Sethe's Identity In Beloved

Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, explores the trauma of Sethe’s past life as a slave, which ironically allows her daughter Denver, to find her true identity; representing the historical effects of slavery upon two generations of African Americans. Throughout the novel, Sethe struggles to become a free woman, not physically, but mentally, from the tortures she suffered as a slave. Though during the beginning of the novel, Denver is portrayed as rather childish and immature in order to reflect her mother’s dismay, she is able to find her true identity after the arrival of Beloved, as her presence devastates the household.

During the beginning of the novel, Sethe arrives at 124 to live with her daughter Denver. Though Sethe believes her arrival in Cincinnati will allow her to escape the

Though Sethe believed she had escaped the miseries of the Sweet Home plantation at her arrival of Ohio, she is unable to, after the arrival of Paul D, and her repressed memories worsen after the arrival of Beloved. Both Paul D and Beloved are symbolic figures of Sethe’s past, as she continues to relive the tortures she trusted were left in her past. One of the most eminent elements of Morrison’s novel is the transition from the past to the present, as stated by Morgenstern, “Returns repeatedly to scenes of traumatic separation [...] what might be called the primal scene of slavery” (Naomi Morgenstern, academic.uop). The transition from the past to present, and lack of chronological order illustrates the utter chaos and destruction of slavery within two generations, “Through Sethe’s description of a traumatic past [...] Morrison suggests the notation of an African American population continually imperiled, not so much physically as psychically, by the history of slavery” (George Sheldon,