Color In Beloved

In the novel “Beloved”, written by Toni Morrison, about slavery and racism, the attention to color is not restricted to the discussion of slavery. The book is based on the story of Sethe and her daughter Denver after they escape from slavery. Their home, 124, in Cincinnati is haunted by a ghost, whom they believe is Sethe's daughter. Morrison’s use of archetypal colors take their own symbolic meaning throughout this book.

As red represents passions and love, in Morrison’s writing, red is portrayed as painfully. As Paul D arrived at 124, for instance, “Paul D tied his shoes together, hung then over his shoulder and followed her through the door straight into a pool of red and undulating light that locked him where he stood” (Morrison 10).

Slavery is the event that takes the color out of everything. Leaving only black and white. It is what chose your freedom for you. On the other hand, slavery may not be the things that drains color from other things. It may just hurt the object or individual that is unable to see the color, only black and white. For instance, as Paul D, Denver, and Sethe are startled by the ghost, “Out of the dimness of the room in which they sat, a white staircase climbed toward the blue-and-white wallpaper of the second floor. Paul D could see just the beginning of the paper; discreet flecks of yellow sprinkled among a blizzard of snowdrops all backed by blue” (Morrison 13 – 14). The white stairs symbolize purity and when Beloved sits on the stair case, she easily stands out as she is impure. The white stairs throughout the book is always mentioned ascending, never descending. The fact that the baby constantly crawled up those steps maybe a reference to her climb to heaven. Morrison reveals a new side to Beloved when Sethe is given a dress, “And it was a tender embrace of the dress sleeve that made Denver remember the details of her birth – that and the thin, whipping snow she was standing in, like the fruit of common flowers” (Morrison 36 – 37). The tenderness embrace of the dress reveals a soft and caring side to Beloved showing there is still love and comfort within