Toni Morrison Beloved Research Paper

A Lost History Now Found

` In the novel, Beloved, written by Toni Morrison, the scene starts on a former slave, Sethe. Sethe has to make the tragic decision to kill her own child in fear of her being caught by the slave catchers, and becoming a slave. Being a former slave, Sethe had experienced first-hand just how bad this lifestyle was, and would never want that for her daughter. Sethe can give us a glance into the life of a slave when she says, “Men and women were moved around like checkers...What Baby Suggs called the nastiness of life was the shock she received upon learning that nobody stopped playing checkers just because the pieces included her children” (Morrison 28). This comparison helps us to see how slaves were treated like property

Morrison was educated at both Howard and Cornell University. At eighty-five years old, Morrison teaches at Princeton University. Her first novel The Bluest Eye did not really catch the attention of the public; however, her second novel Sula was an insight of the African- American life style and was nominated for the National Book Award and also received the Ohioana Book Award. The next novel Morrison wrote was about the rich culture of African Americans called Song of Solomon. This book was a paperback best seller and won two more awards, the National Book Critics Circle Award and also the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award. Her next book, Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize, New York State Governor’s Art Award, Washington College literary Award, and National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1993, Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She became the first African American to win this prize. All of Morrison’s awards and recognition speak for themselves. She truly is an amazing and impactful writer. Ohio, Morrison’s hometown is something that really influenced her writing. Most of her novels are set in Ohio. Morrison explained “I am from the Midwest so I have a special affection for it. My beginnings are always there (Ohio)... No matter what I write, I begin there... Ohio also offers an escape from stereotyped black settings. It is

Her parents moved to the North in order to get away from the southern racism. Toni Morrison had a lot to say about racism in a recent interview with Gabby Wood from the Telegraph in April of 2015. Morrison stated that, “Race is the classification of a species. And we are the human race, period. But the other thing – the hostility, the racism – is the money-maker. And it also has some emotional satisfaction for people who need it. Slavery moved this country closer to the economy of an industrialised Europe, far in advance of what it would have been. They don’t stop and frisk on Wall Street, which is where they should really go”. Throughout this interview, Morrison also talks about the significance of family, and bringing up her two sons on her own. This is significant because the theme of “family” plays a big role in the story of Beloved. Morrison’s ex-husband was originally from Jamaica, exposing her to rich African culture. Morrison is not afraid to be vivid and real in her writings when it comes to this idea. Morrison never uses a white person as her main character. “In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate”, Morrison says during an interview in 2009. Morrison tried to live her life like the white people weren’t there. Through Beloved, Morrison can show us what kind of destruction these slaves went through during their lives and what it truly means