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Recommended: Critical analysis of Beloved by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison is a writer who for many years has been compared to William Faulkner. Her prose is carefully composed, and her attention details of the inner thoughts and motivations of her characters are similar to Faulkner. Morrison’s writing style is not only experimental in its construction, but also for its unique blend of the natural and supernatural. In her novel Beloved, Morrison blends a nonfictional slave’s story with fictional and mystical elements.

In Toni Morrison’s Beloved Sethe is a runaway slave haunted by her past. Riddled with the guilt that her child was murdered by her own hand; Sethe imagines that a young stranger is the reincarnation of her child’s ghost. The images that Morrison creates with her writing are often horrific, and yet equally beautiful. Just as Faulkner’s and James Joyce’s narratives had done; Morrison’s narratives focus on the internal monologues of her characters. In Beloved there are four chapters devoted to the inner thoughts of Sethe, her daughter Denver and the ghost girl Beloved. It is in these chapters that the reader becomes aware of the motivations and fears of Morrison’s characters. However, just as with Faulkner, sometimes Morrison leaves more questions created than answers revealed.
The first chapter is Sethe’s monologue. Each monologue begins with a description about Beloved and what relationship she has with the narrator. Sethe explains that Beloved is her daughter and she vows that she will protect her child now that she has returned to her. She laments on the atrocities that she experienced at the hands of Schoolteacher’s nephews. Sethe ponders the colors of spring and Baby Suggs, her mother-in-law’s fascination with colors prior to her death. Colors play a pivotal role in Morr...

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... second chapter Morrison does use punctuation; however, the chapter is composed of a series of repetitive phrases. It is written in verse and reads as if it were a poem or song. This section also seems to be perhaps not entirely Beloveds. It exemplifies what could be a culmination of Sethe, Denver and Beloved’s internal monologues. The chapter displays the desperation, humanity and longing felt by each of the characters. It also provides the reader with a foreshadowing of the parasitic nature of Beloved. The reader is made aware that Beloved’s obsession with Sethe could become unhealthy for all members of the family. This can be explained in the following lines:
…You forgot to smile
I loved you
You hurt me
You came back to me
You left me
I waited for you
You are mine
You are mine
You are mine…(Morrison 217)

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