Beloved by Toni Morrison
At Sweet Home, the farm where Sethe spent so many years as a slave before making her way to Ohio, terrible, horrible things happened to her. Her new life is full of promise, yet even after 18 years, she is still incarcerated. In addition to the spirit of Sethe’s kid, whose gravestone bears the single inscription “Beloved,” Sethe’s new house is also troubled by her memories of the past.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
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Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a gripping work of historical fiction that was released in 1987 by Vintage Books. Morrison has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature, and many others. This book was meant to show both the psychological effects of slavery on individuals who were freed as well as the horrors of slavery. Beloved effectively explores these topics through the viewpoint of Sethe, a woman who spent the majority of her life as a slave and who makes valiant attempts to flee her past after gaining freedom.
The inexplicable murder of Sethe’s child, for whom the novel has the same name, as well as the enduring sense of oppression instilled in her by her masters while she lived on the Kentucky plantation known as “Sweet Home” are the causes of Sethe’s anguish. Sethe’s problems affect her relationships as well. Denver, her daughter, is continually wary of new acquaintances entering her mother’s life and is curious about her family’s past, which her mother has made a valiant effort to forget. Paul D, Sethe’s new lover and a former slave at Sweet Home is a staunch supporter of her conflict. He is unable to make her forget about her true love Halle, who was cut off when they left the property, though.
As readers, we get to see Sethe change and come to terms with her history as more bits and pieces of it are revealed throughout the book Beloved.
The word “Beloved” was inscribed on Sethe’s dead child’s tombstone, thus the title’s meaning. This relevance gets increasingly more important as the narrative progresses. Although there are many themes in this book, I believe the two most significant ones are escaping from the past and inferiority. It is evident from the book’s opening chapters that Sethe has experienced some terrible things, such as losing her young child and being mistreated while a slave. Sethe’s scars on her back represent the lasting consequences her time as a slave has had on her present as a free woman.
A fantastic portrayal of life after slavery and the connections one would build through it can be found in Beloved. All ages should read this book, but white youngsters in especially should read it, in my opinion. Even today, every African American home is filled with stories about the atrocities their ancestors endured due to slavery. Despite having studied slavery in school, I was never able to imagine what it may have been like to be a slave.
