Toni+Morrison

Beloved


 * Summary:**


 * Novel **- The novel Beloved tells a story of a woman named Sethe and her daughter Denver haveing escaped a life of slavery and moving into a haunted home. Sethe's two sons Howard and Buglar decided to run away from the haunted home by the age of thirteen due to the unexplainable events in the huanted house. Baby Suggs who is the mother of Sethe's husband, dies in her bed. The house is haunted by the daughter of Sethe, the novel explains that after Sethe was found by her master when going to her mother in laws house, she tries to kill all of her children stateing she was, "trying to put my babies where they would be safe." But only succeeding with one; her one year old daughter beloved. Paul D. who came into their family after Baby Suggs died tried to get the two girls to move away from the house, not realizing that for them moving would not be such an easy thing to do. Paul D. ran beloved from their home, or so it had seemed he succeeded. Finaly getting out of the house the girls go to a carnival, but on their return they find a young woman at the age of 21 with strong features of a baby and who calls herself beloved sitting on their door step. Paul D. being suspicious of the girl warns Sethe of the girl but she was so interested in the girl that she ignored him. very gradually Paul D. felt himself being pushed from the house and out of Sethe's life by this supernatural presence. one night he is forced to sleep in the shed where beloved forces him to have sex with her by placeing horrible images of the past in his mind. in his guilt and not being able to tell Sethe he tells Sethe that he wants her to be pregnant. However, aftering talking to his friends at work about his plans they are against his idea and against Sethe for what she did all those years ago to her child. After Paul D. is finaly told of the incident he is so overwhelmed by the thought that he finally leaves the house for good. Sethe has finally come to the realization that beloved is the daughter that she killed when she was only one year of age. Sethe begins to spoil the girl and spend carelessly out of guilt for her actions. Beloved starts to become more demanding and becomes angry throwing temper tantrums when she doesnt get what she wants, she recognizes Sethe's guilt. Sethe becomes overwhelmed with beloved, giving up even her basic human needs of eating and drinking to make sure that beloved gets what she wants, while she suffers and Beloved gets bigger. Denver sees her mothers actions and reaches out for help from the black community. people arrive at their door step to exorcize Beloved but she had fled by the time they got their.

Setting **- The Story begins in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1873, in a haunted home. Plot **- I believe that Toni Morrison was tryin to explain the trauma that many slaves had to go through. Some of the horrible choices they had to make and live with until they died. In the novel Beloved Sethe is an independent woman and former slave who ran away and upon her master finding her she made an attempt to kill her children thinking that they would be safe. She did not want them to suffer the way she did when she was enslaved. She succeeded with one of her children the oldest. In the future she is now living in a house that later becomes haunted with the spirit of her child that she murdered. I think this gives off the message that with all of the slaves at the time and all of the people suffering who knows how many other people had haunted houses or skeletons in their closet as well.
 * Characters **-
 * __Baby Suggs__: This woman was a slave for most her life until her son gave all that he had to free her and help her know what it is like to own yourself and to truly be free. she has been dead for 8 years and was the type of woman who wanted negroes to be better and for them to love themselves. after the invasion of the white people into her yard however she changed her thoughts and beliefs to saying that negroes could only endure what the white man would do to them.
 * __Beloved__: The child that Sethe killed at the age of one that was reborn twenty years later. even though she is in the form of an adult her mind is still that of a child. throughout the book Beloved looks for Sethe's love and affection.
 * __Denver__: She is Sethes youngest child 19 years of age. because the towns people have such a strong dislike for her mother for what she did to her child so long ago Denver has been confined to the walls of the haunted house for most of her life, and is often very lonely. She is highly dependent on Sethe but also fears her for her actions in the past. throughout the novel she learns what its like to be a black woman in a country where no one likes her.
 * __Paul D.__: He was a slave with Sethe while they were in Kentucky. he was not able to get away with her, thus he spent 18 years of his life running away and getting caught and finally finding his way back to Sethe at her door step. Similar to Sethe he leads a sort of half-life because also like Sethe he has a dreadful past life.
 * __Sethe__: She is a very strong woman who even though she didnt know her mother very well has very good motherly skills and tries her best not to put her children through what she endured. She was traumatized by her attempts to try and kill her children and succeeding with one, but when Beloved is reborn she tries to make up for what she thinks was wrong and spoil her murdered child.


 * Conflict **- The conflict in the Novel is Sethe trying to come to terms with the killing of her baby that has haunted her house for 20 years. The conflict is also with Sethe in that the people in the area that she lives do not like her because she killed her daughter. when they find beloved on their door step as a woman Sethe is compeled in her heart to do whatever she can to make the child happy, since she sees the 21 year old girl as beloved the daughter she killed so long ago.


 * 1-2 Literary devices used by the author in novel**


 * Metaphor **- When Paul D. goes to Sethe's house for the first time in years she tells him of a tree that is on her back in her imagination that is actually a dead mass of scar tissue. After Paul D. slept with her he realizes that the tree is just a clump of scars. Trees are alive and vibrant while on the other hand Sethe has no life in her so the tree on her back is not alive but a dead imitation of a tree.


 * Literary criticism of novel**

*could not find sources*


 * My personal review of the novel**

A truly horrifying and sad novel to read, Toni Morrison has created a story that touches the heart in many ways. One moment you are clenching your tissue for Sethe and her terrifying past and others you are pondering about the feelings of slavery, fighting for freedom and how you would feel if faced with such a decision as she was faced to kill her children. Beloved is a wonderful novel to read, it will keep you on the edge of your bed.