Beloved is a drama-based novel by Toni Morrison's. Beloved was published in 1987. Margaret Garner, a Black slave lady, fled from a Kentucky farm with her husband, Robert, and their children in 1856, and the novel is based on her true experience. it tells the story of a family of formerly enslaved people whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit. Beloved is inspired by an event that actually happened: Margaret Garner, an enslaved person in Kentucky, who escaped and fled to the free state of Ohio in 1856. She was subject to capture in the accordance with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
The book follows the life of a Black lady named Sethe from her pre-Civil War days as a slave in Kentucky through her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1873, as she confronts the terrible legacy of slavery. Despite the fact that Sethe is a free woman, she is imprisoned by memories of her existence as a slave.
When Denver's boss arrives to pick her up for work, Sethe misidentifies him as a "schoolteacher" and attacks him with an ice pick. The other ladies detain her, and Beloved vanishes in the midst of the chaos. Later, Paul D returns to the bereaved Sethe, pledging to look after her, and Denver thrives in the outer world.
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Beloved
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Toni Morrison's Beloved tells the story of Sethe, an escaped slave who murders her own infant daughter rather than allow the child to grow up in slavery. Her past returns to haunt her home and family as a ghost of Beloved, the dead infant.
Symbols
Trees
The trees are a place of safety but also symbolize hiding, darkness, fears, and haunting.
Water
Water crossings mark important events, including Sethe's escape to freedom and Beloved's rebirth in human form.
Beloved
She symbolizes slavery, a link to the past that still enslaves Sethe emotionally.
214
The house number is the fact that the beloved Sethes's third child is dead
Themes
Identity
Sethe struggles to regain her identity, which was nearly destroyed by slavery.
Guilt
Sethe survived slavery but murdered her infant daughter to save her from it.
Past vs. Present
Sethe tries to reconcile the horrors and pain of the past with a haunted present.
Main Character
Baby Suggs
Sethe's grandmother, voice from the past
Paul D
Sethe's friend from Sweet Home
Beloved
Deceased daughter, haunts house in form of young woman
Year Beloved was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1993
Year Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
1998
Year a film version starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover was released
Author
TONI MORRISON BORN 1931
Raised in a diverse community in Ohio, Morrison developed a deep understanding of the oral and folk traditions of African American culture. Beloved embodies Morrison's belief that novels preserve the history of black people, which had previously been maintained through oral tradition.
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Beloved
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