Beloved Essay, Research Paper
Toni
Morrison’s Beloved Summary When the slave-girl Sethe is 13, she arrives at the
plantation "Sweet Home", where she gets married to Halle and has
three children with him. After the farm is overtaken by a cruel master, the
slaves try to escape, but they are caught and punished severely. Sethe suffers
an act of abuse by two white boys andescapes in
the woods, where she gives birth to her fourth child. After a short period of
recovering in the free states, her former owner tries to recapture her, which
drives her in the attempt to kill her children, resulting in the death of one
daughter. Finding releasefrom the
death-penalty, she ends up living alone with her daughter in a haunted house.When Paul
D, a former slave and friend of Sethe returns, the ghost, Sethe’s murdered
child, is not finally successful in drivig him away, so she disappears herself.
– Cultural Milieu "Beloved" is based on an ex-slave that is living
with the haunting memories of her past. The book tells of Sethe’s desire to kill
her children rather than to have her and themreturned
to slavery. She did not want to see them have to experience the same evils thatshe and
her husband had experienced at the hands of her former owner Schoolteacher.Sethe knew
that the beatings, raping, and abuse of her and her people was wrong and shewould have
rather killed her children than to let them return to that inhumane form oflife. This
book also shows how one man’s desire to do right by another man only hindersthe
already strained relationship he is involved in with Sethe. This book shows the
realityand the
inner workings of the Underground Railroad. Sethe’s home was a way point forthat
railroad until Baby Suggs’ death and Sethe’s killing of her newborn baby
"Beloved".At that
point it tells of another fundamental belief amongst people, and that is one ofspirits
and ghosts. Biography——————————————————————————–
Toni Morrison(ChloeWofford)
was born on Feb. 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. She was born the granddaughter ofa former
slave. Her grandfather traveled north from Alabama to settle in Ohio, by way ofKentucky.
Her father’s upbringing was during one of the most murderous times for blacksin
American history. She was raised in a household which was heavily influenced byslavery
and white supremacist’ fears, as well as the need for education. Morrison’s
writingstyle
stems from having fallen in love with words. From that love she inspires youngwriters,
and also people like Muhammad Ali and Angela Davis. What the Critics Said"Beloved"
is a wonderful story about the lives of a former slave and her remainingdaughter.
I shall hail this book as quite possibly one of the best books I’ve read in a
while.This tale
was able to weave history, fears, ghosts, and the reality of 19th century life
allinto one
dramatic tale best read with a compassionate eye. Michiko Kakutani of the NYTimes
wrote "there is a contemporaneous quality to time past and time present as
well asa sense
that the lines between reality and fiction, truth and memory have becomeinextricably
blurred". She goes onto say "This is a dazzling novel." Margaret
Atwood said"If
there were any doubts about her stature as a pre-eminent American novelist, of herown or any
other generation, "Beloved" will put them to rest". She also
goes on to say"An
epigraph to a book is like a key signature in music, and "Beloved" is
written inmajor".
Excerpts from the Novel This excerpt is related to the topic of discrimination
inslavery
and the injustice which has happened. Chronologically, the excerpt takes placewhen Stamp
Paid tells Paul D. that Sethe once tried to kill all of her children. Stamp hasa
newspaper that contains an article about the killing, but Paul D. does not
believe itstruth,
because there is only one reson a slave would be in a newspaper. "A whip
of fearbroke
through the heart chambers as soon as you saw a Negro’s face in a paper, since
theface was
not there because the person had been killed, or maimed or caught or burned orjailed or
whipped or evicted or stomped or raped or cheated, since that could hardlyqualify as
news in a newspaper." Literary Elements Theme The theme of Beloved isrevealed
in the first few pages of the novel as Sethe wants to leave her house as well
asthe pain
within it. Her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs tells her that "not a house in
thecountry
ain’t packed to the rafters with some dead Negro’s grief." Running from
grief willlead to
more of the same, but by staying and facing the pain, wounds that have beeninflicted
can begin to heal through grace. The grace of laughter, dance, and tears allowsthe worst
of the grief to pass through the "trembling red heart" and then be
forgotten.——————————————————————————–
Setting The physicalsetting of
the novel Beloved is a farmhouse known only as 124, situated on BluestoneRoad,
outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. Sethe and her daughter, Denver, have lived in thishouse for
eighteen years. The story begins in the year 1873, but there are manyflashbacks
to the year Sethe attempted to run away, which is in 1856, four years beforethe start
of the Civil War. Sethe, Paul D., and Baby Suggs were all slaves on the samefarm in
Kentucky, which was ironically named Sweet Home, though for them, it wasneither
home nor sweet.
——————————————————————————–Plot The
plot of the novel is loosely based upon the life of a former slave namedMargaret
Garner, who tried to kill all of her children when they were captured by herslave
owner, and she did succeed in killing one. When the novel begins, Sethe and herdaughter,
Denver, are living with the ghost of the baby Sethe killed when she was aboutto be
recaptured. After another former slave, Paul D., arrives, he chases away the
ghost,but soon a
young woman named Beloved comes to Sethe’s home. This woman isstrangely
similar to Sethe’s dead daughter, which is ironic because the word
"Beloved" isthe only
word engraved on her baby’s tombstone, though it is never entirely clear if thewoman
truly is the baby’s ghost turned to flesh.——————————————————————————–
Characters The women inBeloved
are the stronger characters of the story because they are the ones who stay,despite
their past. The men, however, have to run from it. When Sethe is raped by the"nephews,"
she still finds the courage to move beyond the pain and her fear. Herhusband,
Halle, only witnesses the rape and this is enough to drive him to smearing
butteron his
face from the insanity, never again capable of facing Sethe. Paul D. runs for
morethan
eighteen years from his memories. Even Sethe’s sons run when they can stand nomore of
their fears. Baby Suggs withstood the agony of a lifetime of slavery and therealization
of freedom, just to watch her daughter-in-law kill her grandchildren. Thoughshe became
weary, even in the "marrow of her bones," she remained because she
and theother
women knew what the men did not, which was that they had to "lay down thesword and
the shield by the river" in order to swim through the pain.——————————————————————————–
Irony When Sethe runsaway from
from her owners, she vows that neither she nor her four children will ever beforced
into slavery again. However, when her owner finds her, Sethe chooses to kill
herchildren,
because she could not allow her children to be owned or sold. This is ironicbecause
Sethe is actually committing the ultimate act of ownership by taking from herchildren
the freedom to decide for themselves whether to live or die. Though Setheknows
that, as a slave, "life was dead," her children had the right to
discover this forthemselves.
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