Characters

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The characters presented in this novel have both major and minor roles. The characters that were majorly witnessed are Sethe, Paul D, Denver, Baby Suggs and Beloved.

Sethe – Sethe is a woman who has been traumatized horrendously with matters concerning slavery and the fact that she is a woman was an advantage of her being raped multiple times. It all started when Sethe lacked the love and care from her very own mother who was also engraved with slavery. Because of such factor, Sethe was given away when she was little and barely had recognition with her mother. Due to this past trauma in her childhood, it had an immediate effect on her as an adult which goes to show how she herself is struggling providing the care and love towards her children. Slavery had taken everything away from her; even the milk to feed her own children was stolen from the schoolteacher’s nephew who played foul towards Sethe. These events made her feel worthless of being a mother as she was unable to nurture her children. As Sethe realizes the experience of slavery and being held with no option, she does not at all circumstances want her children to endure through the same situation. Since she believed that the next life would be safer than this once, she decides to kill her children rather than watch them grow up in slavery but knowing it’s a wrong move, she is filled with guilt throughout the story. But as she tries to move on and avoid her past, it comes to haunt her in the form of Beloved.

Paul D – Paul D is a character who is also endorsed by slavery. He has been working as a slave along with Sethe and a few others and during those times, he longed for Sethe to be his wife but that opportunity was snatched away by another fellow named Halle. It turned ...

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... is traumatized and is unable to recover afterwards. Soon it becomes impossible for her to live and gives up; she dies.

Beloved – Beloved is the supernatural spirit that has come back to seek love and attention from her mother. She was the oldest daughter of Sethe but sadly was murdered by Sethe herself and this act was committed by Sethe because she believed she was protecting Beloved from slavery. She is the one who brings change in the lives of Sethe, Paul D, and Denver but also the community. She first haunts her mother as being an infant ghost in their home but once fled away by Paul D; she comes back in a form of a young woman who starts to live with them. She feels betrayed by her mother due to the fact that she was murdered so therefore she is demanding for her mother’s emotions. But at the end she disappears and becomes a painful past of African Americans.

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