The Novel Beloved by Toni Morrison - Essay Example

? Toni Morrison’s Beloved Set in the antebellum period, Toni Morrison’s Beloved portrays the horrible atrocities of slavery and the trauma this dehumanizing system caused slaves and their families. Considered by many critics to be a slave narrative, the novel exposes the brutalities of this wicked institution that subjugated millions of people throughout the years. Indeed, Sethe’s haunted house expresses not only the bitterness of her slaughtered daughter but also symbolizes the horrors and evil of slavery that caused much suffering and pain to the enslaved. These brutal experiences are too painful to remember or share; however, those repressed memories have to be repossessed in order to provide healing. Besides, Morrison also foregrounds the significance of storytelling and employs different narrative voices to reflect Sethe’s fragmented stories. This form of narration allows her to keep the reader interested and eager to know the unfolding of the story. Morrison’s allusion to “Sixty million and more” represents not only an acknowledgement but also a tribute to the millions of Africans that had to go through the Middle passage. The exact number of these people who underwent much suffering and pain will never be known; however, their memory will survive through their experiences and writings like Morrison’s and others that strive to keep the memory alive. This statement reveals: “Let us turn to Beloved, a Pulitzer Prize winning book set in antebellum America. Usually classified as a neo-slave narrative, it deals with slavery and the myriads of traumas inflicted by such a horrifying institution on the survivors” (Palladino 54). Through Sethe’s and her fellow slaves’ experiences, Morrison portrays the atrocities and evil these millions of slaves had to go through. Besides, this homage to those who experienced slavery has a deep connection with another number that begins the novel: “124 WAS SPITEFUL. Full of a baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims” (Morrison 1). Indeed, Morrison’s choice to open the novel by a number, not a word, constitutes another way to foreground the number of people that suffered the cruelties of slavery. Therefore, 124 has a special link with slavery not only because it was a house that offered refuge to runaway slaves but it also symbolizes the brutalities of slavery through the painful murder of Sethe’s baby. In fact, the missing figure (3) in the number represents Beloved, Sethe’s third child sacrificed through the devastation of slavery, but it also symbolizes all the victims who died in the sea or through of the atrocities of their enslavement. This critic informs: “The sequence 1 2 4 that misses the third figure, signifies the absence of Sethe’s third child: Sethe has four children, Howard, Buglar, the little killed baby, and Denver. Beloved has been excluded from the family, from life and from being enumerated among Sethe’s children; she has been left out and consciously forgotten for being a heavy and unbearable memory”(Palladino 57). Thus, this deliberate effort to forget Beloved represents an attempt to ignore the pain and suffering related to slavery. Moreover, Morrison uses an efficient writing strategy in order to expose the destructive nature of slavery. She carefully combines form and content in an attempt to foreground the brutalities of slavery and the trauma it caused its victims. Indeed, the first paragraph sets the tone of the story without telling explicitly what the real problem is. This style reflects Morrison’s effort to keep the reader interested and waiting. The narrator introduces the ghost without naming it: “As soon as two tiny hand prints appeared in the cake (that was it for Howard). Neither boy waited to see more; another kettleful of chickpeas smoking in a heap on the floor; soda crackers crumbled and strewn in a line next to the door sill. Nor did they wait for one of the relief periods: the weeks, months even, when nothing was disturbed. No. Each one fled at once” (Morrison 1). These scary appearances that symbolize the ghost of slavery compel the boys to run away from the safest home they have ever known and face the risk to be taken back into slavery. This writing style gives a hint to the reader without saying exactly what happened. Morrison withholds information from the readers and keeps them longing for what is to come, thereby, allowing the story to unfold gradually. This gloomy description of 124 reflecting the devastating effects of slavery on its inhabitants totally contrasts with what it used to be years earlier. Indeed, before the spite of the baby ghost, 124 used to be a safe place for runaway slaves who used to find in this house the security, comfort and nurturing they need to survive the dramatic trauma of slavery. Baby Suggs, the children, Sethe and many more slaves took advantage of this hospitality to escape the brutalities of this unfair system. This opportunity to heal and even enjoy the benefits provided in this house offered these runaway slaves some sense of well-being they never experienced in their lives. The narrator observes: Before 124 and everybody in it had closed down, veiled over and shut away; before it had become the plaything of spirits and the home of the chafed, 124 had been a cheerful, buzzing house where Baby Suggs, holy, loved, cautioned, fed, chastised and soothed. Where not one but two pots simmered on the stove; where the lamp burned all night long. Strangers rested there while children tried on their shoes. Messages were left there, for whoever needed them was sure to stop in one day soon. (Morrison 47) However, the venom of the baby ghost that also symbolizes the horrific impact slavery had on people’s lives transformed the house into this spiteful and pitiful place it became. This degradation reflecting the trauma of slavery makes the house resemble Sweet Home that embodies the slave house in the novel. Even though Sweet Home differs from the previous homes Baby Suggs and the other slaves had known, considering the violence and the hard work they were subjected to, they were still slaves having to accomplish their chores for their owner. The narrator introduces the home in these terms: “Sweet Home was tiny compared to the places she had been. Mr. Garner, Mrs. Garner, herself, Halle, and four boys, over half named Paul, made up the entire population. Mrs. Garner hummed when she worked; Mr. Garner acted like the world was a toy he was supposed to have fun with” (Morrison 75). Mr. Garner’s attitude and that of Schoolteacher, later, reflects the demeanor of slave owners who feel like playing with the lives of their slaves. The atrocities Sethe and the other slaves had to go through foreground the irony in Sweet Home that despite its name, it still represents a place of torture and suffering like all other slave plantations. Furthermore, memory plays a key role in Morrison’s novel because the cruelties of slavery cannot just be forgotten. Despite Sethe’s deliberate effort not to remember the horrors she was subjected to and the sorrow of having to murder her own child in order to save her from the danger of slavery, her environment urges her to remember. Her deliberate choice not to speak the unspeakable reflects the difficulty to remember or even talk about these destructive experiences. This struggle to put into words these painful memories matches the novel’s slow process in unfolding the story. This critic reveals: “The process of the novel corresponds to Sethe’s repossession of her most repressed memory whose recollection will work as a healing ritual. The traumatic experience of slavery and the infanticide had been consciously eradicated by Sethe’s will to move on, by a desperate wish to forget something too weighty to be remembered” (Palladino 55). This repossession itself is very painful for Sethe who has to relive these carefully repressed memories belonging to her past. Morrison’s focus on memory in Beloved is similar to that of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart that also constitutes a remembrance of the horrific experiences of the African colonization. These two traumatic events in the lives of Africans are very painful to remember. This assertion indicates: “In order to claim ownership Sethe and the other characters must face the past, speak the unspeakable, and chase away the shadows. Through the recollection and the retelling of fragmented life stories and by forming them into a coherent whole, the characters of Beloved free themselves to yoke together stories and bodies, spirit and flesh, and to begin forging a sense of self that holds the promise of the future” (Powell 105). The memory of these repressed experiences and their repossession are fundamental to Sethe’s healing and sanity. These sorrowful acts cannot just go away; they have to be remembered, and this memory and even rememory—because this traumatic past has to be relived several times—represents necessary steps toward recovery. Besides, storytelling contributes to Sethe’s process of repossession of her repressed memories because both Denver and Beloved like stories and manage to get her to remember and tell some pieces of her past experiences. Even though Sethe is more reluctant to tell the stories about how she got the tree on her back or the homicide of her baby, Beloved succeeded in making her remember. Her question about the diamonds urges Sethe to remember her wedding day and tell them the story. The narrator states: “It became a way to feed her. Just as Denver discovered and relied on the delightful effect sweet things had on Beloved, Sethe learned the profound satisfaction Beloved got from storytelling” (Morrison 31). This discovery encourages her to tell the stories one piece at a time until the end of the novel. Even though Beloved’s familiarity with some issues Sethe had to go through may be puzzling to readers and even to Denver, the questions allowed Sethe to relive the experiences and even tell the story. The narrator reports Denver’s skepticism about Beloved’s questions: “‘Where your diamonds?’ / ‘Your woman she never fix up your hair?’ / And most perplexing: Tell me your earrings” (Morrison 36). The telling of these fragmented pieces gives the reader the opportunity to grasp the whole story about the traumatic effect of slavery on Sethe’s life and that of her fellow slaves. This article addresses Beloved’s eagerness for storytelling: “She not only wants to hear the story of how Mrs. Garner gave diamond earrings to Sethe for a wedding present, but she is also offering to turn the dark stories of Sethe's past into something shining and valuable. The very telling of the story brings Sethe pleasure” (Powell 108). Despite Beloved’s bitterness about her killing and her desire for revenge in punishing Sethe, she also offers her an opportunity to remember then heal. Thus, Denver’s love of stories motivated by the desire to hear the unusual circumstances of her birth and Beloved’s eagerness to understand the events leading to her death provide Sethe with an opportunity to tell her traumatic experiences and, therefore, gain healing. Moreover, Morrison draws much importance to the process of naming in her novel. Indeed, the unusual circumstances of Denver’s birth are closely related to Sethe’s painful past because it occurred in the middle of her attempts to escape the brutalities Schoolteacher subjected her to. Her swollen feet and her bruised back represent painful reminders of this suffering. Ironically, the kindness of a white girl helps to save her and her baby. After delivering the baby, Amy reflects: “‘She's never gonna know who I am. You gonna tell her? Who brought her into this here world?’ She lifted her chin, looked off into the place where the sun used to be. ‘You better tell her. You hear? Say Miss Amy Denver. Of Boston”(Morrison 46). In gratitude to this white indentured servant who also faced difficult living conditions, Sethe named Denver after her. However, Beloved’s naming is very special. The narrator reports her answer to Paul D’s question about her name: “‘Beloved,’ she said, and her voice was so low and rough each one looked at the other two. They heard the voice first--later the name” (Morrison 28). This roughness in her voice reflects her bitterness about her murder, but the name symbolizes the love of those lost during the horrific years of slavery. According to this critic, Beloved represents: “All the loved ones lost through slavery, beginning with the Africans who died on the slave ships” (Wyatt 479). Despite the brutalities and suffering they underwent, these slaves were dearly loved by their families and those who remember them. These atrocities are also symbolized by the four horsemen that came to drive back Sethe and her children into slavery. The narrator claims: “WHEN THE four horsemen came--schoolteacher, one nephew, one slave catcher and a sheriff--the house on Bluestone Road was so quiet they thought they were too late” (Morrison 79). These runaway slave catchers represent the most brutal and violent aspects of slavery because of their inhuman treatment of slaves. They symbolize the horror and trauma of this wicked institution. In addition, Morrison’s Beloved uses multiple narrative voices that reflect the backgrounds of the characters and the messages the author intends to convey. Thus, the dialogues express a conversational tone that employs unconventional English of the slaves while the omniscient narrator uses formal English to complete the fragments of Sethe’s stories and make some statements. This article points out: “Beloved reveals a concern for linguistic expression: the evocation of both oral and written discourses, the shifting from third person narration to omniscient narration to interior monologue, the iteration, and reiteration of words and phrases, and passages. This linguistic and narrative variation demonstrates a concern with the production and meaning of language” (Perez-Torres 180). These different narrative voices and the repetitions in the text match the slow process of unfolding the painful stories. Morrison’s Beloved exposes the evil of the cruel institution of slavery that dehumanized millions of people and left severe wounds and traumas in their lives. The novel constitutes a denunciation of this horrific system that caused much pain and suffering that can neither be spoken nor remembered. Thus, the ghost haunting 124 symbolizes the whole system of slavery that deprived Sethe and her fellow slaves of their dignity and subjected them to atrocities that became unspeakable. However, Morrison advocates storytelling as a device to ease the pain in order to relive the repressed memories. This slow process of repossession provides Sethe with an opportunity to speak the unspeakable and then heal. This slow and painful healing process reflects the different narrative voices that tell those fragmented stories. Works Cited Morrison, Toni. Beloved. London: Vintage, 2010. Print. Palladino, Mariangela. “History, Postcolonialism and Postmodernism in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” Neither East nor West Postcolonial Essays on Literature, Culture and Religion. Ed. Kerstin W. Shands. Stockholm: Sodertorns hogskola, 2008.53-64. Diva-portal. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. Perez-Torres, Rafael. “Between Presence and Absence.” Toni Morrison's Beloved: A Casebook.   Eds. William L. Andrews and Nellie Y. McKay. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. 189-201. English.UCLA. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. Powell, Betty Jane. "Will the Parts Hold?": The Journey toward a Coherent Self in Beloved.” Colby Quarterly 31.2 (1995): 105-113. Digitalcommons. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. Wyatt, Jean. “Giving Body to the Word: The Maternal Symbolic in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” PMLA 108.3 (1993): 473-88. JSTOR. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. Read More