Beloved And Sethe

In the novel Beloved, Toni Morrison addresses many broad themes and issues that are continually reoccurring throughout the book.  Morrison uses each one of the characters to aid in the development of her novel.  Sethe, Denver, and Beloved, all main characters in this book, represent many of the large issues.  One of the major themes in the novel is portrayed with the falling of Beloved, Sethe, and Denver in the ice-skating scene.  In the second section of Beloved, Morrison uses the dramatic ice-skating scene to foreshadow the deterioration of the relationships with in the family that occurs with the loss of Sethe's job.

Chapter 21 begins with Denver’s voice saying, “Beloved is my sister” on the top of page 242. Denver began to speak about how she drank her sister’s blood along with her mother’s milk which is significant because the readers can assume that Denver now has a part of Beloved in her body. Then within the text Denver also speaks about how she loves Sethe out of fear. She feared that whatever motivated Sethe to kill Beloved might motivate her again to kill her other children. Her not understanding her mother’s actions had made it difficult for her to change that fear to love.

Morrison use Denver as a figure desperation for love and human connection that human crave. Due to the lack of maternal love from Sethe, Denver began to “hunger” for the love of Belove. Denver claimed Beloved as her own, despite Beloved clear indifference toward her and obsession towards Sethe. Morrison explains for Denver “to go back to the original hunger was impossible… To be looked at was beyond appetite… it was breaking through her own skin to place to a place where hunger hadn’t been discovered.” (Morrison 139). The hunger Morrison touches upon is human attention and interaction. Denver has gotten that type of attention Howard, Burglar and Baby Suggs lived in the house. The difference between Denver and the other main character (Paul

In Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”, time is rarely linear and this plays an important role in the outside applications of the story. Unlike other novels, Beloved remains ambiguous for the entire first half. There are merely effects without causes and mystery surrounding the characters. Baby Suggs is plagued in a comatose state of despair and apathy, while Sethe’s daughter, Denver, is childish. The only character who appears stable is Sethe who was abandoned by her sons and ostracized by her neighbors. This bleak scenario is only explained halfway through the book when it is revealed that Sethe had killed one of her daughters in a time of panic. This originally seems an odd placement yet, this placement supports Morrison’s intension of writing the book in the first place. As Morrison is writing a book about slavery in the 80s, she is not speaking of the problems within the African-American community in the present, but the effect of slavery on the community. Beloved is not a story of the present, much

Eighteen years before, Sethe escapes from slavery along with her children, but is hunted down by her master. Instead of subjecting them to the brutality of slavery, Sethe tries to kill her children, succeeding in killing her three-year-old daughter. Ever since, the family has been isolated from society

Repetition is typically used to drive a point home; to really emphasize its importance. In addition to this function, Morrison skillfully uses this method of writing to make her readers question. “You are my Beloved. You are mine. You are mine. You are mine.” While reading this it occurred to me that Morrison writes this part open-ended so that it can be analyzed two different ways. It does not identify if this is somebody repeating “You are mine.” over and over or instead if it is a back-and-forth conversation between Sethe and Beloved. By leaving this question unanswered we are made to decide our own interpretation of the character Beloved’s overall origin. If Sethe is the one saying “You are mine. You are mine. You are mine.” it solidifies her belief that Beloved is her baby reincarnated by showing that she feels like she possesses Beloved like a mother owns a daughter. Earlier I discussed that if Sethe were to let “parts of her that are precious and fine” be taken to Sweet Home with schoolteacher, it would be to let the “life” that she made be destroyed. Instead she chooses to destroy her baby before him as an attempt to spare her child a life of slavery. Therefore she stops schoolteacher, a catalyst for slavery,’s possession of her child and Beloved would never belong to an owner but instead to her

In Toni Morrison's Beloved, there were many different love filled and driven relationships. There are family relationships between siblings, and relationships between mother and children. There are relationships

Sethe talks about how after she killed her daughter she wanted to die with her

However, the most significant mother-daughter relationship within the complexity of this novel comes in the relationships between Sethe, Denver, and Beloved. Boudreau states in her article “Pain and Unmasking of the Self in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” that “the maternal bonds between Sethe and her children inhibit her own individuation and prevent the development of her

In the novel, Beloved, written by Toni Morrison, many themes and symbols played a crucial role when analyzing a variety of different characters. One specific theme that has had an everlasting effect between characters and relationships throughout the novel is the transformation of the theme thick love. The idea of love in Toni Morrison 's Beloved is a complicated subject to understand. If love wasn 't hard enough to figure out, it is made more complex through the evils of slavery during this time period and the inevitable division of families. In the novel, we see Sethe 's "unpleasant decision" take over her mind and make her question regardless of whether she was a decent mother; one who adored her kids so much she would do anything to keep from them carrying on with an existence of oppression. Book II of Morrison 's novel digs into the subjects of love, parenthood, and family through the one of a kind lenses of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved herself. This part of the book is very significant when relating the transformation of love. The monologues said by each charter show elements of love and relate the ways the characters express this theme towards each other. By giving careful consideration to the monologs Sethe, Denver, and Beloved herself, perusers perceive how every feels and shows love towards what they need to be theirs.

As she considers her actions and the murder of her own daughter, Sethe makes mental and emotional links to her own mother, whom she suspects of having tried to escape without bringing Sethe along. Sethe feels

Thesis: Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, exemplifies repetition of Denver’s actions to develop her character as a curious yet protective daughter that isn’t afraid of a fight.

In Tony Morrison’s Beloved, Sethe journeys from Sweet Home in Kentucky to house 124 in Ohio. Sethe strives to leave her life of slavery behind as she seeks refuge at Baby Sugg’s house. The physical journey represents Sethe’s abundance of determination and motherly love. Sethe becomes determined to abandon her life as a slave and make the arduous trip to find freedom after she can no longer endure the animal-like treatment she receives at Sweet Home.

Sethe is always in a constant power struggle with the ghost baby the haunts her house. “Full of baby’s venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years each put up with the spite in his own way” (Morrison 1). This quote is talking about the ghost baby in the house that haunts the family that resides in it. It seeks power over the whole house in the beginning. This caused her two boys to leave the house because the baby was out to get them. “Made him trust her enough to step inside her door smack into a pool of pulsing red light… a wave of grief soaked him so thoroughly he wanted to cry” (Morrison 11). A visitor Paul D is talking about how it felt to walk into the house, this is how the baby is seeking power over everyone in that house because this is how it feels most of the time in the house. Constantly causing pain, and grief in a way. The ghost baby causes this type of pain and torment throughout the whole novel, seeking power and control over Sethe inpartiular.

This excerpt interested me because it describes the relationship between Sethe and Beloved using a combination of many literary terms, including simile, juxtaposition, and imagery. Besides these particular terms, however, the entire passage gives a sense that Beloved is almost dog-like in her affection. The description of her eyes likcing, tasting, and eating seems animalistic in its hunger. Her devotion to Sethe resembles a loyal dog. Her behavior on the road when Sethe returns, when Beloved surrenders to habit or instinct, calls to mind a loyal dog as well. Morrison even uses the phrase “like a familiar,” or a witch’s pet. When considering Beloved’s true identity as the soul of a baby, her behavior seems to make some more sense. However,