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Jeffrey C. Woodson II
Professor Wells
Professor McClinton
IS 302
March 3, 2009
Beloved by Toni Morrison Book Review
“Beloved”, by Toni Morrison, Published by Vintage Books, a division of Random
House Inc., New York, (1987, 2004), 324 pages.
Among the flashback and return to previous experiences, the story of, “
Beloved” begins in 1873 in Cincinnati, where a former slave by the name of Sethe
has lived with her eighteen year old daughter, Denver, and, until eight years ago, her
mother-in-law, Baby Suggs. Sethe also has had three other children, however just
before the death of Baby Suggs, Sethe’s two sons, Howard and Buglar ran away , due
to being tormented by the spirit of the ghost of their dead sister.
With the arrival of an old friend, Sethe is torn and troubled by present and
past emotions forgotten for nearly 20 years. They worked on the same plantation,
Sweet Home, for Mr. Garner in Kentucky, where Sethe was the only woman. Though
the men all lusted after her they never bothered her. Between Sixo, Paul D, Paul A,
Paul F, and Halle, she married Halle and had to sons by him, Howard and Buglar, and
a daughter who’ s name the never mention.
Life on sweet home was not like any other plantation. Mr. and Mrs. Garner
practiced a kinder, more benevolent form of slavery in which there were no
beatings. This, however, only lasted until the untimely death of Mr. Garner. At the
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request of Mrs. Garner, the plantation was taken over by her brother–in-law, who
unbeknownst to her ran it as an evil, sadistic tyrant. This made things much worse
than they had had before and many of them planned to escape. Anticipating their
escape, Schoolteacher, as the slaves had called him, seized the slaves killing Sixo,
and sadistically molesting Sethe in the barn. Viewing this from a hiding place Halle
trembled in fear and eventually when mad smearing butter on his face.
After being whipped for reporting this injustice to Mrs Garner, Sethe escaped.
Collapsing on her way she is found and nursed back to health by a young white girl
named Amy Denver who also helps her deliver her baby. She named the baby
Denver after the kind girl and finally arrives at Baby Suggs’ house where she had
previously sent her two sons.
Schoolteacher attempts to capture them and return them to Sweet Home, but
rather than subject her children to such immense cruelty she flees to a woodshed
were she attempts to them. Her oldest daughter is the only one who doesn’t survive
as her throat was cut with a handsaw.
Before Sethe and Denver are taken to jail, Sethe manages to arrange for her
daughters headstone to read “Beloved”. Their short time in jail was due to the work
of a group of abolitionist led by the Bodwins who arranged for their release.
Meanwhile Paul D has endured extreme circumstances that eventually lead
him to show up on Sethe’s porch, now in the present. Paul D and Sethe begin a life
together though Denver resents Paul for chasing off the ghost of her dead sister.
One day after they return from a carnival Paul D and Sethe encounter a
strange woman sleeping on the porch of Baby Suggs’ house. She claims to be the
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embodied spirit of her dead daughter, calling herself “Beloved”. Much evidence
supports her claims and Sethe gradually begins to have more and more of an
exclusive relationship with her. This relationship pushes Paul D to leave and live in
the basement of a church. Beloved’s manipulative and parasitic attitude cause Sethe
to become consumed with meeting her every need because she feels guilty for
killing her.
This behavior exhibited by Sethe forces Denver to flee to one of her
schoolteachers, Lady Jones, who is an abolitionist for help in order to exorcise
Beloved from the house. Upon their arrival to the house, Sethe mistook Mr. Bodwin
for Schooteacher, her former slave owner, and she attacked him with an ice pick. In
the commotion, Beloved runs off never to be seen again.
Following this event Paul D returns to comfort Sethe as she has retreated
Baby Suggs’ deathbed in her depression.
The premise Toni Morrison had for this novel was partially true and partially
fiction. She based much of the novel from the real life story of Margaret Garner who
had a similar experience being a slave and killing her child to keep them from a life
of slavery. Though this is the main basis of the story, Morrison uses fictional
elements to bring across a literary account of historical events. Morrison uses this
story to not only to connect with her African American readers but all races.
Underlying