Download Beloved RRS.docx and more Summaries Law in PDF only on Docsity!
Beloved RRS
Title : Beloved
Publication Date : 1987
Author : Toni Morrison
Nationality : African American
Authors Birth/Death Dates : February 18, 1931- present
Distinguishing Traits of Author : Toni Morrison is an American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best-known novels are The Bluest Eye , Sula , Song of Solomon and Beloved. Morrison’s Beloved earned the Pulitzer Prize, and she was awarded the Nobel Prize later. She is the first African American to win the award.
Setting (Time and Place of Work) : Sweet Home Sweet Home is a slave plantation in Kentucky, referred to in the form of flashbacks. The name is ironic because the atrocious events that inhabit and haunt Sethe and the others’ minds took place there. Sweet Home is the embodiment of slavery and oppression, so to say that the place is sweet is blatantly misleading. However, Sethe admits that Sweet Home “never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too
... boys hanging from the most beautiful sycamores” (18). Sweet Home is not entirely despicable, as the surrounding nature is beautiful. That such repulsive events ranging from bestiality to rape occurred in a tranquil setting reveals an unsettling juxtaposition that suggests that the name “Sweet Home” encompasses more than just Southern hospitality.
124 Bluestone Rd. Cincinnati, Ohio Most of the story takes place in the blue and grey house of 124 Bluestone Road, on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio. The house itself is personified: Sethe observes that “124 was spiteful” (1), “124 was loud” (25), and “ was quiet” (47), suggesting that the house is reflective of the mood of its inhabitants. The number 124 itself can present a symbolic meaning, representing the number of Sethe’s children residing in the house: there is Denver, Howard, Buglar, and Beloved; then there is Denver and Beloved; then it is just Denver. The number also hints at a deeper meaning since 1+2+4=7, and there are 7 letters in Beloved’s name, implying further connection between the house and the spirit that haunts it and its inhabitants’ past. The majority of the present action revolves around the house of 124 Bluestone Road, highlighting Sethe’s self-imposed isolation.
Brief Plot Synopsis : Part 1 : The story begins with an introduction to 124, the house in Ohio that is haunted by the spirit of a baby. Sethe and her daughter, Denver, are the only ones staying in that house since Baby Suggs, Sethe's mother-in- law, is dead, and Howard and Buglar, Sethe's two sons, ran away. Sethe sleeps with the gravedigger in return for engravings on the headstone for her baby. When she returns home, she finds Paul D, an old friend from Sweet Home, at her porch. In Sweet Home, there was Paul D, Paul F, Paul A, Halle, Sixo, and Sethe, the only girl. The boys at Sweet Home satisfied their sexual desires by having intercourse with the cows in respect for Sethe. Baby Suggs worked at Sweet Home as well, but Halle, her son and Sethe's husband, bought her freedom. Sethe tells Paul D the schoolteacher's nephews stole her milk and how the schoolteacher whipped her back, creating a chokecherry tree. Paul D scares the spirit out of 124. Denver goes to her bower, created by a hollow column of shrubbery, which acts as her secret hiding place. Sethe tells Denver about the white girl named Amy Denver, for who she was named after, and how she helped her escape to Ohio and give birth to Denver. Willing to stay at 124, but rejected by Denver, Paul D brings them to the carnival. Sethe observes their shadows and has hopes for a family with Paul D. When they return, they find a young woman sleeping on a stump in front of
- Her name is Beloved, but she is too tired to answer any of the other questions. Denver volunteers to take care of her. Beloved recovers and spends all the time in the house watching Sethe, never taking her eyes off her. Paul D feels uncomfortable around Beloved because her "shining" makes him sexually aroused. He tells Sethe that Halle had been there when the nephews had taken her milk. Denver knows that Beloved is her sister, the dead baby whose spirit haunts the house. Baby Suggs used act as the preacher of the community in Ohio, creating a cathartic environment for the ex-slaves. Sethe takes Denver and Beloved to the Clearing, where Baby Suggs gave her sermons. She has a flashback to when she Stamp Paid ferried her across the river and her arrival at 124. Her baby girl was crawling already and she was able to give her milk. At the clearing, on Baby Suggs’ rock, Sethe asks her to massage her neck, but she ends of getting strangled. Denver blames Beloved for choking Sethe. In Denver's memory, Nelson Lord asks her if Sethe and she had gone to jail. Paul D remembers the time when he was part of a chain gang. The chain gang was able to escape during a rainy night and sought refuge at a Cherokee reservation. Ever since he left the chain gang, he has been following trees until he ended up at 124. Paul D starts sleeping in different rooms of the house, avoiding sleep in the same room as Sethe. He ends up sleeping in the shed where Beloved seduces him into having sex with her. Paul D asks Sethe to have a baby with him, strengthening their relationship. In a flashback, Stamp Paid risks his life to collect a bucket of berries for Baby Suggs, initiating a mass celebration in the community. Instead of appreciating the feast, the community feels spite towards the inhabitants of 124 for being too generous. Baby Suggs remembers when she was freed, she was brought to the Bodwins, who provided 124 as a home. A month after Sethe arrived at 124, the schoolteacher, a nephew, a slave catcher, and a sheriff came to retrieve the runaway slaves. Sethe collects her children and attempts to slaughter them, but only succeeding in killing the crawling-already baby. The sheriff took Sethe and Denver to jail, but the schoolteacher did not want her back. In present time, Stamp Paid finds the newspaper article about Seine's crime and shows it to Paul D. Although Paul D denies it is Sethe, he questions her about it. Even after her explanation, he leaves Sethe and 124.
Part 2 : Stamp Paid feels he has driven Paul D away from 124 and feels bad that he ruined a chance at happiness for Sethe. He tries to go to 124 to apologize but he cannot get himself to knock on the door. Peeking through the window, he sees Beloved and wonders who she is. Sethe decides to let go of the past and have some fun by going ice skating with Denver and Beloved. After she hears Beloved hum a song she only sang to her children, Sethe realizes Beloved is her daughter. Stamp Paid finds out Paul D is staying in a cellar of a church and is mad at the community for not offering him a place to stay. Sethe talks to Beloved in her mind, telling her about life in Sweet Home and their plan for escape. In one memory, Sethe overhears the schoolteacher tell his pupils to list her animal and human characteristics. Paul D remembers the plan between the slaves at Sweet Home to escape. He regrets waiting to ponder on the decision to escape or not. When the time comes to leave, Paul A goes missing and Paul D and Sixo get caught by white men. Sixo goes insane and leaps at the armed white man, who refuses to waste a slave by killing him. The schoolteacher burns Sixo to death. Stamp Paid finds Paul D and the church to apologize for the things he told him about Sethe. He tells the story of his wife, Vashti, who slept with their owner and why he changed his name from "Joshua" to "Stamp Paid." He also asks Paul D about Beloved, which makes him realize that he should return to Sethe.
Part 3 : Beloved and Sethe develop a very close relationship that excludes Denver. Their relationship was healthy and playful at first, but turns sour when Beloved becomes defiant. Beloved is angry at Sethe for leaving her, refusing to accept any excuse from her. Sometimes Sethe tries to assert herself, but Beloved's temper grows even worse. Nobody could discipline her, so they just relented to her. The inhabitants of 124, except for Beloved, who grows bigger, begin to starve because Sethe loses her job at the restaurant. Denver goes to Lady Jones to ask for a job because she needed to take care of her mother. Lady Jones, as well as other women in the community, drops off food at 124. Not wanting to rely on other's kindness, Denver goes to the Bodwins to ask for a job. She tells Janey, the housekeeper at the Bodwins, about Beloved and what she is doing to her mother. The word gets out in the community that the spirit of murdered baby has come to 124 to get revenge on Sethe. All the women come together to drive the spirit out of 124. When they arrive, the women's singing reminds Sethe of the community she experienced when she first arrived in Ohio. Mr. Bodwin arrives at 124 to pick up Denver for her job. Sethe mistakes him for the schoolteacher and tries to kill him. All the women try to stop her. After the commotion dies down, they find that Beloved has disappeared. Paul D goes to 124 to tell Sethe that he
subconsciously causes him unrest in 124. Once he discovers what Sethe had done to her children he leaves and stays in the church basement. After Beloved disappears he comes back to Sethe where he tells her that she is important because he truly does care about her.
Baby Suggs : She is the mother-in-law to Sethe, the mother of Halle, and the grandmother of Denver, Beloved, Howard and Buglar. Baby Suggs was a free slave who was freed by Mr. Garner in the payment of 5 years of Sabbath by her son Halle. Baby Suggs left Sweet Home when she was very old and had a chronic hip problem, and left to Cincinnati Ohio. Baby Suggs “[takes] care of Sethe's [three] children” when Sethe was still in Sweet Home (87). She is the motherly figure, and a spiritual leader. She tries to look for the best in people and is very patient in the way she deals with things. But once Sethe kills Beloved and people begin shunning them Baby Suggs steps back and becomes obsessed with colors. She dies before Beloved comes back, but her words and presence remain as an influence on the lives of those from her neighborhood and her family.
Beloved : She is deemed to be the spirit of the dead daughter of Sethe. She first appears after the carnival in front of Sethe's house Beloved is the physical, human form of the slaughtered baby. Although the "crawling- already? baby" (93) is unnamed, the human form of the spirit calls herself "Beloved." The goal of this spirit is to get close to Sethe and take revenge on what she had done to her child. Residing in 124 as a spirit, she did not have the power to affect Sethe physically. After Paul D drives the spirit away, she returns in the human form with the ability to do much more on the inhabitants of 124 than she could when she was a spirit. Before she can get close to Sethe, she needs to get rid of Paul D, which she succeeds in by seducing him. Her purpose at 124 is at first unknown, but is foreshadowed when she strangles Sethe at the Clearing.Beloved and Denver develop a close relationship, but Beloved claims her rightful role as the older sister, advising Denver to "don't tell me what to do. Don't you never never tell me what to do" (76). When Sethe finds out Beloved is the baby girl she had slaughtered, the situation in 124 changes. Beloved's purpose is no longer hidden as she makes Sethe suffer for what had been done to her. Resembling a pregnant woman, Beloved grows bigger and bigger as Sethe becomes smaller and smaller. She is both literally and metaphorically sucking the life out of Sethe, taking revenge on her. Chapters 22 and 23 are completely in Beloved's point of view, where she talks about her death, the white people she sees, and Sethe leaving her. Beloved's departure from 124 is as mysterious as her arrival, making people question if her presence was real or imagined. Beloved represents the memories of the past that haunt Sethe. Her departure symbolizes Sethe's ability to let go of her past and look towards her future. Yet while Beloved can be interpreted to be as the ghost of Sethe’s baby returning to haunt her, she can simply be an escaped slave. When she first appears, she has “new skin, lineless and smooth” (89), is the same age Sethe’s baby would have been if it lived, and has the same name is same as the baby (the name carved on the baby’s tombstone). Furthermore, Beloved knows questions a stranger could not possibly know, such as “where your diamonds?” (108) or “your woman she never fix up you hair” (109), and wheedles uncomfortable stories out of Sethe. She further demonstrates an “anger that ruled when Sethe did or thought anything that excluded herself” (90). However, Beloved also states later that she came from somewhere with “nothing to breathe down there and no room to move in” (148), and imageries from the past such as a “little hill of dead people” (150) are apt descriptions for a slave’s journey through the Atlantic passage. The fact that the book’s preface talks of “Sixty Million and more,” referring to the number of blacks who died during the Middle Passage of the slave trade, further substantiates this interpretation. Ultimately it is left to individual interpretations on whether or not Beloved is the manifestation of the dead baby’s spirit, but the effect on Sethe remains tangible in that she is forced to confront the actions of her past.
Garners : Mr. and Mrs. Garner act as the foils to the characters of schoolteacher and his nephews. Unlike the stereotypical slave owners, the Garners were compassionate towards their slaves, never starving, beating, or killing them. They even allowed Halle to buy his mother's freedom, resulting in the loss of a slave. Although the Garner's were not cruel like other slave owners, Morrison still opposes even their kind of slavery. The Garner's were included in the novel to show the flipside of slavery, but it does not make the concept of slavery acceptable. "But you got my boy and I'm all brokedown. You be renting him out to pay for me way after I'm gone to Glory" (146). Although Baby Suggs was offered freedom, her son is still a slave. The compassion of one slave owner is not enough to help the slavery cause.
Stamp Paid : Stamp Paid is an ex-slave who helps other slaves escape from slave to free territory. He has a high reputation in the community of Ohio because he had helped so many people. In return for his help, "he took the liberty of walking in your door as though it were his own" (172). Stamp is a compassionate character, based on his actions in the story. He is willing to risk his life to collect berries for Baby Suggs' family, he care for Sethe and her feelings, and he feels bad for what he had told Paul D about Sethe, destroying their relationship and potential happiness in the future. Although his compassion and kindness exemplify Christ, he is not portrayed as the Christ figure, as is Baby Suggs. He is portrayed as the Good Samaritan who is willing to help any of his people in need. He acts according to a set of morals and concepts of justice he holds. When he finds out Paul D has been staying in the church cellar, he questions the community "Why he have to ask? Can't nobody offer?" (186). To him, hospitality is the most important aspect of their community and it surprises Mm that no one takes it as seriously as they should.
Amy Denver : She is an indentured servant who stumbles upon Sethe as Sethe is running away. She finds Sethe on the floor with bloody and swollen feet. She massages Sethe's feet saying " anything coming back alive hurts" (92). Her words foreshadows the coming of Beloved and the pain it will bring upon Sethe. She helps Sethe with her back and assists her in delivering her child. Amy then continues on her journey to Boston to get carmine colored velvet. Her desire to see the beautiful fabric is an attempt to escape from her life in servitude. She helps Sethe escape, and Sethe names Denver after her.
Bodwins : They are brother and sister who were abolitionists that helped slaves come up North to Ohio. They used to live in 124 and gave the home to Baby Suggs to live in. They “[are not] like other white folks” and are the only white people living in the town who provide many of the jobs to those who need it (132). When Denver comes for help they provide her with a job and Mrs. Bodwin encourages Denver to get an education. Mr. Bodwin witnesses the disappearance of Beloved and becomes appalled to the point where he wants to sell 124.
Schoolteacher and Nephews : The schoolteacher and his nephews, the second owners of Sweet Home, are the epitome of cruel slave owners, typical of those in the South during this time period. They abuse the slaves, deprive them the life and identity of a human being, violate Sethe, and kill Sixo. "What would his won horse do if you beat it beyond the point of education?...You just can't mishandle creatures and expect success" (149- 150 ). Although the schoolteacher shows slight compassion and humanity towards the slaves, it still shows that he sees them as property and animals. Their ownership and management of Sweet Home are the complete opposite of the Garners'. Both are extremely hypocritical because they both become shocked when Sethe kills her own children and find her insane after everything they had ever done to slaves, they don't realize how far they have gone.
Ella : Ella is a former slave that helped Sethe on the last of her journey to the North. When Sethe killed her child, Ella was very critical of Sethe and shunned her the most. But after a while, her outlook on Sethe's decision changes and she realizes that she must call upon all the women to help Sethe and get rid of Beloved. She states that it is no right for" the baby to kill [her] momma" (234). She too went through a period of extreme harshness in her life where she was shared by her slave master and his son.
Lady Jones : Lady Jones is a half Negro and white woman with “gray eyes and yellow hair, every strand of which she [hates]” who is shunned by the white community and criticized for her blonde hair (291). Lady Jones does not feel superior because she is half white and is instead disgusted by it. She is a teacher who teaches the little kids in the neighborhood for a nickel a day. She used to teach Denver, and when Denver come to her for help she responds with efficiency and calls upon all the women in the neighborhood to bring food to Sethe and her "children".
Sixo : Sixo is one of the men from Sweet Home, who was very close to Paul. Sixo was hard working and always had a sense of humor. He would travel thirty miles at times to meet a "lover" of his by the nickname of "the thirty mile woman" (68). Him and Halle plan out their escape, but when he escapes with Paul he ends up getting
was an ex-slave, as well as Baby Suggs' kin. “Only 28 days after her arrival”, the coming of the schoolteacher to take her and her children back to Sweet Home prompted her to quickly and instinctively kill her children so that they will not have to return to a life of slavery (212). Her brash actions caused the community to look at Sethe through a different perspective, shunning her for her inhumane and atrocious reaction to the situation.
Troubled/Haunting Spirit - Beloved is the troubled spirit that haunts people. Initially Beloved makes an appearance as a ghost of red light that Sethe describes as “not evil, just sad” (10) and by Denver as “Rebuked. Lonely and rebuked” (16). The description is perhaps fitting because of the tragic nature in which her life was sacrificed. She died in the hands of her own mother, not out of hatred but out of protection. The loving nature of such a violent crime may induce conflict that leads to the troubled spirit of Beloved. Later Beloved literally reincarnates into flesh and blood (according to some interpretations), unable to stay buried in her grave without compensation from Sethe for the actions she committed. Later Beloved indirectly sucks the life energy out of Sethe, becoming “beautiful… taken the shape of a pregnant woman, naked and smiling… Thunder black and glistening, she stood on long straight legs, her belly big and tight” (200), implying that she had enacted her revenge on Sethe. The revenge takes place through love and adoration by warranting all of Sethe’s attention— an ironic death when considering that Beloved’s own death was enacted out of love.
Allusions: The creation of the world in 4 days - In the bible, the physical manifestation of the world was created in four days. When Beloved comes to 124 "Four days she slept"(64). By her sleeping for four days it is seen as if she is preparing for a new world that Sethe and Denver are going to step into and live. This allusion to the creation of the world connects to that of Sethe and Denver along with the new journey they are to embark in their lives.
The four horsemen of the Apocalypse show the destruction of Sethe’s world. When “the four horsemen came the house on Bluestone Road was so quiet they thought they were too late” (174). The reference to the biblical prophesy of the four horses resembles the end of Sethe’s life as she knows it. The harbingers of destruction and tragedy in the bible are also the destruction to Sethe’s life with the arrival of schoolteacher. Sethe eventually ends up killing her child because of their presence, bringing the tragedy that changes her life. Her family and children all suffer from the appearance of these horsemen who bring with them the bane of Sethe’s happiness and hopes of loving her children fully. That such an atrocious act would warrant comparison to a biblical event implies that the Christian society exercised very un-Christian values.
Themes:
1. The ineffable cruelty of slavery has the power to diminish and dehumanize any person that must endure a life dominated by it. When Sethe is pregnant at Sweet Home, she is taken and raped by the nephews. She is milked as if she is an animal. She is stripped away from any aspect of humanity and treated as one of the lowest aspect of living on the earth. Sethe was once taught a lesson by schoolteacher on her “animal characteristics” (123), and slavery “punched the glittering iron out of Sethe’s eyes, leaving two open wells” (5). This experience diminishes her and even though she tries to move on, the cruetly of such a thing ties her down and forces her to hold herself back from ever progressing in life. When Sethe is raped, Halle was actually there and witnessed it but was not able to do anything about it. He was mentally diminished and his manhood was taken away from him from such an event. He could not even stop them and protect his wife, causing him to go insane. When he is churning the butter he lets it splash all over his face because he is consumed by the devastating and cruel event. As Paul D is in Ohio and is alone, he beings to think about his manhood. Paul D begins to question if he was ever a man because he believes that Halle and Sixo are men because they have children and he does not. He thinks that as a slave he was never given the chance to be a man. Paul D is affected by slavery in that he shut all his memories "where it belonged...buried in his chest where a red heart used to be. Its lid rusted shut" (87); his experiences in life cause him to lock his heart up and consider it as a tin. He tries his hardest to not be a human and feel any emotions. The harshness of slavery caused him to become void of every connection and emotion ever, making him want to not be a human.
2. If one stays in the past and consistently brings it up and involves it in their lives, they will become a slave to it. When Sethe discovers that Halle had witnessed her being raped, she becomes entirely consumed by the memory of it that she can barely function. She solely thinks about the memory and finds herself not wanting to look forward to any sort of future that she could have because she cannot forget and let go of what happened in the past. When Beloved comes to Sethe, Sethe's guilt of the past causes her to literally become enslaved to Beloved, the daughter of her past. Even when Paul D comes to settle down with Sethe, her past haunts her once more. He is shown a newspaper by Stamp Paid. Stamp Paid “made up his mind to show him this piece of paper—newspaper—with a picture drawing of a woman who favored Sethe except that was not her mouth” (118). Paul D realizes the actions Sethe took to protect her children from slavery, and the two argue together— only for Paul D move out eventually. Denver, early on in her life, discovers that her mother had killed her younger sister. Before Beloved came and when Beloved arrives, Denver lives in constant fear of her mother because of the past. She knows that her mother had killed her brothers and does whatever she can to make her mother not be upset with her because deep down inside she is scared of her because what she had done in the past. Denver is driven by the past and feels the need to protect Beloved from her mother because she fears that she will leave her. When Paul D is in Ohio he begins to ask and question his manhood. He looks to his past, a past of extreme hardship and wonders if he is a man. Paul D allows his actions of the past to dictate whether he is a human or not. The past does not allow Paul to see himself in a better way or believe that he is a man. He cannot advance on in his life believing that he is a man because of his past. When Sethe lies in her death bed at the conclusion of the novel, Paul D offers words of comfort that reveal the necessity of moving on from the past. To her, “‘Sethe,’ he says, ‘me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow’” (273). He realizes that the extents of the past has had such a strong grip on Sethe that it had tired her emotionally, psychologically, and physically. She had become so entrenched in her decision of violent love that she was now lying on her own death bed. Paul D’s statement that they needed a tomorrow reveals not only the strength of the past horrors of slavery, but also of the resilience and hope within his character, and the need to overcome the shackles of the past--no matter how tightly they wound around one’s mind.
Memorable Quotes :
- "If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out a way to tie them up," (10)
- "I was talking about time. It's so hard for me to believe hi it. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it' s gone, but the place — the pictures of it — stays, and not just in my rememory, but put there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don't think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw, is still out there. Right in the place where it happened." (35-36)
- "Risky... very risky. For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything, just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you'd have a little love left over for the next one." (45)
- "But they are seeds in which the whole generation sleeps confident of a future. And for a moment it is easy to believe each one has one—will become all of what is contained in the spore: will live out its days as planned. This moment of certainty lasts no longer than that; longer, perhaps, than the spore itself." (84)
- "And when she stepped foot on free ground she could not believe that Halle knew what she didn't; that Halle, who had never drawn one free breath, knew that there was nothing like it in this world." (141)
- "Whitepeople believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle.. .The more coloredpeople spent their strength trying to convince them how gentle they were, how clever and loving, how human, the more they used themselves up to persuade whites of something Negroes believed could not be questioned, the deeper and more tangled the jungle grew inside." (198)
