Beloved is a novel, set during the American Civil War, explaining the emotional impact of slavery for a woman named Sethe, and the stumbling complications she goes through with her family throughout life. The breath-taking story by Toni Morrison had won her a Pulitzer Prize, and was later turned into a movie in 1998.
The main character, Sethe, was a slave and a mother of four kids. Both she and her children had fled from their slave owner's field, and caught a boat headed to Ohio. They became settled into Ohio, but a few months later their slave owner came to retrieve them back, due to the Fugitive Slave Act. To prevent her kids from going back to the plantation, Sethe tried to kill all four of her kids; she refused for her children to relive the same life she had to. The youngest child was the only one murdered out of the four, because Sethe was quickly brought to a standstill once the owner reached her. The owner was beyond disgusted at Sethe's actions that he decided not to collect them at all. As several years go by, Sethe is constantly haunted by her slaughtered infant- causing Sethe to feel remorseful and stuck in the past.
The main character, Sethe, was a slave and a mother of four kids. Both she and her children had fled from their slave owner's field, and caught a boat headed to Ohio. They became settled into Ohio, but a few months later their slave owner came to retrieve them back, due to the Fugitive Slave Act. To prevent her kids from going back to the plantation, Sethe tried to kill all four of her kids; she refused for her children to relive the same life she had to. The youngest child was the only one murdered out of the four, because Sethe was quickly brought to a standstill once the owner reached her. The owner was beyond disgusted at Sethe's actions that he decided not to collect them at all. As several years go by, Sethe is constantly haunted by her slaughtered infant- causing Sethe to feel remorseful and stuck in the past.
Main Characters:
Sethe: The protagonist of the novel and also the mother of four. Her most striking characteristic is her devotion to her children, and the unwilling to relinquish her children to the physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma she has endured as a slave. She tries to murder them in an act that is, in her mind, one of motherly love and protection.
Denver: Sethe’s daughter Denver is the most dynamic character in the
novel. She is shy, intelligent, thoughtful and sensitive. Her mother considers Denver a “charmed” child who has miraculously survived, and
throughout the book Denver is in close contact with the supernatural (Beloved).
Beloved: Beloved’s indefinable identity is the leading to our
understanding of the novel. Her limited talking ability, neediness, baby-soft skin, and emotional instability could all be explained by a lifetime spent in captivity. But these traits could also support the theory that Beloved is the embodied spirit of Sethe’s dead daughter. Beloved is the age of the baby that it would have been had if it had lived.
Main Theme:
Slavery’s Destruction of Identity
- Beloved explores the physical, emotional, and spiritual destruction brought by slavery; a destruction that continues to haunt those characters who were former slaves, even in freedom. The most dangerous of
slavery’s effects is its negative impact on the former slaves’ senses of self, and the novel contains multiple examples of self-alienation. Sethe seems to feel distance from herself and filled with self-hatred. Therefore, she sees the best part of herself in her children.
In my opinion, I believe that Toni wanted us to realize that everything we are not proud of of doing in the past will haunt us in our present, causing us to feel depressed and stuck in that time frame. It would be hard for us to move on in life because our head would still be wrapped around what we've done in the past. So in order to move forward with your life, you have to learn to forgive yourself.
Denver: Sethe’s daughter Denver is the most dynamic character in the
novel. She is shy, intelligent, thoughtful and sensitive. Her mother considers Denver a “charmed” child who has miraculously survived, and
throughout the book Denver is in close contact with the supernatural (Beloved).
Beloved: Beloved’s indefinable identity is the leading to our
understanding of the novel. Her limited talking ability, neediness, baby-soft skin, and emotional instability could all be explained by a lifetime spent in captivity. But these traits could also support the theory that Beloved is the embodied spirit of Sethe’s dead daughter. Beloved is the age of the baby that it would have been had if it had lived.
Main Theme:
Slavery’s Destruction of Identity
- Beloved explores the physical, emotional, and spiritual destruction brought by slavery; a destruction that continues to haunt those characters who were former slaves, even in freedom. The most dangerous of
slavery’s effects is its negative impact on the former slaves’ senses of self, and the novel contains multiple examples of self-alienation. Sethe seems to feel distance from herself and filled with self-hatred. Therefore, she sees the best part of herself in her children.
In my opinion, I believe that Toni wanted us to realize that everything we are not proud of of doing in the past will haunt us in our present, causing us to feel depressed and stuck in that time frame. It would be hard for us to move on in life because our head would still be wrapped around what we've done in the past. So in order to move forward with your life, you have to learn to forgive yourself.