Memory and Character Identity in

Toni Morrison's Beloved

A Multigenre Inquiry Project
Erin Marlow

Essential Question: How Do Memories Impact Identity?

About the Project Why Beloved

A Multigenre Inquiry Project aims to explore a With its focus on the characters of Sethe,
chosen text from multiple different genres. Beloved, and Denver – each haunted by a
Such a multi-faceted approach offers a nuanced shared, cultural memory of slavery –
Morrison's novel offers rich opportunities to
understanding of the ways in which a proposed
explore the ways in which their memories of
essential question develops in the text and in
often traumatic past experiences shape their
our own lives.
unique identities.

Genres
Genre 1: A fictional conversation between three individuals who each

provide insight to the main question of memory’s impact on identity through

either a literary, cultural, or historical lens.

Genre 2: A drawing that depicts Sethe and Beloved and explores the

relationship and tensions between memory and identity in the novel.

Genre 3: A poem that combines the perspectives of Sethe and Beloved.

Genre 4: An Infographic that focuses on trauma and PTSD in order to

explore how memories, especially traumatic memories, significantly affect

one’s sense of self.

Other works related to memory and
identity: Genre 5: A collection of five secondary classroom activities that allow

students to explore the question of memories and identity in the context of

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Beloved as well as in their own lives.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
 Selected Genres

Genre 2
This drawing offers a visualization of the

tension between individuality and shared

Genre 4
identities in the novel, as the memories of

Beloved and Sethe are both personal and, at

The way in which Morrison narrates Beloved’s

memories of the Middle Passage and Sethe’s

times, blurred together.

memories of slavery as circular, recurring events

suggest that such traumatic events are not just

moments of the past but are real aspects of their

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lived experience that they carry throughout their

https://memorymultigenre.weebly.com lives.