Beloved by Toni Morrison Pulitzer - Essay Example

?Beloved Beloved by Toni Morrison In MLA Style Beloved 2 Introduction This paper discusses Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer winner novel ‘Beloved’. It touches on the themes discussed in the novel and the importance of each to the story. As you read along, an understanding about the book and its relevance to the real world, aside from the fact that it’s based on the true story of an African-American slave, Margaret Garner, will be achieved. The Pulitzer Prize-winner Beloved is written in bits and pieces and left for the reader to put together. Morrison depicts the lives of Sethe, an African-American slave who tries to escape from her master, in a hypnotic and beautiful novel. Trying kill her children, but only succeeding in killing the third, Morrison is subtle and doesn’t take a stand on whether the act is justifiable or not. The story only tells the events and the reasons behind each action and just lets the readers contemplate and judge the protagonist’s act. With the emancipation of Sethe from her master who tries to come after her and releases her after realizing she is no longer a good catch, the earlier eventually loses 2 f her kids, leaving her with her youngest – Denver and the comeback of her 3rd daughter in the character of Beloved. Beloved talks about how slavery inflicted agonizing pain to all who experienced it first-hand. Not only it talks about the life of Margaret Garner, it also illustrates the lives of all of the slaves before and after the civil war. Sethe’s act of killing one of her daughters only portrays one of the effects of slavery to a mother who only tries not to pass on an excruciating life to her child. Beloved 3 Whether it’s right or wrong, Sethe only wants to save her child from a never-ending pain that her daughter will go through from the brutal world of slavery, even if she faces death for her deed and undying pain of a mother to take the life of her own flesh and blood. Quotes from the Beloved Morrison opens the novel at house 124 in Cincinnati, Ohio where Sethe, a freed slave, and her daughter, Denver, have been living for 18 years. It is the place where Sethe transfers when she escapes from her brutal master, Schoolteacher. She takes her children with her and tries to live a life away from the memories of the Sweet Home. When Sethe’s master finds them, her master tries to take them back to Kentucky. Due to the motherly protection Sethe has for her children, she tries to kill them but only succeeding at killing one, her eldest daughter. The is told in a non-linear style, completing the story by connecting the dots through Sethe’s and other characters’ flashbacks. Sethe takes her youngest daughter, Denver to prison with her to avoid the possibility of being a slave. She also gets away from being hanged and she goes back to 124 with Denver, her two other boys and Baby Suggs, mother Sethe’s husband, Halle, they all try to survive the pain slavery has caused them. In the first few chapters of the novel, the ghost of Sethe’s daughter haunts the house, making them remember the pain of their past. The passage Amy Denver, a white woman who helped Sethe in their encounter, when the latter escapes from Kentucky, “Anything dead coming back to life hurts” when the former massages Sethe’s nearly dead feet. This holds true for the coming back of Sethe’s daughter. Although it is not mentioned in the novel that Sethe regrets killing her daughter, but she sees it as a painful effect of slavery to her family. (Bloom, p 27) In the following chapters, the character of Baby Suggs, a freed slave and mother to Halle who Beloved 4 paid her freedom, is explained As she sits at the Clearing – an open space in the middle of the woods, at every Saturday afternoon and yells this passage: "Let the children come!" and they ran from the trees toward her. "Let your mothers hear you laugh," she told them, and the woods rang.... "Let the grown men come," she shouted. They stepped out one by one from among the ringing trees. (Morrison, 1987) The people are one with the trees that take part in the ceremony. They sympathize with the people and give them energy by the rhythmic tempo. The trees are active participants and whose valuable part is measured by the wonders worked among them. At baby’s call, the freed slaves; men, women and children are coming out of the confines of slavery, growing richer from the joint involvement of the trees. The Clearing that is initiated by Baby Suggs is a way to put the pieces of each person present at the Clearing that has been dismembered by slavery. The trees nourish by Baby Suggs are the inspirations in helping the freed slaves reconstruct their broken selves, slowly putting the pieces back together. The Clearing’s regenerating energy picks up the pieces of each freed slave present and helps them establish the lives that they never imagine can be achieved. The open space in the middle of the woods has been their haven ever since the Clearing has been conducted by Baby Suggs. The trees act as their shelter, secluding them from the world outside that might witness their amusement of the lives they never though they can own. This is something that Sethe hasn’t been able to do even after being freed from her brutal master. The pain caused by the memories she has at the Sweet Home and the killing of her own flesh and blood haunts her, making her live a miserable life. Slavery has made its mark in the history and has victimized a lot of people, particularly African- Beloved 5 Americans, who have been dehumanized in the process and have been deprave of the rights all races are enjoying today. (Bruce, 2001) "Soft as cream. Being alive was the hard part. Sorry you missed her though. Is that what you came by for?" (Morrison, 1987) These are Sethe’s words to Paul D when the latter visits her and asks for Baby Suggs. Upon coming to his knowledge that Baby Suggs passed away, he utters, “Was it hard? I hope she didn’t die hard.” Soft as cream means the passing of Suggs isn’t hard at all. Sethe has mentioned that the fact Suggs was enduring the pain that has been brought by the knowledge that Sethe killed her own daughter to save her from the life that no one would want for anyone. The worse part of the excruciating pain that Suggs has tried to endure is the fact that she understands the action of Sethe. Although it is not illustrated in the novel that she is condoning it, it is also not said that she despises it. This fact is not mentioned by Sethe to Paul D but disclosed on the latter pages of the novel. Morrison sets a dark tone in the entire novel. It also does not start in the beginning of the story but somewhere between the middle and the end. As the story unfolds, Morrison inserts an illustration of Sethe, pregnant at 19. “She is not so afraid at night because she is the color of it.” This passage explains that slaves aren’t afraid of the night since it is the only cover they have against the brutality of the world of slavery. Sethe at 19, tired and pregnant, tries to escape from her master, trying to save her children from the cruelty of slavery. Morrison illustrates in the story that at 19, Sethe has grown tired from the life she never chooses to live, which is one of the reasons she escapes from her master to give her children a life different from hers. (Tackach, p 63) Conclusion The novel talks about the effects of slavery in America before and after the Civil War. The life- story of Margaret Garner serves as a lesson to all about the cruelty such system inflicted to every individual who has been directly affected by it. Morrison puts an excellent note in leaving the judgment to the readers about the drastic action a mother like Sethe will do to save an innocent mind from the brutality slavery can cause. The author doesn’t justify nor despise the action of Sethe in killing her own daughter but in reading the entire novel, it will be understood that Sethe doesn’t mean any harm to anyone. The killing of her own flesh and blood and facing the pain that it will cause just to be able to save her daughter from a life no one will ever choose to live can be viewed as paradoxical but heroic. Works Cited Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print. Bloom, Harold. Beloved. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1998. Print. Tackach, James. Slave Narratives. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 2001. Print. Bruce, Dickson D. The Origins of African American Literature, 1680-1865. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001. Print. Read More