Beloved by Toni Morrison

•Sixty Million and More

•History through slaves not white view

•Interior life of those who didn’t write their story

• “I Can’t imagine American Literature without it.”

• Beloved can only be reread; it is immediately incomprehensible and excessively demanding; must adopt new strategies of interpretation

• “Bestial treatment of human beings never produces a race of beasts.”

• Slavery is the jungle planted in them that destroys and represses memory

• Emotional and psychological scars of slavery

Biographical Info.• Born on Feb. 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio

• Real name is Chloe Anthony Wofford

• Only black child in 1st grade and the only student who could read.

• Cornell University

• Winner of Pulitzer prize for fiction

• See Interview handout

Structure• “Narrative is one of the ways in which

knowledge is organized. I have always thought it was the most important way to transmit and receive knowledge. I am less certain of that now-but the craving for narrative has never lessened, and the hunger for it is as keen as it was on Mt. Sinai or Calvary or the middle of the fens.”-Morrison

Structural Unity in a novel• Structural divisions-Chapters? Sections?

Settings? How?• Polarization of Characters-Who?• Repetition of patterns and elements-

motifs• Resolution of conflict-internal/external• Narrative point of view-Range and

Depth-Consciousness?• Beginning and Endings• Linear/Spatial/Chronological/Causal

Structure-pieces/parts to whole like slaves-remembering

Part 1-Slavery and Murder-Sethe must confront the past

Part 2-Despair-Sethe finds atonement for her sin/murder

Part 3-Restoration/Cleansing/Rebirth-Sethe and Paul D unburden the past to create a future together side by side pp. 259, 261,273- “the best thing is not Beloved but Sethe”

• Repetition-mothers and daughter; violence; settings; school teacher/community

• Circles and circling the subject/pain away from the facts, return and circle back to explain later in the novel-see conversation in kitchen-the bit?

• See lines in forehead and 124 (p.51 and 202)

• See murder p. 10 and jail p. 42 and explanation later in novel

• Story circles-Oral tradition where the storyteller alternates narratives with repetitions of words, phrases, motifs and core images

• Community circle/ family/Denver’s boxwoods-safety

• Pp. 159,161,163,164,210-217• Beating back the past because the past

has taken possession of present (36, 73, , 99,162, 256, 274)

Structure/POV• Episodic unfolds in a series of revelations

or rememories• By character’s POV/perspective-See

chapters-1st? 3rd?Unclear=communal history and shared memory-claim past and share it.

• Denver’s birth p.78 skips to 3rd person then to Sethe in next chapter and on p.90 to Suggs and more.

• Key events: Sethe’s escape, murder, Beloved’s arrival

Time-separation from past?

• 1873-1874-Now • 1855-Denver’s birth Ohio to present-• Sweet Home to 1855• Flashbacks within those years, before

and after from Middle Passage to Sethe’s arrival at Sweet Home, Baby Suggs arrival, escapes, births of Suggs children, Birth of Sethe’s children, deaths, separations, return.

Settings: Sweet Home, 124, Prison in GA, Kentucky before freedom, Ohio before Beloved, the clearing,-After

• Sweet Home and the Garners vs Schoolteacher-Utopia? Men? “Same loud or soft.”-p.125,190,195

• 124 was…• Alfred,GA- Hell pp.107-108- Chain

gang-“one lost all lost”-p.110• Clearing=healing, love,

cleansing,connections-p.87-88, 97• P. 137,148,157, 250-57

Dual Structures and endings• Paul D’s journey and romance with Sethe• Beloved and ghost tormenting Sethe• Construction and restoration of family• Destruction of Beloved• “There is always something more interesting

at stake than a clear resolution in a novel. I’m interested in survival-who survives and who doesn’t and why…. I do not want to bow out with easy answers to difficult questions.” -Morrison

Function of the Settings• To show universal presence of evil• the degradation of the human spirit and

the personal struggle to overcome it• the inability to escape the horrors and

consequences of the past• mental, spiritual, and physical

enslavement• the subjugation of a culture• loss and separation from oneself• Importance of community/chain gang

Vocabulary• Nigger, Negro, Negress, coloredpeople,

whitepeople, whitefolks, whitegirl, and whiteboy.

• Man without skin-Yoruba• Disremember (choose not to remember)

and rememory (haunting feeling; a memory that recurs unexpectedly when one doesn’t want to remember

• “Remember in pieces or choose not to because if we did we couldn’t get up and go to work in the morning.”

• Disremember (choose not to remember) and rememory (haunting feeling; a memory that recurs unexpectedly when one doesn’t want to remember

• Real events and recurring memories always there p. 37

• Denver desire to know about past but Sethe keeps it from Denver

• Denver goes deaf when asked about prison• Beloved forces Sethe to talk about past and

Paul D to feel the past and Denver to learn• Lady Jones-Chp. 26- helps Denver and

Community heal and grow through memories

Style-Jazz?• Simple and clear• Musical/poetic-songs• Ornate and visual to let horrible things

be seen clearly and simply• Shifts and solos• Repetition of melody• Theme and variation• P.25-27 and pp.200-217

• Style Analysis Passages

• Illiteracy- Newspaper clipping, Title

• Margaret Garner

• Frederick Douglass

• Sojourner Truth

• Historical Background-origin, middle passage, trade, treatment, Nat Turner, Conflict, Emancipation, Northern Migration

• “This is not a story to pass on.”

Biblical Allusions• Romans 9:25- “Beloved”• Loaves and Fishes• Joshua-Stamp Paid• Isaac and Abraham• The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse• Lot’s Wife/Sodom and Gomorrah• Pride goes before a fall• The Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak• Sufficient unto the day is evil• Don’t study war no more

Symbolism• Water-birth, baptism, life, middle passage,

thirst for freedom-Ohio River Jordan

• Scar (Chokecherry tree), choke the fruit, on back can’t see but it’s there like memory of slavery-genealogy

• Birds-Hawk like Sethe; Hummingbirds like needles p.157-angry dead? Free?

• “At Yo Service”statue-Bodwins

• Renaming=Rebirth-Suggs, Stamp Paid

Trees-intermediaries between God and Man

• The clearing brings healing• The sin of cutting trees• Sycamores noticed over hanging-p.6• Denver’s boxwoods-p.28• Brother?-p.21• Follow trees to freedom-p.112• Georgia-small tree p.222• Beloved on a stump

Symbols• The bit, animal, Schoolteacher, the

chart, “real men,” the # of Sethe’s feet, Sixo-forbidden to speak/need to speak

• Stolen Milk,Butter, Breasts, Nursing, Milk and Blood

• #3-124-history of house shadows and skating, unholy trinity of mother, daughter and Beloved/Paul -MICROCOSM for real world that holds the pain and love of a culture

• #28-cycle/freedom

• Ribbons-white,red,black?• Colors-Black, White,Orange, Pink,

Lavender, Freedom, Green, Grey, Life/Death?-Baby Suggs

• Red-Roses but smelling dead, Blood, Rooster, Velvet

• Winter/Ice-paralysis/death p.174• Jungle planted in them by whites to

keep them enslaved-Stamp Paid• Newspaper clipping/mouth

Rape/Emasculation• Literal and metaphor- “dirty” a person and a

culture• All men are emasculated and dehumanized• Mother and child bond destroyed• Many references to sexual abuse/pain/rape-p. 70,

215,241,251• Beloved as succubus/vampire• Paul’s tin box “whiff of contents”-p. 73, nothing

can pry it open-p.113, ocean deep-p.264

Love/Hunger/Heart • See Baby Suggs Sermon p.87• Red Heart and heart p.23• Heart Beating upon Freedom• Love too thick-p.164-5, 203• Make space, make room for love p.29• Love is a serious disability p.251-59• The best thing? • Hunger-swallowed, eaten, tasted, empty,

full pp.57,31,118,9

Symbols• Paul A, F, D, Etc. “Sweet Home”?• Halle, Stamp Paid, Sixo• Crawling-already and Here Boy• Baby Suggs/Jenny/ Nothing• Bridge• Sethe choosing her man• Breeding/Stud/Pregnancies• Nephew over-beating Sethe-her inhumanity like a

horse not a human• Seven-O• No bad luck in the world but Whitefolks• Only Men according to Garner?

3 generations of women in Novel• Baby Suggs and Sethe’s mother-Free to

Slavery, lost 8 children

• Sethe-Slavery to Freedom; Replaces Suggs at age 13, Free but enslaved at 124 for 18 years until the carnival-then Beloved appears-Why?

• Denver-Born in River,Freedom to Future, Literate,-Healing of Community/America-Schoolteacher opens possibilities of language unlike Sethe’s Schoolteacher

• How is each affected by Sethe’s choice? Beloved’s return?

Theme Seeds• Love-What is love? Can one love in this

environment? Love too much? Love small?• Loneliness/Alienation/Dehumanization/

Infantalization- “I call myself nothing,” Name changes?

• Angry Dead/Past/Rememory/Dealing and accepting the past

• Community/Family/Loss• Morality/Banality of Evil/The jungle• Whites and Blacks affected by Slavery• “Serious work of beating back the past”

Who Is Beloved? What Is Her Function? Growth? Destuction?

• Murdered daughter, Sethe’s mom, effects of Slavery, the past, ghost, woman kidnapped, middle passage, others? Collective memory of slavery, all disremembered and unaccounted for?

• Going to pieces, grows like baby, water, crying, greedy for attn, choking Sethe, My face, glowing, pregnant and flourishing while Sethe is dying

• Thirst for stories of past/strangles Sethe• Paul D- “reminds me of something, loke like I’m

supposed to remember.” –p.234

• Beloved enslaves others like Paul D, Sethe, and Denver

• Beloved forces Sethe and Paul D to confront the past, to remember, and to feel what they’ve denied- “ Red Heart-Ocean deep place”

• Denver learns of Sethe’s past from Beloved-earrings, songs, scar, etc.

• Paul D learns of Sethe from Stamp Paid because of Beloved

• The Community becomes united to exorcise Beloved to right the wrong of not warning Sethe of Schoolteacher

• Beloved pieces together the past for all including the reader

• Morrison pieces together and corrects misleading info. about slavery for a common good

• Handprints in a cake to footprints appearing at end. Silver Fish? It is a hard story to retell but it must be told to bring healing like it did to those in novel like Denver, Paul, Sethe, Community, etc.

Sethe’s Choice to murder?“Ultimate gesture of a loving mother...

to kill my children is preferable to having them die.”

• It means nothing without the historical and cultural context. Blame slavery.

• “Trying to outhurt the hurter.” Paul doesn’t agree and doesn’t understand. He thinks whipping is worse than stealing milk.

• We feel connected to Sethe (POV) telling us why and how pp. 162-193

• Baby Suggs gives up preaching victory and love of body, mouth, heart.

• Dirty you so bad you couldn’t like yourself no more.” “Jungle whitefolks planted in them”

• Are blacks to blame for working so hard to disassociate from whites? Another slavery?

• The Definers denied freedom, power, motherhood, feeling, thinking, self, life.

• Community for being jealous?

Chapters 19-23 and other difficult sections?

• 19-Stamp Paid hears “unspeakable thoughts” put to words

• 20-Sethe

• 21-Denver

• 22-Beloved-her words like her body are broken dislocating foreign- Hot thing? Brand, spiritual possession, life?

• 23-all 3 voices-Stream of Consciousness

• See text for other questions and clarification