TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED: A BOOK REVIEW
"Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all"…
- Sethe, p. 164
Sethe (pronounced “Seth-uh”) – a woman who escaped from the bond of slavery (Krumholz 79) and a mother is one of the main characters who are remarkable in the story. After her escape from slavery, Sethe and her daughter Denver struggle to start anew. In the process, Sethe remembers her countless broken memories of slavery and her struggle for liberty. In the novel, Sethe comprises the succeeding occurrences of events. She is the moving framework of behind the novel. Her storytelling moments to a mysterious young woman named “Beloved” brought back her bitter memories especially when she murdered her baby girl. Sethe, when psychologically analyzed constitute the personality of a Persephone type (Marks 2). She enacts through a love gone awry when she killed her baby daughter in order to prevent its being consumed by the oppressive forces of slavery. She uses her “rememory,” as she calls her memory as a strategy to actually discourage memory and “keeping the past at bay”. Other scenes from the novel identifies Sethe as the main participant, thus her significance makes up the entire emotional rollercoaster ride for the readers through the later turn of events.
Aside from the themes of suffering and rebirth, fragmentation and wholeness (Cowan-Barbetti), there are numerous themes inherent to the novel. Among these themes, the most universally accepted and have a shared consequence to the readers is the concept of motherhood. The figurative exposition of a motherly love throughout the novel is heartwarming. Sethe’s act of killing her baby girl is a manifestation of an overarching and great love and sacrifice that any rational man cannot understand except the mother herself. This theme was portrayed perfectly in the parts wherein Sethe escaped from Sweet Home, the ironical name of slave plantation; her desire to be alive not for herself but for her children; her expressions of guilt in what she did and at the same time her willingness to “give up her life, every minute, hour, second of it, to take back just one of Beloved’s tears”. The theme of motherhood is elusive in the novel because it deviates to the current and ordinary manifestation of a mother’s love to her child.
The story took place in two different settings namely: the countryside near Cincinnati, where the principal characters have ended up, and a slave-holding plantation in Kentucky, paradoxically named as Sweet Home, from which they ran away 18 years prior to the opening of the narrative (Bloom 8). The novel was took place after the end of the Civil War and during the period of Reconstruction. This period is characterized with a great deal of indiscriminate violence towards blacks. Historically, the significance of the setting is that it pertains to southern part of America in which the slaves took their refuge.
Major events that happened and considered as important in the development of the story as well as the characters are: the emancipation from slavery, the emergence of Beloved to life of Sethe, and the moments in which Sethe had flashes of painful memories of the past. The emancipation from slavery paved way to the start of new life for Sethe and her daughter. It means a new day, life, and beginning. The emergence of Beloved in the life of Sethe made Sethe’s character somewhat emphatic as manifested in the presence of incidences happened between her and Beloved as well as Paul D. and Denver. Finally, the storytelling and flashbacks (rememory) of Sethe helped in the development of Beloved’s portrayal and understanding of readers (Koolish 169). By the expressions of motherly love of Sethe to her baby girl, readers will understand the past and the present of Sethe, Beloved, and the other characters in the novel.
The best thing I liked about the novel is the idea of freedom as manifested in Sethe’s major decisions in life (e.g. the killing of her daughter in order not to become a slave, having sex with the headstone engraver in an act that sanctions her killing action, making tombs of her love, her womb, her home, and her life, and thereby doubling the harmful consequences of the original killing). I consider this as the best thing that I like about the novel because it qualifies my predetermined definition of freedom. For me, freedom is absolute. This entitles every person to do whatever he/she wants to do but at the same time taking conscientiousness and accountability to the consequences of his/her action – may it be beneficial or destructive in nature. Like Sethe, she made her best and worst decisions but she still stand liable to them even to the extent of ending her own life.
The least thing I liked about the novel is the idea of revenge as manifested in the character of Beloved. In my own perspective, revenge is equated to evilness. In reality, I cannot imagine a child taking vengeful actions towards the person who carried her for almost nine months. Maybe I sound conservative but it is just that I really acknowledge the fact that mothers are the half portion of every individual. What a person decides to do to his/her mother, it simply means doing it to his/her own self. In the period of dynamic change, it is unfortunate to think that some things such as values and religious principles are viewed intangible. And that people dwell on what is material and concrete, forgetting the real essence of it. In relation to the novel, Beloved is an ideal exemplar of numerous people living today – blinded with the idea of revenge as the ultimate solution to every harm that other inflicted to them; and coward to carry out the act of forgiving as a clear evidence of real love and humanness.
Believing in my won standard of what is literally beautiful, I will give Toni Morisson’s Beloved an 8. The reasons behind this are:
- The novel an amalgamation of various sciences such as history, politics, sociology, and most specially psychology and philosophy.
- It presents a wide array of divergent themes that are existent in the lives of people.
- It clearly describes what a mother can do for the goodness of her children.
- It narrates how a person struggles to survive no matter how hard the situation is.
- It presents the imperfection of every person that in some moments; people are blinded and confused on what to choose between good and bad.
- The author used this novel to deliver her personal beliefs on woman and womanhood.
- The novel is widely accepted and considered as one among the best American literary masterpieces in the past 25 years.
- Lastly, the novel is entertaining because it entails different emotions ranging from love, happiness, sacrifice, suffering and others.
With the considered reasons above, I indeed recommend Toni Morrison’s Beloved for intellectual, emotional, historical, and philosophical exploration.
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