toni morrison beloved essay

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English literature essays.

• Toni Morrison: Beloved and Jazz

Sometimes good looks like evil and evil looks like good

Much literature concerning the lives of African Americans during and after slavery explores horrific acts of violence. Toni Morrison (1931 - ), however, takes a step further by dealing with another kind of violence - a violence that is paradoxically an act of love. In her exploration of the moral ambiguity of horrific love she breaks down the polarities of right and wrong and explores the 'grey' areas of human love, 'when love slips through.' (Morrison).

In this essay I will deal chiefly with two examples of murder which could be said to epitomise this 'monstrous potential of love': Sethe's murder of her daughter in Beloved and Joe Trace's murder of his lover Dorcas in Jazz . Beloved deals exclusively with the distorted love of a mother for her child under the oppression of slavery, while Jazz deals with the love between man and woman and explores how racial oppression can distort it. However, in Jazz too the theme of mother-love is of major significance.

Morrison began to explore the theme of violent mothers early in her work, and in her novel Sula (1974) she touched upon the theme of horrific acts of love through the character of Eva Peace. This element of the novel Sula can be seen as a pre-cursor to Beloved , the later novel in which the theme of the monstrous potential of love is central.

Eva Peace first demonstrates 'tough love' when she mutilates herself in order to acquire economic security for her children and end their privation. Later, her killing of Plum - although terrible - is equally an act of love. Plum returns from the First World War shattered - 'helpless and thinking baby thoughts' - and Eva takes his life to save him from a prolonged and emasculated suffering. The ending of life for Plum is for him a welcome escape, euthanasia rather than murder. In his confused state he perceives the kerosene Eva spreads over him as 'Some kind of baptism, some kind of blessing'. Eva's act although extraordinarily destructive is an act of kindness and self-sacrifice of the profoundest kind, for Plum is 'her beloved baby boy' and losing him is intensely painful. Morrison illustrates this ambiguous area of human love in which it is quite acceptable that 'parents who simply adore their children and really and truly do want the best for them may, in fact destroy them'.

In Beloved , the remarkable novel for which Morrison won the 1993 Nobel prize for literature, this theme is explored in great depth. The novel is based on the real life case of a slave girl - Margaret Garner - who in order to protect her children from slavery, attempted to murder them and succeeded in killing her baby girl. Through the use of her unique and remarkable style Morrison presents us with glimpses of the past which creep through both the cracks in Sethe's memory and the plot of the novel, revealing a desperate act of love more haunting than any baby ghost. Due to the horror of slavery Sethe's murder of Beloved is transformed into what Morrison controversially deems 'the ultimate gesture of a loving mother', whose action proclaims, 'to kill my children is preferable to having them die'.

This idea, of the terrible brutalisation of slavery as being a death of the profoundest kind - a death of one's humanity - is epitomised in Schoolteacher's 'project', in which he measures Sethe's body for anthropological reasons. The absolute horror of such a system is chillingly illustrated in the scene when Schoolteacher scolds his pupil for not putting Sethe's 'human characteristics on the right; her animal ones on the left' as he has been instructed to do. The ultimate violation of Sethe's body and also her motherhood is captured in the scene in which Schoolteacher's white pupils hold Sethe down and 'steal her milk'. Sethe is simply viewed as a commodity, an animal with no human rights whatsoever. When Schoolteacher chastises his nephew for over-beating her it is on the grounds of her inhumanity, not her humanity. He asks him, 'what would his own horse do if he beat it beyond the point of education' and insists that he is accountable for such 'creatures God had given [him] the responsibility of'.

Morrison clearly illustrates through such scenes why Sethe feels compelled in desperation, and as an instinctive act of protective love, to push her children 'through the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt them'. Killing her children under such circumstances, where the prospect of life seems bleaker than the finality of death, seems merciful rather than cruel. It is not an innate 'badness' which leads her to such a desperate measure but a society which has denied and distorted her ability to love and to choose: 'it wasn't the jungle blacks brought with them to this place from the other (liveable) place. It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them'. Of course in a system of compete human denial it would be ludicrous to expect the individual's idea of love not to be distorted.

Beloved reflects how in such a society allowing oneself to love is a dangerous practice doomed to heartache. Paul D, witnessing the strength of Sethe's love for Denver, thinks her intensity is 'very risky'. His solution is to repress love, to damp the fire of emotions to protect oneself from loss:

Sethe's murder of Beloved is a denial of the dissolution of love, an attempt to claim the right to love. She makes an active attempt to retain the maternal bond between herself and her child. Her act of desperate violence is contrasted with Baby Suggs who suffered over and over from the dreadfulness of a system stealing away a mother's children from her, and obliterating the right to love: 'my first born. All I can remember is how she loved the bottom of bread. Can you beat that eight children that's all I remember'. Like Paul D she adopts the practice of 'loving only a little', accepting that she has no control over her children's lives.

Sethe, however, as she undertakes an active escape into freedom, also adopts emotional freedom. She rejects the survival technique of making the best of things and loving oneself despite a lack of control over one's life, and allows herself to love and to take possession of her children. She says after escaping from Sweet Home, 'there wasn't nobody in the world I couldn't love if I wanted to'. It is this active insistence on self-freedom of which Paul D is so terrified. For him, 'more important than what Sethe had done is what she claimed'. Such claims, he knew, could lead to terrible destruction.

Sethe's act of violence is in some ways, then, a refusal to compromise her right to love her own children. When Paul D criticises her for her large claims, saying her love is 'too thick. She responds that 'Love is or ain't. Thin love ain't love at all'. For Sethe love has no limit. Hence the boundaries between right and wrong are blurred.

Jennifer Fitzgerald, taking a psychoanalytic approach to the reading of the text, claims that Sethe's 'sense of self and the boundaries to that self [are] dangerously weak'. Fitzgerald avers that this is due to Sethe's separation from her own mother at an early age. She suggests that like Beloved, Sethe is suspended in a pre-oedipal state (a state, in psychoanalytic theory, in which a child does not yet recognise its separateness from the world). Certainly some evidence for this view can be found in the text. Paul D, for example, accuses Sethe of not knowing 'where the world stopped and she began'. Sethe's idea of her selfhood merges with Beloved and the boundaries between them are dissolved - so that eventually in a sense Beloved becomes Sethe and Sethe becomes Beloved - Sethe diminishing in size as Beloved grows.

The relationship between Sethe, Denver, and Beloved is, it has been pointed out by many critics, like a trinity - of the mother, the daughter and the ghost. This triangle of love is an inversion of the religious trinity of the father, the son and the holy ghost, the symbol of perfect love. What we have is a distorted version of love - mother, daughter, and unholy ghost, and the novel clarifies that it is a depraved society which has caused this irreligious, unholy distortion of human love, and which has led Sethe to her desperate act of love and violence.

In Jazz , Morrison's sixth novel, published in 1992, the effect of racial oppression on the individual's ability to love healthily is explored once more. In Harlem in the nineteen-twenties it is still necessary for Joe or anyone else 'colored' to 'be new and stay the same every day the sun rose and every night it dropped'. It was still necessary for black people to 'wear the mask'. It is this lack of freedom and the ability to choose which compels Joe towards Dorcas, and to the desperate act of murder that he is later to commit. Joe's fate is in a sense controlled by a force beyond him. As Morrison herself puts it in an interview with Salman Rushdie, his problem is 'how to exert individual agency under this huge umbrella of determined historical life'.

On a deeper level this search for freedom and a love related to historical past can be traced back to Joe's rejection by his mother Wild, the naked woman who lives in the woods, and who is, (in Joe's embittered words), 'too brain-blasted . . . to do what the meanest sow managed: nurse what she birthed'. She leaves Joe motherless, her presence torturingly just out of reach. What causes her 'wildness' and insanity is never explained in the text, but her terror and madness can be understood to represent the abused oppressed black woman of a racially-oppressed society. Morrison averred that although Jazz is set in a different time and place 'Beloved will be there also'. Just as Beloved becomes a metaphor for racial oppression (as Stamp Paid said 'the people of the broken neck, of fire-cooked blood and black girls who had lost their ribbons'), Wild is a product of it. As a result of the effect of oppression on Wild, Joe develops a distorted idea of love which leads ultimately to his horrific act - his murder of Dorcas, which is as Mbalia puts it, 'the culmination of Joe's struggle to touch his mother's hand'.

Cut deeply by his mother's silent rejection of him, Joe marries Violet in an attempt to 'escape all the redwings [a symbol of Wild's mysterious presence] in the country and all the silence that accompanied them'. However, his literal escape from Wild's presence has not removed the 'inside nothing' which paradoxically has an actual existence inside Joe. His loss is internalised so that when Violet later becomes silent his mother's silence and failure to return his love are re-enacted for him, and the search for Dorcas - or more specifically the search for Wild in Dorcas - is an actual need for him - 'I need to be there', he says, 'where it was all mixed up together just right, and where that was was Dorcas'. In Dorcas he can bury the inside nothing - 'she fills it for him, just as he filled it for her because she had it too'.

Dorcas not only fills his terrible void of loneliness and need for mother-love, but as a young girl like the remembered vision of a mother Dorcas actually symbolises Wild for him. He sees the 'little hoofmarks on her face' as part of the trail he symbolically and literally followed to find his mother. He thinks that Dorcas is what he has found at the end of the trail, what he has been searching for. When he later fears her rejection of him he searches again for the trail with a compelling urge: 'I wasn't looking for the trail. It was looking for me'. In this utter confusion there is a sense that he has no control over his act of violence:

Morrison juxtaposes the two searches and then mingles them, indicating that the two relationships are, for Joe, combined. The question 'what would she Dorcas want with a rooster?' is directly followed by his claim, 'I never, never would mistreat one. Never would make a woman live like a dog in a cave' which is of course directly related to Wild. His desperate question 'where is she?' applies to both Dorcas and Wild, and in the culminating act of the shooting Joe is surprised to find that 'the crowd didn't scatter like the flock of redwings they looked like'. He is mixing up location, time, and of course Wild and Dorcas.

On a symbolic level, then, Joe's murder of Dorcas was a way to prevent her from re-enacting his rejection by Wild. Joe shoots Dorcas but he says he had not meant to harm her, he had just meant to touch her: 'I had the gun but it was not the gun - it was my hand I meant to touch you with'. This distorted act bears witness to Morrison's claim that 'violence is a distortion of what perhaps we want to do'. In this sense then the murder is an act of love, a desperate attempt for Joe to link with his mother, to remove the inside nothing and to retain the bonding he had temporarily achieved with Dorcas by suspending it through death. Just like Sethe in Beloved, Joe, with a love distorted through racial oppression, believes that the only way to prevent this mother-love bond from being broken is through death.

This representation of how a monstrous act can be simultaneously an act of love explores moral ambiguity. From a moral point of view although we cannot condone murder we can understand Sethe and Joe's acts to be empowered by love rather than evil. They are acts which show 'how we can sabotage ourselves with the best intentions'. (Morrison)

The moral question of Toni Morrison's fiction is one which has caused much controversy and discussion amongst critics. Carol Lanone somewhat simplistically, for example, accused Morrison of failing to 'take a clear stand on the appalling actions she depicts'. In Beloved she claims that Morrison portrays Sethe's murder as 'misdirected' rather than wrong, and thus does not confront the moral issue.

Yet surely Morrison does confront the moral issue by allowing a principal character like Paul D to say to Sethe accusingly, 'what you did was wrong Sethe . . . There could have been a way. Some other way'. Morrison answers this question by showing through the text, that to look at the cold reality of the situation, Sethe did not have any alternative course of action left to her. Morrison shows also that Sethe herself is aware of the moral ambiguity of her action. She believes what she has done is paradoxically both right and wrong; an act of the strongest self-sacrificing love and also of terrible monstrosity. Consequently she asks Beloved over and over for forgiveness coupled with endless explanations of her actions, but all the while 'she didn't really want forgiveness given; she wanted it refused'. Sethe also unconsciously enacts a kind self-privation, for example by not wanting to imbue life with any meaning or pleasure because her baby could not. When Beloved returns she says, 'Now I could look at things again because she's here to see them too'.

Through the captivating richness of the text Morrison allows us as readers to be in a position of knowledge - we are able to view Sethe from the inside and to understand her character. Morrison provides us with information that grows in direct proportion to a deeper understanding of her violent act. Unlike the society in Beloved which scorns Sethe's violence as simply wrong - endorsing the attitude that 'you can't just up and kill your children' - we are able through our reading to appreciate the grey areas of human love and to comprehend Morrison's paradoxical claim, 'sometimes good looks like evil and evil looks like good'.

Morrison does take a stand on the terrible actions she depicts, but she directs the blame against the horrific system of racial oppression which creates this ambiguity, a system so evil and terrible that even murder can be a solution. As Otten puts it, Sethe's act of violence takes place in a culture which has created 'forces so brutal that they can transform conventional signifiers of cruelty and evil into gestures of extraordinary love'.

The answer to the moral issue, then, lies in the text. In exploring the moral ambiguity of 'the monstrous potential of love', Morrison shows how an act of violence can paradoxically be, as it was for Sethe, 'the right thing to do, but she had no right to do it . . . the only thing to do but it was the wrong thing to do'. (MacNeil/Lehrer news broadcast).

Bibliography: Heinze, Denise. The Dilemma of 'Double Consciousness'. Toni Morrison's Novels. Fitzgerald, Jennifer. Selfhood and Community: psychoanalysis and discourse in Beloved. Guth, Deborah. 'A blessing and a burden; the relation of the past in Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved'. Mbalia, Dorothea Drummond. 'Women who Run With Wild: The Need For Sisterhoods in Jazz'. Otten, Terry. Horrific Love In Toni Morrison's Fiction.

© Liz Lewis, December 2001

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Naming, Self-ownership, and Identity in Beloved

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September 1987, Toni Morrison

Novel, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction

Sethe, Paul D Garner, Baby Suggs, Denver, Beloved

"Beloved" by Toni Morrison is based on the true story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved African American woman who escaped from slavery in Kentucky in 1856. Inspired by this historical event, Morrison weaves a powerful narrative that explores the enduring impact of slavery on individuals and communities.

In the novel "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, Sethe, a former enslaved woman, lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the years following the American Civil War. Haunted by her traumatic past, Sethe is visited by the ghost of her infant daughter, whom she named Beloved. Beloved's presence disrupts the lives of Sethe, her daughter Denver, and their community. The narrative weaves together past and present, revealing the horrors of Sethe's life as a slave on Sweet Home plantation in Kentucky. Sethe's act of killing her own daughter to spare her from a life of slavery still haunts her. As the ghost of Beloved grows stronger, Sethe is forced to confront her guilt and the legacy of slavery. The novel culminates in a powerful climax where the community rallies together to confront and banish the ghost of Beloved, offering a glimmer of hope and healing. At its core, "Beloved" delves into the devastating impact of slavery on individuals and their struggle for liberation, both from physical bondage and the psychological scars that linger long after freedom is attained.

The novel "Beloved" by Toni Morrison is primarily set in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the years following the American Civil War. The setting is significant as it represents a transition from the oppressive plantation life of the characters' past to a period of supposed freedom and opportunity. Cincinnati, a northern city, serves as a symbol of hope and a place of refuge for former slaves seeking a new beginning. The story is also rooted in the memories of Sweet Home, a plantation in Kentucky where the characters were enslaved. Though the physical setting of Sweet Home is not explicitly depicted in the novel, it looms large in the characters' consciousness, haunting them with memories of brutality and dehumanization. The contrast between the stark reality of the plantation and the relative freedom of Cincinnati highlights the psychological and emotional impact of their past experiences.

1. Memory and Rememory: The theme of memory plays a central role in "Beloved." The characters are haunted by their past experiences, and the narrative delves into the power and consequences of remembering or suppressing painful memories. Morrison examines how memory shapes personal identity and explores the complex relationship between remembering and healing. 2. Trauma and Healing: "Beloved" delves into the deep trauma inflicted by slavery and the long-lasting emotional scars it leaves on the characters. Morrison explores various coping mechanisms employed by the characters to deal with their trauma, highlighting the necessity of confronting and acknowledging past pain in order to heal and reclaim one's identity. 3. Motherhood and Maternal Love: The novel explores the intricate bond between mothers and their children, presenting a nuanced portrayal of motherhood. Morrison examines the sacrifices, challenges, and complexities of maternal love, particularly in the context of the characters' experiences as slaves and the profound impact it has on their identities. 4. Identity and Self-Definition: The characters in "Beloved" grapple with the search for their true selves in the face of a history marked by dehumanization and oppression. The novel explores the ways in which individuals construct and redefine their identities, both individually and collectively, in the aftermath of slavery.

1. Symbolism: Morrison skillfully uses symbolism to convey deeper meanings. One notable example is the character of Beloved herself, who symbolizes the haunting presence of slavery's legacy. Beloved represents both the physical manifestation of Sethe's guilt and the collective memory of the atrocities of slavery. 2. Metaphor: The novel employs metaphors to create vivid and imaginative descriptions. For instance, Morrison uses the metaphor of the "chokecherry tree" to symbolize Sethe's painful memories and the burden she carries from her past. The tree serves as a haunting reminder of the traumatic experiences Sethe endured. 3. Stream of Consciousness: Morrison incorporates stream of consciousness technique to provide insight into the characters' thoughts and emotions. This narrative device allows readers to experience the characters' internal struggles and fragmented memories. Sethe's internal monologues, for example, offer a raw and intimate portrayal of her emotional journey. 4. Flashbacks and Fragmentation: The novel employs flashbacks and fragmented storytelling to depict the fragmented nature of memory and trauma. The narrative jumps between different time periods, revealing fragmented glimpses of the characters' past experiences. This technique mirrors the characters' fragmented sense of self and highlights the nonlinear nature of memory. 5. Repetition: Morrison uses repetition to emphasize key ideas and evoke a sense of rhythm. The repeated phrase "It's not a story to pass on" underscores the characters' desire to suppress and silence their traumatic past, highlighting the deep wounds inflicted by slavery and the difficulty of facing the truth.

One notable representation of "Beloved" in media is the film adaptation released in 1998, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Oprah Winfrey as Sethe. The film received critical acclaim for its faithful portrayal of the novel's themes and characters. In addition to the film adaptation, "Beloved" has also been adapted for the stage. Notably, a theatrical production premiered on Broadway in 2014, directed by George C. Wolfe. The play received positive reviews for its powerful performances and innovative staging, capturing the haunting atmosphere of the novel. Furthermore, "Beloved" has influenced the music industry, with various artists drawing inspiration from the novel. For instance, American singer-songwriter Solange Knowles references "Beloved" in her song "Mad" from her album "A Seat at the Table." The lyrics explore themes of identity, resilience, and self-empowerment, echoing the themes explored in Morrison's novel.

One of the key influences of "Beloved" is its contribution to African American literature. The novel delves into the legacy of slavery, examining its enduring impact on individuals and communities. Morrison's powerful storytelling and complex characters have influenced subsequent generations of writers, who have been inspired to explore similar themes of history, identity, and liberation. Furthermore, "Beloved" has had a significant impact on the discourse of trauma and memory studies. Morrison's intricate narrative structure, with its blending of past and present, highlights the enduring effects of historical trauma on individuals and society. The novel's exploration of memory, ghosts, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma has influenced scholars and researchers studying the psychological and social consequences of historical oppression. In terms of social consciousness, "Beloved" has contributed to raising awareness of the African American experience and the ongoing struggle for racial equality. The novel invites readers to confront the brutal realities of slavery and to reflect on the legacy of systemic racism. Its exploration of themes such as self-identity, community, and the quest for freedom has resonated with readers globally, fostering empathy and understanding.

One interesting fact about "Beloved" is that it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. This prestigious award recognized Toni Morrison's exceptional storytelling and the novel's profound exploration of slavery, memory, and identity. "Beloved" remains one of the few novels by an African American woman to have received this honor, solidifying its significance in the literary canon. Another interesting fact is that "Beloved" was adapted into a film in 1998, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Oprah Winfrey as the lead character, Sethe. The film aimed to bring Morrison's powerful story to a wider audience, highlighting the enduring relevance of the novel's themes. While the film adaptation received mixed reviews, it further cemented the cultural impact of "Beloved" and its recognition as a significant work of literature.

Beloved is an essential novel to explore in an essay due to its profound examination of the African American experience, the legacy of slavery, and the complexities of memory and identity. Toni Morrison's masterful storytelling and rich narrative techniques create a haunting and emotionally charged narrative that demands critical analysis and exploration. One reason why Beloved is important to write an essay about is its exploration of the lasting effects of slavery. The novel delves into the psychological and emotional scars borne by the characters, shedding light on the trauma and dehumanization inflicted upon enslaved individuals. By examining the characters' experiences, readers can gain a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural context of slavery and its impact on generations. Moreover, Beloved raises essential questions about memory, identity, and the power of storytelling. The novel invites readers to contemplate the nature of remembrance, the ways in which history shapes individual and collective identities, and the healing potential of confronting painful pasts.

"Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another." "Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all." "She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order." "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined." "You your best thing, Sethe. You are."

1. House, E. B. (1990). Toni Morrison's Ghost: The Beloved is Not Beloved. Studies in American Fiction, 18(1), 17-26. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/440075/summary) 2. Rody, C. (1995). Toni Morrison's Beloved: History," Rememory," and a" Clamor for a Kiss". American Literary History, 7(1), 92-119. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/489799) 3. Wyatt, J. (1993). Giving body to the word: The maternal symbolic in Toni Morrison's Beloved. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/giving-body-to-the-word-the-maternal-symbolic-in-toni-morrisons-beloved/B420EA48223E5BAE56F39766D68E578F pmla, 108(3), 474-488. 4. Pesch, J. (1993). Beloved: Toni Morrison's Post-Apocalyptic Novel. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, 395-408. (https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/crcl/index.php/crcl/article/view/3205) 5. Campbell, J. (1996). Images of the real: Reading history and psychoanalysis in Toni Morrison's beloved. Women: a cultural review, 7(2), 136-149. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09574049608578269?journalCode=rwcr20) 6. Heinert, J. L. J. (2012). Narrative conventions and race in the novels of Toni Morrison. Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203625729/narrative-conventions-race-novels-toni-morrison-jennifer-lee-jordan-heinert) 7. Smalley, M. (2018). The Unchurched Preacher and the Circulated Sermon: Literary Preaching in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. MELUS, 43(2), 29-52. (https://academic.oup.com/melus/article-abstract/43/2/29/4999664) 8. Mayfield, S. (2012). Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: A Psychological Reading. https://www.academia.edu/4947297/Motherhood_in_Toni_Morrisons_Beloved_A_Psychological_Reading Journal of Scientific Psychology, 1-10.

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TUESDAY PUZZLE — I know that I’ve got a pretty good thing going here, and that I don’t really have a right to complain. But if you’ll allow me just a whit of whining, a crumb of carping, a particle of protest, then I can tell you how I came to love today’s crossword puzzle, constructed by Benjamin Panico.

My colleagues and I occasionally suffer bouts of crossword tunnel vision. These episodes are harmless, as long as we’re not operating heavy machinery, and are set off by overused entries. Mx. Panico, who uses he/they pronouns, began his crossword, his first for The New York Times, with two such entries. [Pathetic], at 1A, is always SAD. [Hoarse], at 4A, is predictably RASP. And then I felt it: I was beginning to tunnel. But I was yanked back into focus by JAZZ (8A), the first of many themed entries about a well-known figure whose writing will no doubt be familiar to many solvers.

From that point on, the puzzle never lost momentum, and I hardly blinked until I devoured the entire thing. It’s especially heartening to see so many unexpected choices and sub-theme symmetry achieved in a constructor debut, so I’m really looking forward to seeing where Mx. Panico takes us next.

Today’s Theme

TONI MORRISON (55A) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. In her banquet speech at the Stockholm City Hall, she said that she was “pleasantly haunted” by the laureates who had stood in that spot before her. That might be the best way to describe how this theme, in its impossible grandeur, hovers over the grid.

Ms. Morrison had written six novels by 1993, all of which are featured in this puzzle: JAZZ (8A), THE BLUEST EYE (19A), TAR BABY (30A), SONG OF SOLOMON (35A), BELOVED (42A) and SULA (65A).

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by Toni Morrison

Beloved themes.

Grief is a recurring theme on both a micro and macro level in Beloved . On the micro level, each of the main characters deals with their own personal grief as they grapple with their past pain. As Baby Suggs admits, 124 is “packed to its rafters” with their grief (Morrison 11). Baby Suggs grieves the loss of her children, who were torn from her and sold across the country. Her son Halle buys her freedom, but even then Baby Suggs finds it hard to overcome the pain from her past. After Sethe tries to kill her children, Baby Suggs eventually succumbed to her grief and died in her bedroom. Paul D also almost died from his grief, but he learned how to box it up and push it away. However, once he hears of Sethe’s horrible choice, his grief comes roaring out of his Pandora’s box, and he turns to alcohol to soothe his pain. Denver takes a completely different route to deal with the grief of losing her family. Initially, she shuts herself away and retreats from the world, relying on Sethe for human interaction. However, by the end of the novel, Denver has learned to face her grief head-on and conquers her fear of the world. She becomes a resourceful young woman who is the breadwinner for her family. Denver manages to overcome her grief from slavery’s legacy and serves as a symbol of how Black Americans managed to succeed post-slavery.

Like Baby Suggs, Sethe also has a mother’s grief, but hers takes the tangible form of Beloved. Not only does Beloved represents all of Sethe’s grief, guilt, and pain from slavery and the harsh choices she had to make, but she also represents the pain, fear, suffering, and grief of the millions of American slaves and their descendants. In this way, Beloved is a representation of grief on a macro level.

Memory, or “rememory,” is an integral part of Beloved . Morrison uses the characters’ memories and fragmented remembrances of the past to compose her story. The result is a novel that oftentimes flits back and forth across space and time. For example, though the story opens at 124 in 1873, much of it takes place at Sweet Home plantation before the Civil War. Sights and sounds as innocuous as a dog lapping at water or the back of a sleeping man trigger horrible and painful memories for many of the characters (Morrison 12 and 51). Once triggered, characters then serve as a gateway to the past, where the real story lies. This method of storytelling is demonstrated when Paul D recounts the story of Sixo and the Thirty-Mile Woman. Paul D’s memory of his friend was triggered by seeing Sethe cross her ankles (Morrison 45). This is a perfect example of how a pedestrian motion can hold a wealth of meaning and memory for the novel’s characters.

Memory is also important because of the role it plays in the relationships between characters. Sethe and Paul D have a fraught shared history because of Sweet Home and the horrible memories it generated. So when they reconnect years after the Civil War, their new relationship exists in the shadow of these memories. As Sethe says, the hurt of the shared memories between herself and Paul D “was always there-like a tender place in the corner of her mouth that the bit left” (Morrison 107). Memory also influences Sethe’s relationship to Denver. Sethe’s memory of how she tried to kill Denver fills her with guilt, and so she keeps Denver at arm’s length. Denver senses her mother’s feelings and also keeps her distance. The only memory that the mother and daughter regard positively is Denver’s birth story, because it demonstrates Sethe’s love and devotion for Denver. Finally, memory is the controlling force in Sethe’s relationship with Beloved. Beloved is the physical manifestation of Sethe’s grief, guilt, and trauma from slavery. Because Beloved was absent for much of Sethe’s life, she craves Sethe’s memories and stories of the past. But unlike Sethe’s behavior with Paul D and Denver regarding her memories, Sethe enjoys and wants to share Beloved's memories. At first, it’s because Sethe believes Beloved is a complete stranger, and so there’s a distance that makes the storytelling easy (Morrison 107). But later on, these memories feed Beloved like food, and so sharing memories becomes the central component of their relationship.

In many respects, Beloved is a story about motherhood and how slavery impacted Black women’s ability to be good mothers. Starting with Baby Suggs, who had all but one of her children sold to plantations far away from her, it’s clear that slavery erected many physical barriers between a mother and her children. Sometimes these barriers existed even on the same plantation, as Sethe and her mother demonstrate. As Sethe’s mother toiled in the fields, another woman assigned to look after the plantation’s children raised Sethe. This left little time for Sethe and her mother to bond and build a relationship (Morrison 111). As a result, the physical barrier became an emotional one as well.

Looking at Sethe, we see slavery’s impact on Black mothers at its most extreme. Rather than watch her children become slaves, Sethe attempted to kill them. At first glance, Sethe’s actions seem opposite to our expectations of a mother’s behavior. Everyone who witnessed her behavior, from Stamp Paid to the schoolteacher, struggles to comprehend her seemingly evil and barbaric act. However, if we consider the idea that a slave’s life is a fate worse than death, Sethe’s actions become easier to understand. She believed she was being a good mother by sparing her children from slavery and all its horrors. However, since Sethe became a social pariah after her actions, it’s clear that very few agree with her reasoning. Sethe also struggles with her guilt and has a strained relationship with her surviving children. Her children have been raised in a world where they are free, and thus they cannot comprehend the fear that fueled their mother’s actions. So both sides keep their distance, further widening the divide between mother and children. By the end of the novel, Sethe’s relationship with Denver seems to be improving. This is mostly because Denver recognized the damage Beloved inflicted on Sethe and assumed the responsibility of caring for Sethe. This is a reversal of the traditional mother-daughter relationship where a mother cares for her daughter, and it gives us a poetic sense of closure. Sethe is finally receiving the type of mothering that slavery had kept from her.

Abandonment

Abandonment takes several forms in Beloved . There’s physical abandonment, demonstrated by Halle, Sethe’s sons, Paul D, etc. Though the specifics surrounding Halle’s abandonment of Sethe and their children are unknown, it’s believed that he left after witnessing schoolteacher’s nephews assaulting Sethe. Sethe’s sons left because they felt unsafe with their mother, and Paul D left once he learned of Sethe’s attempted killing of her children. While all these acts of leaving are examples of physical abandonment, they also illustrate emotional abandonment. In various ways, all of these men abandoned Sethe and severed their emotional ties to her. In particular, when Paul D compares Sethe to an animal, he is signaling that he no longer views her as a fellow human being, much less as a potential partner (Morrison 290). He abandons the intimate and emotional connection they had been forging since he arrived at 124.

Baby Suggs and Sethe are also examples of emotional abandonment. When Sethe arrives at 124, Baby takes her in and treats her as a daughter because of Sethe’s relationship to Halle. However, after Sethe commits infanticide, Baby retreats to her bedroom and recedes from the world. Though she is physically present in the lives of Sethe and her children, she abandons them emotionally, devastated by Sethe’s harsh decision. Sethe also emotionally abandons her children after she attempts to kill them. Her guilt makes it hard for her to forge connections to them. Her only remaining child, Denver, feels the absence of her family acutely. This feeling is only compounded when Paul D arrives and begins to take up Sethe’s attention and affection. Lonely and abandoned by her brothers, grandmother, and mother, Denver turns to the ghost haunting 124 for comfort (Morrison 25).

Slavery is the novel’s core theme and plays a critical role in the lives of each character. Slavery and its horrors are what led Halle to pay for Baby Suggs’ freedom, sentencing himself to a crushing debt to Mr. Garner . Later on, slavery and the concomitant sexual abuse drive Halle insane. Furthermore, slavery and the abuse Sethe suffered under it compelled her to commit infanticide rather than see her children also suffer. These examples all demonstrate slavery’s powerful hold over the enslaved.

Slavery also caused devastating emotional and psychological wounds in the enslaved, and Beloved is one of the first novels to explore this aspect of slavery. Similar to the schoolteacher’s comparison of Sethe to a horse that needed to be tamed, most novels gloss over the inner workings of an enslaved person. By delving into the consciousness of slaves and former slaves, Morrison exposes slavery’s crippling legacy beyond its physical impact. Sethe’s complicated decision to kill her children shows that slaves were far from the mindless cattle or livestock their masters took them to be. Rather, they were complex human beings capable of making bitter decisions in the name of love. Similarly, after his experiences at Sweet Home and the chain gang, Paul D suffers from PTSD. To cope, he replaces his heart with a metaphorical tin box where he locks away his traumatic memories. Again, this contradicts the stereotype of slaves as beings with no emotional or psychological sentience.

Jealousy drives Beloved ’s plot and influences most of the characters. Denver is one of the first characters to demonstrate this jealousy. When Paul D arrives in Ohio at 124, she is jealous of not only his shared past with Sethe but also his positive impact on Sethe. This causes Denver to act rudely and brattily (Morrison 28). When Beloved arrives at 124, Denver is possessive of her, and she becomes jealous when Beloved gives more attention to Sethe than to her (Morrison 115). Later on in the novel, this jealousy is extended when Sethe begins to shower Beloved with attention. Denver views the two women locked in their own bubble and feels excluded. Paul D also becomes jealous at Beloved’s arrival, something that even Sethe notices (Morrison 235). Distrustful of Beloved, Paul D is jealous of her connection to Sethe and realizes that Beloved is creating a chasm between him and the rest of the family. He eventually leaves Sethe, driven away by Beloved’s behavior and Sethe’s past choices. Paul D’s departure was Beloved’s goal, as he was one more person with whom she had to compete for Sethe’s attention. As the physical manifestation of Sethe’s murdered baby, Beloved is greedy for her mother’s love and attention, and her jealousy fuels all of her actions. These actions are what set the novel’s events into motion and drives the story to its conclusion.

Family and Community

Despite slavery’s best efforts to sever the familial ties of slaves, slaves still managed to forge familial and community bonds. Despite her own fragmented relationship with her own mother, Sethe feels a fierce attachment to her children. She loves them and will clearly do anything for them, even sacrificing her own physical wellbeing and sanity. Baby Suggs also demonstrates the strong familial bonds slaves managed to form in spite of slavery. She welcomes Sethe and her children into her home based solely on Sethe’s word that she is Halle’s partner and bore his children. Baby Suggs’s faith demonstrates her enduring love for her son and her commitment to serving the slave community. Baby Suggs’ ability to provide a safe place for Sethe and the children is due to her son’s sacrifice for her freedom. Again, though slave traders and masters did their best to separate families and stunt familial attachments, Halle was still able to develop a love for his mother. This love drove him to trade his ability to make his own wages for his mother’s freedom.

When Sethe runs away from Sweet Home, we witness how the Black community and white abolitionists set up a system to help runaway slaves reach freed states. And when Sethe arrives in Ohio at 124, the Black community there embraces her and the children. Unfortunately, we soon see how jealousy turns this community into a double-edged sword that can help its members or endanger them. Baby Suggs’ neighbors, jealous of her success and supposed riches, refuse to warn the inhabitants of 124 when the schoolteacher comes looking for Sethe and her children. If the community had raised the alarm, perhaps Sethe could have escaped again and Beloved would still be alive. But although the Black community failed Sethe the day she killed Beloved, they come to her rescue years later and help save her from Beloved’s vengeance.

Beloved Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Beloved is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

In Beloved, why did Paul D get sent to prison?

After Paul D attempted to escape from Sweet Home, he was sold to a man he soon attempted to kill. As a result, Paul D was sent to a prison in Georgia.

Why is Denver so jealous of Sethe?

Denver is jealous because she considers Beloved her possession. She is jealous because Beloved gives more attention to Sethe than she does to her (Denver).

Why is Sethe angry about her memories of Sweet Home?

Sethe's memories of Sweet Home include all of the men she has loved, but more importantly, her years as a slave.

Study Guide for Beloved

Beloved study guide contains a biography of Toni Morrison, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Beloved
• Beloved Summary
• Character List

Essays for Beloved

Beloved literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Beloved.

• Sethe, a Slave to Her Past
• Inscribing Beloved: The Importance of Writing in Morrison's Novel
• The Objects Connoting Beloved's Initial Appearance
• Beloved the Enigma
• Interpretive Possibilities in Beloved

Lesson Plan for Beloved

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Beloved
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Beloved Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Beloved

• Introduction