Symbols In Toni Morrison's Beloved

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Recommended: Toni morrison beloved portrays an institutionalized dehumanization of the slaves

There are many ways one can memorialize a person or an event; Toni Morrison in her book, Beloved does just that, she develops the book into a memorial for the sixty million and more slaves that suffered in the 1870’s. Morrison states in “A Bench by the Road” that, “the novel functions as a memorial…’there is no place […] to summon the presences of, or recollect the absences of slaves […] There is no suitable memorial or wreath or park or skyscraper lobby. […] And because such a places does not exist, the book had to.” By stating that, Morrison demonstrates that the story of slavery must not be forgotten. The book is a literary memorial to emphasize the hardships slaves had to go through and to express to the people today that this horrific event happened in the past and have the readers experience those hardships. Morrison is able to illustrate this memorial by using powerful figurative language, [ADJ] diction, and syntax.
One of Morrison’s most effective methods of creating a memorial for all the slaves is her use of figurative language, specifically metaphors. By using these devices, Morrison specifies what slaves had to go through that time, which ultimately allows the readers to understand the hard life and the consequences the slaves had. Morrison writes, “Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasn’t allowed to be and stay what I was” (86). This metaphor shows how Paul D, a former slave, compares himself to a rooster saying how the rooster has an identity but he does not, he is in a sense degraded. Morrison expresses how back then even though slaves were free, they felt they had no identity and where a no one. This goes back to the book being a memorial because having slaves saying these words, allowed readers...

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...ll her children together; of being part of a neighborhood; in fact, having neighbors at all to call her own” (204). By using semicolons in this quote, Morrison is balancing the sentence, showing how by having at least some good days, helps a slave feel better. Most of the time these slaves were treated badly, so having some good days helped them overcome the past. An important quote that Morrison uses in the book to help her develop Beloved into a memorial is, “It was not a story to pass on” (323). This simple statement, repeated three times at the end of the novel, claims that we as the readers owe it to the past to remember and honor those who have suffered as slaves. Throughout the whole book, Morrison communicates images of actions that have been done towards the slaves, and through these images, readers can feel the pain and suffering that was left by slavery.

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