Dystopia

Beloved

 

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison is an American novelist, editor, and professor. She was born in Lorain, Ohio and her father told her stories about the black community, which later appears in her writings. She attended Howard University to received undergraduate degree and then attended Cornell to get her master’s degree. She became an editor at Random house and specialized in Black fiction. Beloved was set during the Reconstruction era in 1873. She wanted to bring back the memory and history of the black community. She creates a powerful commentary on the historical legacy of slavery. 

 

Plot Summary
Sethe and her daughter Denver live in 124, a house in Cincinnati. They escaped from slavery at a farm called Sweet Home. Sweet home was enslavement just as cruel as the more raw forms of slavery. Through rememory seethe sees that Sweet Home robbed her of even the desire to seek freedom to escape north. Sethe fled when she was pregnant and obtained help from a white woman. After she escaped she enjoyed little bit of freedom before her old master found her. Instead of letting her child return to slavery, she tried killing all her children. She succeeded in killing only one of her daughters. She was released by her master because she was no longer fit to serve. She was able to raise her remaining children at 124. Paul D., an ex-slave that also had a terrible past come to live in 124. The other visitor was a girl named Beloved, who resembles Sethe’s dead daughter. She seems weak and harmless when she’s first introduced but it becomes clear that she’s destructive to the people living in 124. Paul D and Sethe become lovers but he leaves after finding out that Sethe killed one of her child. As Beloved lives in 124, she gets stronger as Sethe gets weaker. Beloved ends up disappearing and Paul D. comes back to help Sethe recover. Rememory within Beloved is used to examine the dystopian society of slavery with its attendant brutality and dehumanization. 

 

Elements

 

Motherly Love: Sethe is extremely devoted to her children. Through motherly love she tries to kill her own children to prevent the traumas she endured as a slave.

Slavery’s destruction of identity: Beloved explores the emotional, spiritual, and physical impacts brought by slavery. It continues to haunt the characters who are former slaves even in freedom. One of the affects is self alienation.