setting of the novel is Cincinnati in Ohio during the Civil War.
  • Simile : The novel shows good use of various similes as the examples given below, i. The picture of the men coming to nurse her was as lifeless as the nerves in her back where the skin buckled like a washboard. (One) ii. Looking, in fact acting, like a girl instead of the quiet, queenly woman Denver had known all her life. (One) iii. And when the top of her dress was around her hips and he saw the sculpture her back had become, like the decorative work of an ironsmith too passionate for display (One). iv. She smelled like bark in the day and leaves at night , for Denver would not sleep in her old room after her brothers ran away. (One). These are similes as the use of the word “like” shows the comparison between different things.

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beloved introduction essay

Toni Morrison

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On the edge of Cincinnati, in 1873 just after the end of the Civil War, there is a house numbered 124 that is haunted by the presence of a dead child. A former slave named Sethe has lived in the house, with its ghost, for 18 years. Sethe lives at 124 with her daughter Denver . Her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs , died eight years previously after languishing for years with exhaustion and seeming overwhelming sadness. And her two sons, Howard and Buglar , ran away from the haunted home just before Baby Suggs’ death.

Paul D , a former slave who used to work on the same plantation, called Sweet Home, as Sethe, arrives at 124 and moves in, making a kind of family with Denver and Sethe. Paul D awakens painful memories for Sethe and Denver is jealous of the attention and affection that Sethe gives to him. But just as Denver is getting used to the new familial arrangement, a strange woman appears at the house. She calls herself Beloved and says that she doesn’t know who she is or where she is from.

Beloved asks Sethe many questions about her past and somehow seems to know about things only Sethe knew, such as about a pair of earrings Sethe received as a gift from the wife of her former master. Denver loves having Beloved around the house and eagerly tells her about the miracle of her own birth: Sethe escaped from Sweet Home while pregnant with Denver and almost died of hunger and exhaustion while trying to make it to Ohio. But a white woman named Amy Denver found Sethe, cared for her, and helped her get to the Ohio River , where she gave birth to Denver. Sethe named Denver after the kind white woman.

Paul D recalls his experience working on a chain gang. He and the other slaves eventually escaped together and had their chains cut by a group of Cherokee. Paul D wandered north and stayed with a kind woman in Delaware for some time, but he was unable to settle. He felt an urge to wander and did so for years before coming to 124.

Missing Baby Suggs, Sethe takes Beloved and Denver to the clearing in the woods where Baby Suggs used to have spiritual gatherings before she fell into her exhausted state. Sethe wishes that Baby Suggs were there to rub her neck and suddenly she feels other-worldly fingers massaging her neck. But then the fingers begin to choke her until they finally let go. Denver thinks that Beloved is somehow behind the choking, but Beloved denies it.

Beloved gradually and mysterious forces Paul D out of the house by making him restless, so that he ends up sleeping outside in the cold house. When he is sleeping outside in the cold house one night, she persuades him to sleep with her and stirs up his painful memories. Beloved tells Denver that she wants Paul D out of 124.

The novel moves back in time to follow Baby Suggs as she waits for Sethe and her son Halle (Sethe’s husband). Sethe has snuck her children out of Sweet Home and sent them ahead to 124, and she and Halle are supposed to escape together and come to the house. Halle never arrives, but Sethe does, and Baby Suggs is happy to have at least Sethe and her children reunited. She hosts a grand celebration for the neighboring community and her meager stores of food miraculously furnish a huge feast for ninety people. After the celebration, she feels uneasy, and realizes that she has offended the community with an excessive display of joy and pride. She senses that something bad is coming as a consequence.

Soon after the celebration, four horsemen come to 124: Schoolteacher (who became the owner of Sweet Home after the kinder original master died), his nephew, a slave catcher, and a sheriff. They have come to take Sethe and her children back to Sweet Home to work as slaves. The offended community does not warn Sethe or Baby Suggs, and when Sethe sees Schoolteacher coming, she gathers her children and runs to a shed. When the four horsemen find her, she has killed one child with a saw and is ready to kill her other children. Schoolteacher decides that she is crazy and not worth bringing back to work. The sheriff takes Sethe off to jail.

Back in the present, a former slave named Stamp Paid (who helped Sethe escape to 124 eighteen years ago) tells Paul D about Sethe’s killing her own child. Paul D confronts Sethe about it, and then leaves 124. Feeling guilty for causing Paul D to leave Sethe, Stamp Paid goes to 124 to talk to Sethe. But she does not come to the door. Stamp Paid hears strange voices from the house and sees Beloved through a window.

Within the house, Beloved causes Sethe to remember more and more of her painful past. The novel follows Sethe’s stream of consciousness as Sethe maintains that her killing her child was an act of love. Sethe believes that Beloved is the returned spirit of her dead child. The novel then follows the thoughts of Denver and Beloved. In a series of vivid but fragmented recollections, Beloved remembers being taken on a ship from Africa to the United States, the "middle passage" of the Atlantic slave trade.

Sethe begins to get weaker and weaker, falling under the sway of Beloved, whose every whim Sethe obeys. Denver ventures out of the house in search of work, to try to get food and provide for the household. She goes to the house of the Bodwins , who once helped Baby Suggs settle at 124, and tells their maid Janey about Beloved and the situation at 124. The community rallies together to supply food to 124.

As news spreads of Beloved’s strange presence at 124, a group of women join together to rescue Sethe and Denver from her. They gather around 124 and break into song, in a kind of exorcism. Mr. Bodwin approaches the house and Sethe mistakes him for Schoolteacher. Crazed, she tries to attack him but is restrained by Denver and other women. Beloved disappears.

After Beloved’s departure, 124 seems to become a normal household. Sethe has mostly lost her mind, but Denver is working and learning, hoping one day to attend college. Paul D returns to 124 and promises to always care for Sethe. The inhabitants of 124 and the surrounding community gradually forget about Beloved entirely, even those who saw and talked to her.

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Beloved Essay

In the novel, “Beloved”, by Toni Morrison, a female slave tries to escape from her plantation home down south to Ohio with two young children in tow after their father is killed for helping other slaves escape. She hopes to find a community of African Americans who understand the horror of slavery and will help her take care of her family. However, she must make her journey alone, as this scene occurs right before the Civil War begins and slave hunters are everywhere looking for a way to make a profit off human lives. The woman’s name was Sethe and she raised her children as best as she could in a run down shack on the outskirts of Cincinnati.

” Beloved ” is a 1987 novel by American author Toni Morrison. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and was chosen as an Oprah’s Book Club selection in September 1996. Beloved artfully blends elements of horror, romance, and every day. The book is set after the American Civil War (1861–1865) and before the end of reconstruction in 1877, it follows Sethe from just after she escapes slavery to her life with her daughter Denver in Cincinnati, Ohio. Beloved tells two stories: one about a slave family’s flight to freedom and another about an enslaved woman who kills her young child rather than see her enslaved again.

Beloved was adapted into a film of the same name released in 1998. The book was critically well-received. Beloved has been assigned as reading in many American high schools and colleges, but the book has caused controversy due to its depictions of sex, violence, and supernatural themes. Beloved is inspired by the story of an African-American slave, Margaret Garner (1856), who escaped slavery in Kentucky late January 1856 by fleeing across the frozen Ohio River into Ohio; she was reportedly whipped for punishment, which suggests that it may be Sethe’s story instead.

Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931) is an American author, editor, and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Beloved is her sixth novel, it was first published on, by Alfred A. Knopf. Beloved is set after the American Civil War (1861–1865) and before the end of reconstruction in 1877, following Sethe from just after she escaped slavery to her life with her daughter Denver in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Beloved tells two stories: one about a slave family’s flight to freedom and another about an enslaved woman who kills her young child rather than see her enslaved again. Beloved was adapted into a film of the same name released in 1998 by Oprah Winfrey’s production company Harpo Films. The book was critically well-received; Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and was selected by The New York Times as one of the 20 books that best represent the last 20 years.

Beloved has been assigned as reading in many American high schools and colleges, but the book has caused controversy due to its depictions of sex, violence, supernatural themes. Beloved is inspired by the story of an African-American slave, Margaret Garner (1856), who escaped slavery in Kentucky late January 1856 by fleeing across the frozen Ohio River into Ohio; she was reportedly whipped for punishment. Beloved is about 138,000 words long. It is narrated from a third-person omniscient perspective chiefly through Beloved’s point of view, with some sections being through Sethe’s point of view.

Beloved was published by Knopf in the United States and Random House in the United Kingdom. Beloved was included on Time magazine’s 2005 list of “100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to the Present”. Beloved artfully blends elements of horror, romance, and every day. Beloved is a book that both men and women should read if only to help create an understanding of life as it was for many in America during this time period. Beloved is not meant to be copied verbatim. Beloved should be used as the knowledge that one can add to their own personal library.

Beloved is a novel written by the Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. Beloved tells the story of Sethe, an escaped slave living in Ohio with her youngest daughter Denver after years of brutal slavery on a Kentucky plantation. Unable to speak about their experiences and feelings regarding this time, each family member carries unspoken culpability for events that forever change their lives. The book unfolds partly as a series of flashbacks that reveal how Sethe came to live in Ohio.

Beloved was recognized as a Literary Guild selection, Doubleday Book Club main selection, American Booksellers Association Book of the Year finalist, and Time magazine Best Book (fiction) of 1987. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. Beloved has been adapted into a film of the same name. Sethe is a former slave living in 1873 Cincinnati, Ohio, who escaped from slavery in Kentucky around 1855 with her three young children.

She has been unable to speak of her experiences for years and does not reveal to Beloved until close to the end of the novel that she killed her two year-old daughter rather than let an unscrupulous white man take Beloved away to sell as a slave. Beloved had run back to the plantation out of fear when Sethe was banished from the house by Paul D following his return from prison for assaulting his previous owner who had kept him in chains constantly and allowed him no rest.

Beloved becomes possessed by one of the spirits whom Sethe calls Beloved. Beloved takes over the body of Sethe’s daughter Denver and returns to 124 Bluestone Road, which had been haunted since Beloved’s death. Sethe kills Beloved again after Beloved promises her she’ll get an education, but Beloved reappears in a nearby creek bed weeks later. In vain, Sethe hopes that the ghost will leave her alone if she keeps Beloved’s identity a secret from everyone else.

Warren “Baby Suggs” Smith is the deceased younger half-sister of Baby Suggs who died when she was in her early twenties at Sweet Home Plantation near Hanging Rock Creek in Kentucky sometime between 1855 and 1859 when Paul D was still young enough to remember her. Beloved is haunted by Baby Suggs’ spirit for most of the novel, which manifests itself in Beloved’s possession of Sethe’s youngest daughter Denver to whom she gives her own name (a reversal of the African naming tradition) to symbolically replace Beloved.

Paul D “Three” was one of twelve children born to Beloved and Halle in Sweet Home Plantation near Hanging Rock Creek in Kentucky sometime between 1855 and 1859 when Paul D was young enough to still be called a child. He worked as a house servant at an estate close by his plantation until he ran away six or seven years after Beloved had disappeared from that plantation. In subsequent years he moved around frequently between Ohio and New York (he makes a reference to having visited the brothel in Brooklyn that Beloved later visits).

He returns to Ohio around 1873 and meets Sethe working as a janitor in a school where Denver is attending. Beloved also reappears at the house after Paul D’s return from prison for assaulting his previous owner who had kept him in chains constantly and allowed him no rest. Beloved becomes possessed by one of the spirits whom Sethe calls Beloved. Beloved takes over the body of Sethe’s daughter Denver and returns to 124 Bluestone Road, which has been haunted since Beloved’s death.

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Beloved by Toni Morrison: Introduction

beloved introduction essay

Toni Morrison based her novels on real life happenings. In Beloved, Morrison depicts the pain and the pang of slavery and its aftermath. The novel was set in the time of history of America where the civil war has just ended and the situation of the blacks, whether slave or free, was still worse. The fugitive slave act of 1850 guarantees the escaped slave as property and they could be taken by the former masters. Toni Morrison vehemently criticizes the formation of this law. 

Sethe, who was a slave before the civil war is now free only in terms of physical, but she is still bound with the slavery, her past. Sethe, the leading female character of the novel, runs away from her master’s home, is recaptured, and to save her children from the severity of slavery, she killed her eldest daughter. The ghost of that daughter comes back to Sethe after nearly twenty years. The ghost daughter was dissatisfied for her killing and asked for the reason. Sethe has to compensate for the deed she did years ago. She cannot convince her ghost daughter that death was far better than to live in slavery. She was ready to sacrifice anything to compensate for her daughter who missed her childhood, motherly love and most importantly the chance to live.

Beloved deals with the themes of love, family, self-possession, slavery, and the cruelty of whites. Beloved can be taken as a part of history of blacks, a part of a ghost story, and an American –African novel, a novel for feminism, a political novel and a novel for humanity. The history of black was unrecorded, thus, forgotten. So she takes an account of a black lady who was black, a woman, a mother and most importantly a human being. But she loses all her identities and just remains as a commodity and a sex object in the hand of her white master. The novel strongly presents the agony of a woman to be a mother and who cannot show her motherly love to her kids in the fear of slavery.

The narrative of this novel is third person narration, thus, an omniscient point of view. As the narrator is omniscient, he can read the mind of all characters and the narrative shifts from section to section. Morrison has used a technique of flashback to relate the present situation. The whole narration moves around the black's social, economic, political, physical, personal, communal and spiritual aspects under which the entire novel or the entire narrative of Toni Morrison is rolling. One can get the actual vision of the black culture and their reality by seeing the narrative technique of Toni Morrison.

Literary Spotlight

Summary of Beloved

Beloved as a Multicultural Novel

Black (Slave) Narrative in Beloved

African Roots in Beloved

Themes and Imagery in Beloved

Character Sketch of Sethe in Beloved

Sense of Alienation and Racial Discrimination in Beloved

Biography of Toni Morrison

by Toni Morrison

Beloved themes.

Grief is a recurring theme on both a micro and macro level in Beloved . On the micro level, each of the main characters deals with their own personal grief as they grapple with their past pain. As Baby Suggs admits, 124 is “packed to its rafters” with their grief (Morrison 11). Baby Suggs grieves the loss of her children, who were torn from her and sold across the country. Her son Halle buys her freedom, but even then Baby Suggs finds it hard to overcome the pain from her past. After Sethe tries to kill her children, Baby Suggs eventually succumbed to her grief and died in her bedroom. Paul D also almost died from his grief, but he learned how to box it up and push it away. However, once he hears of Sethe’s horrible choice, his grief comes roaring out of his Pandora’s box, and he turns to alcohol to soothe his pain. Denver takes a completely different route to deal with the grief of losing her family. Initially, she shuts herself away and retreats from the world, relying on Sethe for human interaction. However, by the end of the novel, Denver has learned to face her grief head-on and conquers her fear of the world. She becomes a resourceful young woman who is the breadwinner for her family. Denver manages to overcome her grief from slavery’s legacy and serves as a symbol of how Black Americans managed to succeed post-slavery.

Like Baby Suggs, Sethe also has a mother’s grief, but hers takes the tangible form of Beloved. Not only does Beloved represents all of Sethe’s grief, guilt, and pain from slavery and the harsh choices she had to make, but she also represents the pain, fear, suffering, and grief of the millions of American slaves and their descendants. In this way, Beloved is a representation of grief on a macro level.

Memory, or “rememory,” is an integral part of Beloved . Morrison uses the characters’ memories and fragmented remembrances of the past to compose her story. The result is a novel that oftentimes flits back and forth across space and time. For example, though the story opens at 124 in 1873, much of it takes place at Sweet Home plantation before the Civil War. Sights and sounds as innocuous as a dog lapping at water or the back of a sleeping man trigger horrible and painful memories for many of the characters (Morrison 12 and 51). Once triggered, characters then serve as a gateway to the past, where the real story lies. This method of storytelling is demonstrated when Paul D recounts the story of Sixo and the Thirty-Mile Woman. Paul D’s memory of his friend was triggered by seeing Sethe cross her ankles (Morrison 45). This is a perfect example of how a pedestrian motion can hold a wealth of meaning and memory for the novel’s characters.

Memory is also important because of the role it plays in the relationships between characters. Sethe and Paul D have a fraught shared history because of Sweet Home and the horrible memories it generated. So when they reconnect years after the Civil War, their new relationship exists in the shadow of these memories. As Sethe says, the hurt of the shared memories between herself and Paul D “was always there-like a tender place in the corner of her mouth that the bit left” (Morrison 107). Memory also influences Sethe’s relationship to Denver. Sethe’s memory of how she tried to kill Denver fills her with guilt, and so she keeps Denver at arm’s length. Denver senses her mother’s feelings and also keeps her distance. The only memory that the mother and daughter regard positively is Denver’s birth story, because it demonstrates Sethe’s love and devotion for Denver. Finally, memory is the controlling force in Sethe’s relationship with Beloved. Beloved is the physical manifestation of Sethe’s grief, guilt, and trauma from slavery. Because Beloved was absent for much of Sethe’s life, she craves Sethe’s memories and stories of the past. But unlike Sethe’s behavior with Paul D and Denver regarding her memories, Sethe enjoys and wants to share Beloved's memories. At first, it’s because Sethe believes Beloved is a complete stranger, and so there’s a distance that makes the storytelling easy (Morrison 107). But later on, these memories feed Beloved like food, and so sharing memories becomes the central component of their relationship.

In many respects, Beloved is a story about motherhood and how slavery impacted Black women’s ability to be good mothers. Starting with Baby Suggs, who had all but one of her children sold to plantations far away from her, it’s clear that slavery erected many physical barriers between a mother and her children. Sometimes these barriers existed even on the same plantation, as Sethe and her mother demonstrate. As Sethe’s mother toiled in the fields, another woman assigned to look after the plantation’s children raised Sethe. This left little time for Sethe and her mother to bond and build a relationship (Morrison 111). As a result, the physical barrier became an emotional one as well.

Looking at Sethe, we see slavery’s impact on Black mothers at its most extreme. Rather than watch her children become slaves, Sethe attempted to kill them. At first glance, Sethe’s actions seem opposite to our expectations of a mother’s behavior. Everyone who witnessed her behavior, from Stamp Paid to the schoolteacher, struggles to comprehend her seemingly evil and barbaric act. However, if we consider the idea that a slave’s life is a fate worse than death, Sethe’s actions become easier to understand. She believed she was being a good mother by sparing her children from slavery and all its horrors. However, since Sethe became a social pariah after her actions, it’s clear that very few agree with her reasoning. Sethe also struggles with her guilt and has a strained relationship with her surviving children. Her children have been raised in a world where they are free, and thus they cannot comprehend the fear that fueled their mother’s actions. So both sides keep their distance, further widening the divide between mother and children. By the end of the novel, Sethe’s relationship with Denver seems to be improving. This is mostly because Denver recognized the damage Beloved inflicted on Sethe and assumed the responsibility of caring for Sethe. This is a reversal of the traditional mother-daughter relationship where a mother cares for her daughter, and it gives us a poetic sense of closure. Sethe is finally receiving the type of mothering that slavery had kept from her.

Abandonment

Abandonment takes several forms in Beloved . There’s physical abandonment, demonstrated by Halle, Sethe’s sons, Paul D, etc. Though the specifics surrounding Halle’s abandonment of Sethe and their children are unknown, it’s believed that he left after witnessing schoolteacher’s nephews assaulting Sethe. Sethe’s sons left because they felt unsafe with their mother, and Paul D left once he learned of Sethe’s attempted killing of her children. While all these acts of leaving are examples of physical abandonment, they also illustrate emotional abandonment. In various ways, all of these men abandoned Sethe and severed their emotional ties to her. In particular, when Paul D compares Sethe to an animal, he is signaling that he no longer views her as a fellow human being, much less as a potential partner (Morrison 290). He abandons the intimate and emotional connection they had been forging since he arrived at 124.

Baby Suggs and Sethe are also examples of emotional abandonment. When Sethe arrives at 124, Baby takes her in and treats her as a daughter because of Sethe’s relationship to Halle. However, after Sethe commits infanticide, Baby retreats to her bedroom and recedes from the world. Though she is physically present in the lives of Sethe and her children, she abandons them emotionally, devastated by Sethe’s harsh decision. Sethe also emotionally abandons her children after she attempts to kill them. Her guilt makes it hard for her to forge connections to them. Her only remaining child, Denver, feels the absence of her family acutely. This feeling is only compounded when Paul D arrives and begins to take up Sethe’s attention and affection. Lonely and abandoned by her brothers, grandmother, and mother, Denver turns to the ghost haunting 124 for comfort (Morrison 25).

Slavery is the novel’s core theme and plays a critical role in the lives of each character. Slavery and its horrors are what led Halle to pay for Baby Suggs’ freedom, sentencing himself to a crushing debt to Mr. Garner . Later on, slavery and the concomitant sexual abuse drive Halle insane. Furthermore, slavery and the abuse Sethe suffered under it compelled her to commit infanticide rather than see her children also suffer. These examples all demonstrate slavery’s powerful hold over the enslaved.

Slavery also caused devastating emotional and psychological wounds in the enslaved, and Beloved is one of the first novels to explore this aspect of slavery. Similar to the schoolteacher’s comparison of Sethe to a horse that needed to be tamed, most novels gloss over the inner workings of an enslaved person. By delving into the consciousness of slaves and former slaves, Morrison exposes slavery’s crippling legacy beyond its physical impact. Sethe’s complicated decision to kill her children shows that slaves were far from the mindless cattle or livestock their masters took them to be. Rather, they were complex human beings capable of making bitter decisions in the name of love. Similarly, after his experiences at Sweet Home and the chain gang, Paul D suffers from PTSD. To cope, he replaces his heart with a metaphorical tin box where he locks away his traumatic memories. Again, this contradicts the stereotype of slaves as beings with no emotional or psychological sentience.

Jealousy drives Beloved ’s plot and influences most of the characters. Denver is one of the first characters to demonstrate this jealousy. When Paul D arrives in Ohio at 124, she is jealous of not only his shared past with Sethe but also his positive impact on Sethe. This causes Denver to act rudely and brattily (Morrison 28). When Beloved arrives at 124, Denver is possessive of her, and she becomes jealous when Beloved gives more attention to Sethe than to her (Morrison 115). Later on in the novel, this jealousy is extended when Sethe begins to shower Beloved with attention. Denver views the two women locked in their own bubble and feels excluded. Paul D also becomes jealous at Beloved’s arrival, something that even Sethe notices (Morrison 235). Distrustful of Beloved, Paul D is jealous of her connection to Sethe and realizes that Beloved is creating a chasm between him and the rest of the family. He eventually leaves Sethe, driven away by Beloved’s behavior and Sethe’s past choices. Paul D’s departure was Beloved’s goal, as he was one more person with whom she had to compete for Sethe’s attention. As the physical manifestation of Sethe’s murdered baby, Beloved is greedy for her mother’s love and attention, and her jealousy fuels all of her actions. These actions are what set the novel’s events into motion and drives the story to its conclusion.

Family and Community

Despite slavery’s best efforts to sever the familial ties of slaves, slaves still managed to forge familial and community bonds. Despite her own fragmented relationship with her own mother, Sethe feels a fierce attachment to her children. She loves them and will clearly do anything for them, even sacrificing her own physical wellbeing and sanity. Baby Suggs also demonstrates the strong familial bonds slaves managed to form in spite of slavery. She welcomes Sethe and her children into her home based solely on Sethe’s word that she is Halle’s partner and bore his children. Baby Suggs’s faith demonstrates her enduring love for her son and her commitment to serving the slave community. Baby Suggs’ ability to provide a safe place for Sethe and the children is due to her son’s sacrifice for her freedom. Again, though slave traders and masters did their best to separate families and stunt familial attachments, Halle was still able to develop a love for his mother. This love drove him to trade his ability to make his own wages for his mother’s freedom.

When Sethe runs away from Sweet Home, we witness how the Black community and white abolitionists set up a system to help runaway slaves reach freed states. And when Sethe arrives in Ohio at 124, the Black community there embraces her and the children. Unfortunately, we soon see how jealousy turns this community into a double-edged sword that can help its members or endanger them. Baby Suggs’ neighbors, jealous of her success and supposed riches, refuse to warn the inhabitants of 124 when the schoolteacher comes looking for Sethe and her children. If the community had raised the alarm, perhaps Sethe could have escaped again and Beloved would still be alive. But although the Black community failed Sethe the day she killed Beloved, they come to her rescue years later and help save her from Beloved’s vengeance.

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Beloved Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Beloved is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

In Beloved, why did Paul D get sent to prison?

After Paul D attempted to escape from Sweet Home, he was sold to a man he soon attempted to kill. As a result, Paul D was sent to a prison in Georgia.

Why is Denver so jealous of Sethe?

Denver is jealous because she considers Beloved her possession. She is jealous because Beloved gives more attention to Sethe than she does to her (Denver).

Why is Sethe angry about her memories of Sweet Home?

Sethe's memories of Sweet Home include all of the men she has loved, but more importantly, her years as a slave.

Study Guide for Beloved

Beloved study guide contains a biography of Toni Morrison, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

  • About Beloved
  • Beloved Summary
  • Character List

Essays for Beloved

Beloved literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Beloved.

  • Sethe, a Slave to Her Past
  • Inscribing Beloved: The Importance of Writing in Morrison's Novel
  • The Objects Connoting Beloved's Initial Appearance
  • Beloved the Enigma
  • Interpretive Possibilities in Beloved

Lesson Plan for Beloved

  • About the Author
  • Study Objectives
  • Common Core Standards
  • Introduction to Beloved
  • Relationship to Other Books
  • Bringing in Technology
  • Notes to the Teacher
  • Related Links
  • Beloved Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Beloved

  • Introduction
  • Plot summary
  • Major themes
  • Major characters

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Beloved Essay Topics List for School and College Students

Toni Morrison wrote the novel “Beloved” in 1987. This famous novel has won the author Pulitzer and Nobel prizes. The novel is based on actual events and tells the story of an African-American slave, named Sethe, who killed her daughter to save her from slavery. And Sethe lives with her sorrow and torments alone. This novel is not about humility, and tells about a fantastic desire to live in freedom. The author writes about slaves and the owners who treat them as beasts, about hard and crippled destinies, fears, and memories hidden in a tin can.

Toni Morrison, in her novel “Beloved,” has shown that you can always survive, no matter how dark your life is , and how it’s essential to believe that the light will come and make your life better. On this positive note, we want to share with you some interesting “Beloved” topics below – you can use them for your own writing or to order research papers for sale .

“Beloved” Essay Topics: Compare and Contrast

  • Compare and contrast Sethe in Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and the mother of Moses in the Book of Exodus in the context of motherhood.
  • Compare and contrast Morrison’s “Beloved” and Wilson’s “Fences.” What are the similarities between Sethe and Troy?
  •  Compare and contrast “‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore” by John Ford and “Beloved” by Toni Morrison.
  • Compare and contrast “Beloved” By Toni Morrison and “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles.
  • Compare and contrast The Song of Solomon and “Beloved.”
  • Compare and contrast “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain and “Beloved.” Analyze a similar specific conflict or theme and use outside sources to back up your opinion.
  • Compare and contrast “Beloved” and Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man.” What are similar ideas?
  • Compare and contrast “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye,” both by Toni Morrison.
  • Compare and contrast Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” and Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” in the context of informing African-American women.
  • Compare and contrast Rita Dove’s “Thomas and Beulah” and Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.”
  • Compare and contrast the movie “Sophie’s Choice” and the novel “Beloved” by Toni Morrison.
  • Compare and contrast “Their Eyes Are Watching God” and “Beloved” in the context of identity.
  • Compare and contrast Morrison’s “Beloved” and Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” in the context of slavery and freedom.

“Beloved” Toni Morrison Topics – Analytical

  • Analyze “Beloved” from an ethics perspective. Consider the views of utilitarianism, Kant’s moral philosophy, and ethics of care.
  • Analyze the theme of slavery in “Beloved” and accompany your arguments with evidence from the book and articles.
  • Analyze the main symbols in “Beloved.” How does the author use symbols in the novel? Provide examples from the text to explain what the particular symbol represents.
  • Analyze Morison’s “Beloved” from the areas of criticism relating to psychoanalysis. How does it help to portray characters?
  • Analyze the Beloved character. Explain how this character is seen from the perspective of other characters. Can we call the Beloved character as Sethe’s alter ego?
  • Analyze the novel “Beloved” from the perspective of a critical lens (historical, gender, archetypal, etc.).
  • Analyze the concept of memory and reflections from the perspective of the main characters from “Beloved” (Sethe, Paul D., Denver, etc.).
  • Analyze the movie “Beloved” (1998) and define its historical significance or controversies.
  • Analyze the character of Paul D. How does the author use this character to discuss ideas about masculinity and manhood?
  • Analyze one of the death scenes from “Beloved” and define its significance in the story.
  • Analyze the concept of identity of African-American men and women and how this idea relates to the overall story.
  • Analyze the trauma of slavery and awful incidents in “Beloved.”
  • Analyze the ideas of the supernatural and rape in the novel “Beloved.”
  • Analyze the existing information about slavery and abolitionists and explain how this information helps to understand the novel “Beloved.”
  • Analyze the novel “Beloved” in relation to the Emancipation Proclamation.
  • Analyze the novel “Beloved” from the perspective of a broader context (genre, literary movements, historical events, etc.).

Interesting Topics in “Beloved”

  • Explore the impact of memory and trauma on the main characters in “Beloved.”
  • Contextualize one of the main themes of “Beloved” across time and the history of America.
  • Did one character from “Beloved” change throughout the work? How?
  • Explain the importance of the novel “Beloved.” What changed as a result of its publication?
  • Explain the word “rememory” in regard to the novel “Beloved.” How does this term relate to Sethe? Provide examples from the text.
  • Pick one of the characters from “Beloved” and explain how his or her relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the story.
  • What insults and indignities do the main characters from “Beloved” experience? Why are these minor indignities and cruelties important to the novel?
  • Explain what the author tries to convey in the novel “Beloved.”
  • Choose the most memorable scenes in the novel “Beloved” and analyze them. Explain your choice.
  • Explore the themes of love and trauma in the novel “Beloved.” Use articles in psychology and other additional sources.
  • Explain the role of the past in “Beloved.” How does it contribute to the overall meaning of the story?
  • Describe the role of community in Morrison’s “Beloved.”
  • Explore the color red and its significance in the novel “Beloved.”
  • Explore the meaning of naming in the context of freedom and love. Does the absence of a name mean power and dominance?
  • Explore one of the speculative elements in “Beloved” (fantastic elements, hyperbole, horror, etc.).
  • Explain the symbol of Paul D.’s tobacco box. Why do you think the author has chosen this symbol?
  • Describe the significance of “Beloved” in black history. Explain the impact of the novel in relation to the history and struggle against racism.

Essay Topics “Beloved” Toni Morrison: Literary Devices

  • Who tells the story in “Beloved”? How does it influence the overall perception of the book?
  • Explore how the characterization Toni Morrison correlates with the overall theme of “Beloved.”
  • Describe and analyze Toni Morison’s style in “Beloved.” Does it differ from other stories written by this author? Use text evidence to back up your opinion.
  • Why does the author use an unnamed character? Explain your point.
  • Explain why “Beloved” should be considered a literary text. Has the quality and quantity of literary texts changed in the digital age?
  • Explain the meaning of the title. How does it relate to the main themes in “Beloved”?
  • How does Toni Morrison use colors in the novel “Beloved”? How does it influence the story?
  • Analyze how the author uses storytelling as a means of remembering and resolving Sethe’s deadlock.
  • Explore the theme of haunting in “Beloved.” What does it represent in the novel? Why does Morrison create the story of 124 Bluestone Road?
  • How does the author use the struggle of secondary characters (Baby Snugs, Paul D., etc.) and relate it to the overall story?

“Beloved” Paper Topics on Women and Feminism

  • How is Sethe haunted by the past? How does it influence relationships with children?
  • How has the author depicted womanhood in the novel “Beloved”?
  • What aspects of black feminism are used in “Beloved”? Explore the issues of racism and sexism of women in their racial community.
  • Explore the history of Margaret Garner and compare her to the main character Sethe.
  • Explore the theme of motherhood in “Beloved.” Describe the feelings of Sethe toward her own mother. What has shaped her own relation to her children?
  • Explain whether Sethe was right to kill her child. Analyze her motives, experience, and fears.
  • Describe how African-American women are portrayed in “Beloved.” How does it relate to the history and experiences of African-American women in history? Compare their portrayal to real life.
  • Explore the images of women in “Beloved” and to what extent women were denied freedom.
  • Analyze the mental, physical, and emotional states of African-American women in “Beloved.”
  • Analyze the movie “Beloved.” Choose a scene related to womanhood and explain how the camera work, lighting, and costumes create a certain mood.

Thank You for Reading!

We hope that our list of “Beloved” topics will be helpful for you, and that it will inspire you to write an astonishing paper. We know that writing a book analysis may be tough, as you need to use analytical skills to analyze the plot, structure, language, and more.

If writing an essay or research paper is a struggle for you, stop torturing yourself – request write my essay online assistance ! With writing help from our expert writers, you can get custom-written papers of great quality. All you need to do is leave buy essay for cheap  on our website, and we will take care of your assignments – we are here 24/7 for you.

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  • How to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples

How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on February 4, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A good introduction paragraph is an essential part of any academic essay . It sets up your argument and tells the reader what to expect.

The main goals of an introduction are to:

  • Catch your reader’s attention.
  • Give background on your topic.
  • Present your thesis statement —the central point of your essay.

This introduction example is taken from our interactive essay example on the history of Braille.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

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Table of contents

Step 1: hook your reader, step 2: give background information, step 3: present your thesis statement, step 4: map your essay’s structure, step 5: check and revise, more examples of essay introductions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.

Your first sentence sets the tone for the whole essay, so spend some time on writing an effective hook.

Avoid long, dense sentences—start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

The hook should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of the topic you’re writing about and why it’s interesting. Avoid overly broad claims or plain statements of fact.

Examples: Writing a good hook

Take a look at these examples of weak hooks and learn how to improve them.

  • Braille was an extremely important invention.
  • The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

The first sentence is a dry fact; the second sentence is more interesting, making a bold claim about exactly  why the topic is important.

  • The internet is defined as “a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities.”
  • The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education.

Avoid using a dictionary definition as your hook, especially if it’s an obvious term that everyone knows. The improved example here is still broad, but it gives us a much clearer sense of what the essay will be about.

  • Mary Shelley’s  Frankenstein is a famous book from the nineteenth century.
  • Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement.

Instead of just stating a fact that the reader already knows, the improved hook here tells us about the mainstream interpretation of the book, implying that this essay will offer a different interpretation.

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Next, give your reader the context they need to understand your topic and argument. Depending on the subject of your essay, this might include:

  • Historical, geographical, or social context
  • An outline of the debate you’re addressing
  • A summary of relevant theories or research about the topic
  • Definitions of key terms

The information here should be broad but clearly focused and relevant to your argument. Don’t give too much detail—you can mention points that you will return to later, but save your evidence and interpretation for the main body of the essay.

How much space you need for background depends on your topic and the scope of your essay. In our Braille example, we take a few sentences to introduce the topic and sketch the social context that the essay will address:

Now it’s time to narrow your focus and show exactly what you want to say about the topic. This is your thesis statement —a sentence or two that sums up your overall argument.

This is the most important part of your introduction. A  good thesis isn’t just a statement of fact, but a claim that requires evidence and explanation.

The goal is to clearly convey your own position in a debate or your central point about a topic.

Particularly in longer essays, it’s helpful to end the introduction by signposting what will be covered in each part. Keep it concise and give your reader a clear sense of the direction your argument will take.

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beloved introduction essay

As you research and write, your argument might change focus or direction as you learn more.

For this reason, it’s often a good idea to wait until later in the writing process before you write the introduction paragraph—it can even be the very last thing you write.

When you’ve finished writing the essay body and conclusion , you should return to the introduction and check that it matches the content of the essay.

It’s especially important to make sure your thesis statement accurately represents what you do in the essay. If your argument has gone in a different direction than planned, tweak your thesis statement to match what you actually say.

To polish your writing, you can use something like a paraphrasing tool .

You can use the checklist below to make sure your introduction does everything it’s supposed to.

Checklist: Essay introduction

My first sentence is engaging and relevant.

I have introduced the topic with necessary background information.

I have defined any important terms.

My thesis statement clearly presents my main point or argument.

Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.

You have a strong introduction - now make sure the rest of your essay is just as good.

  • Argumentative
  • Literary analysis

This introduction to an argumentative essay sets up the debate about the internet and education, and then clearly states the position the essay will argue for.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

This introduction to a short expository essay leads into the topic (the invention of the printing press) and states the main point the essay will explain (the effect of this invention on European society).

In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.

This introduction to a literary analysis essay , about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , starts by describing a simplistic popular view of the story, and then states how the author will give a more complex analysis of the text’s literary devices.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale. Arguably the first science fiction novel, its plot can be read as a warning about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, and in popular culture representations of the character as a “mad scientist”, Victor Frankenstein represents the callous, arrogant ambition of modern science. However, far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to gradually transform our impression of Frankenstein, portraying him in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

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Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

  • An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
  • Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
  • A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.

To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

  • It gives your writing direction and focus.
  • It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

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Sethe’s Slavery in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison Essay

Introduction.

Beloved is the novel by Toni Morrison that is discussed as representing the genres of gothic fiction and magical realism, and the purpose of this novel is to demonstrate how slavery can be viewed as a process of dehumanization, whose lasting effects in the form of psychological traumas are observed during a long period of time, as it is in the case of Sethe. In spite of the fact that the events depicted in Beloved take place after the end of the American Civil War, Sethe, as the main character of the novel and a former slave, continues to survive the outcomes of slavery every day of her life. Sethe was dehumanized while being a slave, and she experienced the most critical effect of slavery when she had to choose the death of her children as an act of love and humanity instead of letting them become slaves.

In Beloved , slavery is depicted as the route for dehumanization because of such aspects as ownership, control over slaves, physical imprisonment, humiliation, tortures, and whipping. In the novel, Sethe and other slaves living at Sweet Home plantation become dehumanized because of the actions of the Schoolteacher, who is presented by Morrison (1987) as a cruel slaver and as the embodiment of white supremacy. Thus, the Schoolteacher complained that slaves “ate too much, rested too much, talked too much, which was certainly true compared to him, because schoolteacher ate little, spoke less and rested not at all” (Morrison, 1987, p. 220). This person’s violence made Sethe runoff, but moreover, Schoolteacher’s actions made the woman lose her sense of humanity when she became the victim of mammary rape. While talking with Paul D about that dramatic event, Sethe could only focus on the fact that Schoolteacher’s boys took her milk that belonged to her children: “They used cowhide on you?” “And they took my milk.” “They beat you and you was pregnant?” “And they took my milk!” (Morrison, 1987, p. 17). This situation was the moment when Sethe was most significantly affected by her status as a slave.

However, Sethe’s sense of dehumanization is influenced not only by her experiences while being a slave but also by her fear of losing the freedom for her children after she escaped Sweet Home plantation and thought she was safe in Cincinnati. When Sethe faced the threat for her children to be taken by Schoolteacher, she decided to kill them in a shed. Her two-year-old daughter died, and two boys survived. Explaining her act and referring to Beloved in her house as the ghost of her daughter, Sethe says, “How if I hadn’t killed her she would have died and that is something I could not bear to happen to her. When I explain it she’ll understand, because she understands everything already” (Morrison, 1987, p. 200). Thus, despite the fact that it is possible to discuss Sethe’s act as the representation of her dehumanization, it is important to note that the woman, on the one hand, sees this situation like the loss of her humanity, but on the other hand, she discusses it as the act of freeing her child because of her hatred of slavery.

Still, while explaining her choice, Sethe refers to the situation of mammary rape one more time, accentuating that the event influenced her sense of dehumanization and led to the psychological trauma. Thus, the woman states in the novel, “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” (Morrison, 1987, p. 200). Additionally, Sethe’s decision is also the result of her vision of her own mother’s actions.

Slavery impacted Sethe and caused the development of her sense of dehumanization from many perspectives, and her own mother’s abandonment affected Sethe significantly. When she recollects the fact that she was brought up by another woman, Sethe is “angry, but not certain at what” (Morrison, 1987, p. 62). Moreover, Sethe makes a choice, and she states, “No more running—from nothing. I will never run from another thing on this earth. I took one journey and I paid for the ticket” (Morrison, 1987, p. 15). Developing her story, the author tries to represent Sethe’s choice to kill her children from the perspective of the woman’s intention not to leave her children as slaves.

In spite of the fact that dehumanization associated with slavery influenced the main female character of the book in many ways, it is also possible to focus on Sethe’s efforts to restore her sense of humanity with reference to the mother-and-daughter relationships. These relationships are the key motif and the theme of this novel. One of the most provocative tries to demonstrate humanity is Sethe’s attempt to commit a murder in relation to her children because of the woman’s motive to protect them. Sethe cannot forgive herself the situation when her milk was taken because she seems to perceive it as the violation of her connection with her children. As a result, being dehumanized by slavery, she cannot let her children become the victims of mistreatment, torture, and violence (Morrison, 1987). Sethe seems to receive one more chance to restore her sense of humanity when Beloved comes to her house, and the woman wants to explain her motives, and she tries to do everything to please Beloved as the soul of her dead daughter.

The finale of the novel demonstrates that Sethe still succeeds in restoring her sense of humanity when Beloved disappears, and the woman and her daughter Denver receive opportunities to live a new life. It is possible to assume that Denver will become a hope for Sethe, and the woman’s experience with Beloved as the ghost of her daughter can seem to relieve Sethe’s feeling of guilt. In this novel, Beloved can be discussed as the symbol for Sethe’s guiltiness and the representation of slavery with its pain and sufferings. In the last chapter of the novel, Morrison (1987) states referring to Sethe’s and her daughter’s memories regarding Beloved, “So they forgot her. Like an unpleasant dream during a troubling sleep” (p. 275). Therefore, it is possible to concentrate on Sethe’s sense of humanity only when Beloved disappears as the symbol that past memories cannot affect the life of this family anymore.

Morrison’s Beloved allows readers to focus on the problem of dehumanization of a personality associated with slavery in the most provocative and controversial manner. The novel illustrates how even the most peaceful and good feelings of people, such as the love of a mother to her children, can be reversed in the context of slavery and lead to murder. From this perspective, Morrison’s Beloved seems to pose the following question: How can the sense of dehumanization and the sense of humanity be similar or reflect each other in the context of violence and brutality associated with slavery? The possible answer can be found with reference to the analysis of Sethe’s position and feelings that seem to accentuate her nature as a mother who can forget about humanity while trying to protect her children and make them safe.

Morrison, T. (1987). Beloved . New York, NY: Vintage.

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IvyPanda. (2021, June 27). Sethe’s Slavery in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sethes-slavery-in-beloved-by-toni-morrison/

"Sethe’s Slavery in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison." IvyPanda , 27 June 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/sethes-slavery-in-beloved-by-toni-morrison/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Sethe’s Slavery in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison'. 27 June.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Sethe’s Slavery in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison." June 27, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sethes-slavery-in-beloved-by-toni-morrison/.

1. IvyPanda . "Sethe’s Slavery in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison." June 27, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sethes-slavery-in-beloved-by-toni-morrison/.

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IvyPanda . "Sethe’s Slavery in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison." June 27, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sethes-slavery-in-beloved-by-toni-morrison/.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Beloved — The Real Meaning of ‘beloved’

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The Real Meaning of ‘beloved’

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Published: Jun 29, 2018

Words: 2859 | Pages: 6.5 | 15 min read

Bibliography

  • CHRISTIAN KIM, Heerak. Toni Morrison’s Beloved as African-American Scripture & Other Articles on History and Canon. Philadelphia: The Hermit Kingdom Press, 2006.
  • ERICKSON, Daniel. Ghosts, Metaphor and History in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
  • FOSTER SEGAL, Carolyn. “Morrison’s Beloved”. In Explicator Volume 51 , 59-61 . London: Taylor and Francis, 1992.
  • GALLANT ECKARD, Paula. Maternal Body and Violence in Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason and Lee Smith . Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002.
  • KRUMHOLZ, Lisa. “The Ghosts of Slavery: Historical Recovery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved ”. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved: A Casebook , edited by William L. Andrews and Nellie Y. McKay, 107-126. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  • MARKS, Kathleen. Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the Apotropaic Imagination . Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002.
  • MORRISON, Toni. Beloved . London: Vintage Classics, 2007. Kindle Edition.
  • Toni Morrison, Beloved (London: Vintage Classics, 2007), 60, Kindle Edition.
  • Paula Gallant Eckard, Maternal Body and Violence in Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Lee Smith (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002), 69.
  • Gallant Eckard, Maternal Body and Violence , 69.
  • Kathleen Marks, Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the Apotropaic Imagination (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002), 50.
  • Linda Krumholz, “The Ghosts of Slavery: Historical Recovery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved ”, in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: A Casebook , ed. William L. Andrews and Nellie Y. McKay (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 115.
  • Daniel Erickson, Ghosts, Metaphor and History in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 83.
  • Krumholz, “The Ghosts of Slavery”, 115.
  • Carolyn Foster Segal, “Morrison’s Beloved”, in Explicator Volume 51 (London: Taylor and Francis, 1992), 59.
  • Heerak Christian Kim, Toni Morrison’s Beloved as African-American Scripture & Other Articles on History and Canon (Philadelphia: The Hermit Kingdom Press, 2006), 28.
  • Christian Kim, Toni Morrison’s Beloved as African-American Scripture , 27.

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COMMENTS

  1. Beloved: Central Idea Essay: Who Is Beloved?

    The dominant interpretation is that Beloved is the ghost of Sethe's dead daughter, reincarnated in the form of a young woman to exact revenge on her mother for killing her. This is the interpretation that the characters in the novel accept.

  2. Beloved Summary, Themes, Characters, & Analysis

    Beloved was an attempt to make the world feel what freedom meant for black people back then when there was slavery, and now when still there is segregation, though not explicit. It was written in Albany, NY, and published in 1987. It is a portrayal of slave women who were treated as birth-giving machines and produced as many slaves as they could.

  3. 12.02.08: Beloved: A Case Study in Storytelling Analysis

    Beloved: A Case Study in Storytelling Analysis by Tiffany DiMatteo "It was not a story to pass on." Beloved Introduction. I originally encountered the novel Beloved about a month before I was to teach it to an International Baccalaureate English 12 class eight years ago. When I read it for the first time, I was instantly struck by the power of the narrative, the complexity of Morrison's style ...

  4. Beloved Essays

    Beloved literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Beloved. Beloved Material Study Guide Q & A Essays Lesson Plan Join Now to View Premium Content

  5. Beloved: Study Guide

    Beloved by Toni Morrison, published in 1987, is a powerful and haunting novel set in post-Civil War Ohio. The story revolves around Sethe, an escaped enslaved woman, and her haunted past. The ghost of Sethe's dead daughter, known as Beloved, returns to haunt her, and the novel delves into the impact of slavery on individuals and communities.

  6. Beloved Essays, Round Two

    Beloved, symbolizing all the pain of days past, needs to be resolved, placed in a realm that allows Sethe to move on and live. Her past cannot go on haunting her forever. A great deal of Beloved involves possession and the role of memory. Morrison writes on page 256 that "Ella didn't like the idea of past errors taking possession of the present."

  7. Beloved

    Introduction of Beloved. Beloved was written by an African American feminine icon, Toni Morrison, and published in 1987. It took the literary world of the African American community in the United States by storm. Set in the time of the Civil War, Beloved has surpassed the actual life depiction of Margaret Garner, an escapee of slavery.

  8. Beloved Study Guide

    Intro Plot Summary & Analysis Themes Quotes Characters Symbols Theme Viz Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Beloved makes teaching easy. Everything you need for every book you read. "Sooo much more helpful than SparkNotes. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive."

  9. Beloved Summary

    Beloved Summary. In 1873, Sethe and her daughter Denver live in 124, a house in a rural area close to Cincinatti. They are ostracized from the community for Sethe's past and her pride. Eighteen years have passed since she escaped from slavery at a farm called Sweet Home. Sweet Home was run by a cruel man known as schoolteacher, who allowed his ...

  10. Beloved Sample Essay Outlines

    Outline I. Thesis Statement: Beloved seeks revenge for her murder. II. Beloved is the Older, Murdered Daughter's Re-embodiment A. Hums the song Sethe had made up for her children B. Asks where ...

  11. Beloved by Toni Morrison Plot Summary

    Beloved Summary. Next. Part 1, Chapter 1. On the edge of Cincinnati, in 1873 just after the end of the Civil War, there is a house numbered 124 that is haunted by the presence of a dead child. A former slave named Sethe has lived in the house, with its ghost, for 18 years. Sethe lives at 124 with her daughter Denver.

  12. Beloved Essay Essay

    In the novel, "Beloved", by Toni Morrison, a female slave tries to escape from her plantation home down south to Ohio with two young children in tow after their father is killed for helping other slaves escape. She hopes to find a community of African Americans who understand the horror of slavery and will help her take care of her family.

  13. Beloved Part One: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

    124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom. See Important Quotes Explained The novel opens in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio. For the past eighteen years, Sethe, a formerly enslaved person, and her daughter, Denver, have been living in a house that is haunted by the ghost of Sethe's firstborn baby daughter.

  14. ≡Essays on Beloved

    1 The Real Meaning of 'beloved' 6 pages / 2859 words In Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, there is a certain ambiguity surrounding the nature of the titular character. On the surface, she appears to be a reborn and grown up version of the child who was murdered by Sethe in an intended act of merciful infanticide.... Beloved Character Topics:

  15. Beloved by Toni Morrison: Introduction

    This novel is dedicated to the sixty million and more Africans who died in the Middle Passage on the slave ship of America. This very novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988 despite some controversies.

  16. Beloved Themes

    by Toni Morrison Buy Study Guide Beloved Themes Grief Grief is a recurring theme on both a micro and macro level in Beloved. On the micro level, each of the main characters deals with their own personal grief as they grapple with their past pain. As Baby Suggs admits, 124 is "packed to its rafters" with their grief (Morrison 11).

  17. Beloved Essay

    Beloved Essay Sort By: Page 1 of 50 - About 500 essays Beloved The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison is set in1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sethe, the protagonist and previous slave who was born in the south and has never knew her mother. At the age of thirteen, she was auctioned off to the Garners.

  18. A Gorgeous List of Beloved Essay Topics

    Toni Morrison, in her novel "Beloved," has shown that you can always survive, no matter how dark your life is, and how it's essential to believe that the light will come and make your life better.

  19. The Use of Symbolism in Toni Morrison's "Beloved"

    Beloved is Sethe's dead baby, and her presence in the story is a constant reminder of the trauma that Sethe has experienced. Beloved is also symbolic of the collective trauma of slavery that African Americans have experienced. ... The Role of Women in Shakespeare's "Hamlet"Over 500 word essay for the topic of Introduction to Literary Studies;

  20. The Significance of Names in Toni Morrison's "Beloved"

    Over 500 word essay for the topic of Introduction to Literary Studies toni is novel that delves into the lives of african americans who lived in the era of. Skip to document. University; High School. ... The name "Beloved" is also significant because it represents the idea that one can love someone so much that it becomes unbearable, as is the ...

  21. How to Write an Essay Introduction

    Step 1: Hook your reader Your first sentence sets the tone for the whole essay, so spend some time on writing an effective hook. Avoid long, dense sentences—start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader's curiosity.

  22. Sethe's Slavery in "Beloved" by Toni Morrison Essay

    Introduction. Beloved is the novel by Toni Morrison that is discussed as representing the genres of gothic fiction and magical realism, and the purpose of this novel is to demonstrate how slavery can be viewed as a process of dehumanization, whose lasting effects in the form of psychological traumas are observed during a long period of time, as it is in the case of Sethe.

  23. The Real Meaning of 'beloved': [Essay Example], 2859 words

    Beloved can be seen as an embodiment of the past. She is often interpreted as being a ghost, both by Sethe's family and by critics. She is more than the ghost of a deceased baby, she is a symbol for the way in which the characters are haunted by their traumatic pasts, much as a house may be haunted by a ghost.