Tragedy and Redemption in Beloved
"This is not a story to pass on."(1)
With these enigmatic words, Toni Morrison brings to a conclusion
a very rich, very complicated novel, in which slavery and its
repercussions are brought into focus, examined, and reassembled to
yield a story of tragedy and redemption.
The "peculiar institution" of slavery has been the basis for many
literary works from Roots to Beloved, with particular
emphasis on the physical, mental, and spiritual violence
characteristic of the practice of slavery in the South.
A far greater shame than slavery itself is the violence that was
directed against slave women in the name of slavery. Slave women bore
the heaviest burden of slavery, forced to be not only fieldhands and
domestic workers, but to satisfy their masters' sexual appetites.
Frederick Douglass wrote that the "slave woman is at the mercy of the
fathers, sons or brothers of her master."(2)
Slaveowners considered their slave women to be fair game, forcing
themselves on their female slaves with impunity, and any resulting
children were considered property, to be sold like the calves from a
cow. The family institutions of the slaves meant nothing to their
owners; the children of slaves were likewise considered property and
could be sold at their owners' whim. Schoolteacher referred to Sethe
and her children as "...the breeding one, her three pickaninnies and
whatever the foal might be..."(279) Slave children often did not know
who their fathers or even their mothers were...
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...gain.
Beloved is an unsanitized picture of slavery and its
consequences, a condemnation of the violations that humans impose
upon each other. That the presence of Beloved is still felt, long
after the players have left the stage, is representative of the
scars that remain on the hearts and minds of women, that such
horrors could be visited upon their sisters once.
Notes
1. Toni Morrison, Beloved (New York, 1987) 337. All subsequent quotes from Beloved are followed by page numbers in parentheses.
2. Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom (New York, 1968 [1855]) 60, qtd. in Blassingame 83.
Works Cited
1. Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.
2. Morrison, Toni. Beloved. (New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1987)
The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: 1844-1860. Vol. 5. New York: International Publishers, 1975.
Toni Morrison's Beloved Throughout the novel Beloved, there are numerous and many obvious reoccurring themes and symbols. While the story is based off of slavery and the aftermath of the horrible treatment of the slaves, it also breaches the subject of the supernatural. It almost seems like the novel itself is haunted. It is even named after the ghost. To further the notion of hauntings, the characters are not only haunted by Beloved at 124, but they are haunted by their past, and the novel is not only about ridding their home of the ghost, but releasing their hold on what had happened to them in worse times.
Slave Community”. The Journal of Negro History. 82.3 (1997). 295-311. JSTOR. Web. 16 Jun 2014
Trauma: an emotional shock causing lasting and substantial damage to a person’s psychological development. Linda Krumholz in the African American Review claims the book Beloved by Toni Morrison aids the nation in the recovery from our traumatic history that is blemished with unfortunate occurrences like slavery and intolerance. While this grand effect may be true, one thing that is absolute is the lesson this book preaches. Morrison’s basic message she wanted the reader to recognize is that life happens, people get hurt, but to let the negative experiences overshadow the possibility of future good ones is not a good way to live. Morrison warns the reader that sooner or later you will have to choose between letting go of the past or it will forcibly overwhelm you. In order to cement to the reader the importance of accepting one’s personal history, Morrison uses the tale of former slave Sethe to show the danger of not only holding on to the past, but to also deny the existence and weight of the psychological trauma it poses to a person’s psyche. She does this by using characters and their actions to symbolize the past and acceptance of its existence and content.
8. Taylor, Dan. 1998. Audubon Society Inspired to Action by Bird Die -offs . 17 Jan. 1998 . E-mail . Available bkus@sunstroke.sdsu.edu
Meyer, Michael-ed., Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings. (New York: The Modern Libray, 1984.) , 391.
Foner, Eric. "Frederick Douglass on the Desire for Freedom." Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. 197-200. Print.
Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, explores the physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering that was brought on by slavery. Several critical works recognize that Morrison incorporates aspects of traditional African religions and to Christianity to depict the anguish slavery placed not only on her characters, but other enslaved African Americans. This review of literature will explore three different scholarly articles that exemplifies how Morrison successfully uses African religions and Christianity to depict the story of how slavery affected the characters’ lives in the novel, even after their emancipation from slavery.
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, love proves to be a dangerous and destructive force. Upon learning that Sethe killed her daughter, Beloved, Paul D warns Sethe “Your love is too thick” (193). Morrison proved this statement to be true, as Sethe’s intense passion for her children lead to the loss of her grasp on reality. Each word Morrison chose is deliberate, and each sentence is structured with meaning, which is especially evident in Paul D’s warning to Sethe. Morrison’s use of the phrase “too thick”, along with her short yet powerful sentence structure make this sentence the most prevalent and important in her novel. This sentence supports Paul D’s side on the bitter debate between Sethe and he regarding the theme of love. While Sethe asserts that the only way to love is to do so passionately, Paul D cites the danger in slaves loving too much. Morrison uses a metaphor comparing Paul D’s capacity to love to a tobacco tin rusted shut. This metaphor demonstrates how Paul D views love in a descriptive manner, its imagery allowing the reader to visualize and thus understand Paul D’s point of view. In this debate, Paul D proves to be right in that Sethe’s strong love eventually hurts her, yet Paul D ends up unable to survive alone. Thus, Morrison argues that love is necessary to the human condition, yet it is destructive and consuming in nature. She does so through the powerful diction and short syntax in Paul D’s warning, her use of the theme love, and a metaphor for Paul D’s heart.
Sethe has a strong maternal instinct and sees her children as a part of herself. They rightfully belong to her. However her maternal ownership of her children is not recognized by the culture of slavery. As a slave she cannot own anything (Mock 118). Therefore while they are enslaved neither Baby Suggs nor Sethe really own their children. In the slavery culture both the mothers and the children are considered as property of their white owners. As property, their rights as mothers are made void and they have no say about the lives of their children. To the owners a slave woman’s primary value is in her reproductive ability. The female slave is seen as giving birth to property, and therefore capital in the form of new slaves. (Liscio 34). The owner has the ability to use and dispose of this new property as they wish. Therefore children could be sold without any regards for their feelings of the feelings of their mother. In the novel Baby Suggs states she has given birth to eight children, however she only gets to keep one that she sees grow into adulthood. By the end of her life slavery has stolen all of her children from her:
If ignorance is bliss, then why is it human nature to uncover the truth? In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, the character Denver uses knowledge to feed her craving in hopes that it will fill the void her mother unsuccessfully tried to satisfy with the blood of the past and too little milk. To understand these truths one must accept that Beloved is a physical representation of the past, Sethe embodies the present, and Denver exemplifies the future. Throughout the novel these three characters interact on a superficial level, but each action has a deeper underlying influence on the other. This is why Denver’s assumed motive of using the attachment she forged with Beloved to develop a closer relationship with Sethe is cursory. When in fact it was for fear of her own life, that Denver’s intended to extract the information from Beloved, of what triggered Sethe to kill killed her.
Douglas, Frederick. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (The Harper Single Volume American Literature 3rd edition) 1845:p.1017-1081
Cruelty is the idea of gaining pleasures in harming others and back in 1873, many African American slaves suffered from this common ideology according Heather Andrea Williams of National Humanities Center Fello. Toni Morrison, an African American author who illustrates an opportunity for “readers to be kidnapped, thrown ruthlessly into an alien environment...without preparations or defense” (Morrison) in her award-winning novel Beloved as method to present how cruel slavery was for African Americans. In her fictional story, Beloved, Morrison explained the developement of an African American slave named Sethe who willingly murdered her own child to prevent it from experiencing the cruel fate of slavery. Nonetheless, Morrison
... of nesting beaches that produce a large proportion of males to try to maintain the sex ratio; planting native vegetation to provide shade to the beaches; move nests to other suitable areas or artificial nesting sites; and manipulate the temperature by adding beach sprinklers (Fuentes et al., 2011). The implications of all these strategies however would need to be extensively considered as for example, planting vegetation or creating artificial beaches could have detrimental effects on the existing flora and fauna. Additionally, areas that are suitable now, may not be suitable in years to come therefore many different obstacles need to be considered before implementing these strategies. Also creating shade may not be suitable as it is unknown whether it will create the correct temperature, and lots of tests would need to be done to keep temperature at the optimum.
Behavioural hypothesis centres on protection of nest and the forming of the mating bond. (Mueller (1990) p. 553-585). This has similarities with the male mating theory.