THe Novel Beloved by Toni Morrison Essay - 865 Words

Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved is a ghost story. There’s a literal ghost who haunts the characters from the book, but at the same time, the novel is about the ghosts of the past that have haunted the entire country since the days of slavery.[perceptive] Set a few years after slavery ended, and based on a true story, Beloved tells the story of a former slave named Sethe who has settled in Ohio with her three children. But when her house begins to be haunted by the ghost of a young woman, the past comes back to remind her of a painful past [Good] Sethe believes that the ghost is the spirit of Beloved, her oldest child who she escaped from slavery with years ago. When she and her family were found by the plantation†¦show more content†¦Paul D and most of the other black characters are damaged people with personalities that have never recovered from being held in slavery. The women of the community where Sethe lives with Denver are often harsh and unforgiving with her. They know that she killed her child, but they don’t seem to be very forgiving about why she did it. They are left damaged, but not able to understand the damage done to others, the desperation it caused in them or the guilt it left in them. They aren’t evil though, which shows in the way in which they eventually rally around Sethe to exorcise the ghost of Beloved. Like many of the characters in the novel, their damage makes them flawed, but they are too complex to be simple heroes or villains. This building of complex characters is one of the best parts of the novel. A few characters in the novel, especially the Schoolteacher and his nephews, are pure evil, but most are more nuanced. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner, though they are slave-owners, are just about as kindly as anyone in that line of work could be expected to be. Paul D cheats on Sethe more than once, but in the end he stays by her side. Sethe’s neighbors reject her, but come back to help her when it really matters. Even Sethe herself commits acts of violence – against her daughter, and again when she attacks the well-meaning Mr. Bodwin with an icepick – but she is a decent woman who’s been driven half-crazy by the terrible thingsShow MoreRelatedIn Toni Morrison Novel Beloved, She Wrote, â€Å"Freeing Yourself1654 Words   |  7 Pages In Toni Morrison novel Beloved, she wrote, â€Å"Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.† Which means that being free and claiming that freedom are two different things because when being freed they can still feel trapped. On the other hand, claiming that freedom means that they do not feel trapped and they actually found a way to claim their own freedom. The novel Beloved is about a former slave name Sethe and her past of being enslaved still haunts her evenRead MoreHouse 124 Is Haunted by a Baby in the Novel, Beloved by Toni Morrison1098 Words   |  5 Pagesgrown up alo ne. 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The ideals of the white oppressor, be it murder, rape, or sexual abuse were powerful forces that shaped the lives of many of the characters, especially the character Sethe. Rape and sexual abuse are two grotesque instances expressed throughout the novel. The most often referred to is the incident when SchoolteacherRead MorePostmodernism in American Literature Essay1390 Words   |  6 PagesPostmodernism in American literature The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison often makes us question the credibility of what is being told, and uses many striking, sudden shifts between the past and present, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction. This blurring of the truth is a common element of postmodern fiction. In fact, many scholars would say that Beloved is a great example of postmodernism. 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The story follows Sethe as she attempts to make peace with her present (for her, post Civil War America) and her past as a former slave and the atrocities she suffered at the hands of the benevolent Gardner family. Information given to the readers from different perspectives, multiple characters, and various time periods allows her audience to piece together t he history of the family, their lives, as