BLOVED (1987)

By

TONNY MORROISON (1931-2019)

The story of Beloved is based on a true story of an African American slave named Margaret Garner.
Being influenced with the story of Margaret Garner, Morrison wrote Beloved in 1987 and the writer won
The Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for the book, Bloved. Tony Morrison whose real name was Chloe Anthony
Wofford Morrison won The Nobel Prize in 1993 for Literature.

Tony Morrison convey the theme and dialogues of her novel, Bloved through flashback. Through them
the reader is able to piece together the puzzle and views the story of the house 124.

o Past vs. Presents: Sethe is in constant struggle to beat back the past however they will
not remain perite either literally or figuratively. The ghost of her dead daughter
haunters. Paul D comes to visit her bringing with him painful memory of slavery. Sethe
hates her rebellious brain and will not forget leaving room for planed future. Beloved’s
memory reveled in stem of consciousness narration or of dying in being among dead
people. When she comes back to life she remember her mother’s diamond earing and a
song she sang. She forces her mother to remember. This way Beloved helps her mother
to confront the past. Through this memory the readers don’t forget the brutal history of
slavery.
o Loss of identity in slavery: Tony Morrison metaphorically refers to slaves as animals.
Sethe’s trouble began when schoolteacher’s nephew nurse from her, milking her as if
she was goat or cow. When she murders her child schoolteacher beats her as an animal
which have been over handed. Thus lost her identity as a human being.
o Guilt: Sethe lives the life of solitude and so step in guilt of killing her daughter. At first
Sethe accepts the ghost of the ant as her baby daughter. When Beloved returned to her
Sethe began to indulge her every wang. Out of guilt Sethe tries to wash up what she has
done to her baby. When Beloved was banished by the neighbor, Sethe finally realized
from her guilt.
o Love: Slavery doesn’t allow love. It last all emotional attachments specially between
family members. Paul D knows this and feels that love is risky. It’s dangerous for slave
for anything or anyone specially for the children. Family love can split you wide open. He
feels it best to love just the little. He defines freedom is getting to a place where you can
love anything you choose. Sethe proves Paul D right. The battle line between love and
slavery is clearly drawn. Sethe loves her daughter so much that she kills her rather than
she sees her to returns to slavery.
o Theme of slavery in Beloved: Slavery is one of the major themes of the novel, Beloved. We find
the real contemporary image of slavery in the novel. The black people were treated and sold
as slave and set in a plantation being separated from there family. Their name was changed so
 not to recognize. They were forced to labor. They were treated as animal or some other
property but not as human being.

Symbols in Beloved: Morrison used lots of symbols in her novel to give the taste of another level to the
audience of her novel. Symbol is something that represents another thing. Writer gives some message in
her writing through the use of some symbol.

i. Color: Color represents different things in each character in the novel. In the novel red color
evokes blood of the dead baby which symbolizes pain, evil and death. Baby Sugs contemplate
the color of blue and yellow which signifies peace to her. She never gets to the red, the color of
the dead baby’s blood. Pink is the last color Sethe remember. Pink in her baby’s headstone.
ii. Water: Water in the novel symbolizes escape. Paul D and the chain gang escape in the rain
water flood. Likewise, Sethe crosses the Ohio river to escape from slavery. Denver born in the
river after her mother’s water break and she frees from her mother womb. Sethe breaks water
again feeling the need of yearning when she finds the young stranger named Beloved,
symbolizing her freedom from the memory of murdering her. Beloved herself immerges from
the river and born again. She has been free from the confine of death.
iii. Tree: In Beloved tree signifies both comfort and evil. Trees are instruments in the novel in
linking Sethe’s mother, Sixo and Paul A. The tree in Sethe’s back stain from whipping is a symbol
of evil. However, trees are also a source of comfort to Sethe, Paul A and Denver in Sweethome.
Paul D specially remember the Sycamore tree which he called his brother under which he and
other Sweethome man would gather to cool off and shared companionship.
iv. 124: The house in Bluestone road is referred as 124 and personified as the living spirit of Sethe’s
murdered child. Each of the three parts of the novel started with the description of 124. This
number is significant in this way that it symbolizes Beloved, the baby Sethe murdered. Sethe had
three children and number three was disappeared because she was murdered by the hands of
her mother.
v. Baby Ghost: The ghost is the dead child Sethe murdered but she also symbolizes the 60 million
victims of slavery evoked in the novel’s inscription. We incarnated the ghost as Beloved. She
symbolizes both the pain of the past and its cure confronting her what leads to communal
healing we find at the end of the novel.
Tony Morrison convey the theme and dialogues of her novel, Bloved through flashback.
Through them the reader is able to piece together the puzzle and views the story of the house
124.

Past vs. Presents: Sethe is in constant struggle to beat back the past however they will not
remain perite either literally or figuratively. The ghost of her dead daughter haunters. Paul D
comes to visit her bringing with him painful memory of slavery. Sethe hates her rebellious brain
and will not forget leaving room for planed future. Beloved’s memory reveled in stem of
consciousness narration or of dying in being among dead people. When she comes back to life
she remember her mother’s diamond earing and a song she sang. She forces her mother to
remember. This way Beloved helps her mother to confront the past. Through this memory the
readers don’t forget the brutal history of slavery.
Loss of identity in slavery: Tony Morrison metaphorically refers to slaves as animals. Sethe’s
trouble began when schoolteacher’s nephew nurse from her, milking her as if she was goat or
cow. When she murders her child schoolteacher beats her as an animal which have been over
handed. Thus lost her identity as a human being.
Guilt: Sethe lives the life of solitude and so step in guilt of killing her daughter. At first Sethe
accepts the ghost of the ant as her baby daughter. When Beloved returned to her Sethe began
to indulge her every wang. Out of guilt Sethe tries to wash up what she has done to her baby.
When Beloved was banished by the neighbor, Sethe finally realized from her guilt.
Love: Slavery doesn’t allow love. It last all emotional attachments specially between family
members. Paul D knows this and feels that love is risky. It’s dangerous for slave for anything or
anyone specially for the children. Family love can split you wide open. He feels it best to love
just the little. He defines freedom is getting to a place where you can love anything you choose.
Sethe proves Paul D right. The battle line between love and slavery is clearly drawn. Sethe loves
her daughter so much that she kills her rather than she sees her to returns to slavery.