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Jenna Donatiello
Mr. Cunningham
A.P. English Literature
13 December 2016
Beloved Essay
In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison uses a disjointed plot structure to emphasize the
theme of the destructive forces of slavery on human identity and sense of self. Though the story
discusses the brutality of slavery and the abuse slaves face, the focus of Beloved centers around
the practice’s long-lasting effects on all involved, or even on a nation suppressing its memory.
Using a mixture of verse and stream of consciousness, the third-person omniscient narrations
guides the development of the theme in order of magnitude, with the theme’s presence becoming
more and more apparent as the novel progresses. Each flashback takes the reader into a different
time, place, or perspective, representative of the haunting capabilities of rememories, even on
people distant from the original occurrence. The unusual plot order forces a conflation of past
and present, bringing the past to life both figuratively and literally in the character Beloved.
Through a structure that develops the significance of the loss of self in a progressing style, Toni
Morrison gradually increases awareness of the effects of slavery on many individuals, in order to
illuminate the ever-present impact of a dark past on a modern society’s future.
Morrison begins her exploration of the theme by showing how slavery affects slaves
directly, telling the stories of animalistic attacks on people without showing long-term effects on
society. Sethe’s time at Sweet Home is described early on in Beloved. Sethe’s youth and beauty
makes the slave men long for her in the most primitive, carnal way. The wait for her decision
does not just damage each of the men’s sense of manhood, but it broke their humanity as well.
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The narrator says, “rape seemed the solitary gift of life” to exemplify this dehumanization
(Morrison 12). Morrison also introduces slavery’s destruction of Sethe’s identity soon after; the
white men of Sweet Home hold her down and steal her milk, thus stealing her identity as a
mother and a woman. The act’s brutality leaves a permanent impression in Sethe’s memory, a
mark of slavery not fully addressed for many more scenes. Though little elaboration is given by
Morrison in the early stages of the novel, Beloved progresses in a way that gathers each of the
bits and pieces, stowing them away as background knowledge until everything can be connected
in a manner that accurately captures the true impact of the events collectively, not individually.
As Paul D. shares with Sethe more detailed horrors of slavery, the haunting effects become more
present within the novel.
The iron bit symbolizes the destruction of self on both an emotional and physical level,
and Morrison addresses the devastation in the middle of Beloved in order to show that even
freedom cannot unshackle people from their pasts. In this scene, the point of view shifts to Paul
D., representing another individual’s perspective on slavery to show how slavery affects
humanity as a whole. According to the narration of Paul D.’s story, the bit put a wildness where
previously none existed. Paul D. shares his memories of the free rooster Mister, showing that
slavery is worse than animalistic because it puts men on a level below animals. Paul D.’s
reflection on the iron bit expresses the idea that no one can ever be the same after slavery.
Morrison uses the stories of Paul D. and Sethe’s horrors, then combines the novel’s climax of
horror with the perspectives of the white oppressors.
Though Paul D. faces unimaginable difficulties throughout his life as a former slave,
even he, like the slave owners, cannot understand Sethe’s decision to murder her children out of
love. Sethe chooses infanticide over slavery for her children because she knows the full pain of
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slavery. The mark of slavery can never be washed away or forgotten, only hidden under a
superficial veil of ignorance. Sethe loves with too much of her heart, forcing her to murder her
children in order to protect them from the terror she relives every day. The puzzle of the plot fits
the murder scene with an earlier conversation between Denver and Sethe, where Sethe tells her
daughter, “If you go there—you who was never there—if you go there and stand in the place
where it was, it will happen again; it will be there, waiting for you... Even though it’s all over—
over and done with—it’s going to always be there waiting for you” (36). Morrison’s structure of
the plot is to the reader what rememories are to the characters; the fragmented structure is a way
to bring the story alive, guiding the audience through the novel in a way that best represents the
impact of slavery on all lives, past, present, or future. The white characters of the novel are not
even slightly aware of slavery’s destruction of the white man’s humanity, only seeing an animal
in front of them who was overbeaten. The slave owners see their job as a calling, a God-given
right to take responsibility over another human. To these men, Sethe’s actions are not a selfless
act of love, but an instinctive response of an animal who got kicked one too many times. Though
the haunting presence of slavery remains within the lives of the former slaves and slave owners
with the novel, Morrison uses a disjointed plot structure to show that the treacherous jungle of
slavery encompasses all descended from or involved with the practice.
To further develop and intensify the magnitude of the theme of slavery’s destruction,
Morrison fully addresses the effects of slavery on humanity by showing the tangled web of
horrors in the jungle that enslaves everyone involved with slavery. Stamp Paid describes the
destruction of humanity by saying, “it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them … it was the
jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew. And it spread … until it invaded the whites who
had made it” (198). With the idea that blacks are the source of the jungle, the white slave owners
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of history created a self-fulfilled prophecy that spread the horrors of slavery to all touched by the
practice, slave and slave owner united in their lack of humanity and wild eyes. Fear causes the
white people to act savagely as slave owners, and the brutal mistreatment causes the slave to
become so disheartened by society, and so emotionally and physically damaged, that the best
way to survive is to give up their sense of self and humanity. The cycle continues over and over,
dehumanizing all. Though the practice of slavery died out long ago, the effects still live on in
modern society. Morrison attempts to break the silence through Beloved, guiding the audience to
conclude that trying to run away from one’s past only gives the past power of one’s future.
Describing the destruction of humanity and self-identity by slavery, Beloved shows how
the past can haunt a community when individuals cannot learn to cope with the horrors they once
faced. Morrison uses a disjoint structure of plot and an omniscient third person narration to
involve multiple points of view throughout the novel, allowing the story of slave, slave owner,
and descendent to be told. Beloved gives a voice to those who previously were silenced and to a
history that has been long suppressed. Though the perspectives, time periods, and places change
throughout the novel, the theme progresses naturally in order of its magnitude within a scene.
The structure of the theme emphasizes the necessity of remembering the past, so as not to fear its
presence or ignore its importance.
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Works Cited
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York City: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987. Print.