Beloved-Water Motif

A detailed Summary of Beloved-Water Motif

In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison writes about the life of former slaves of Sweet Home. Sethe, one of the main characters, was once a slave to a man and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Garner. After Garner's sudden death, schoolteacher comes to Sweet Home and takes control of the slaves. His treatment of all the slaves forced them to run away. Fearing that her children would be sold, Sethe sent her two boys and her baby girl ahead to her mother-in-law. On the way to freedom, a white girl named Amy Denver helped Sethe deliver her daughter, who she later names Denver. About a month after Sethe escapes slavery, schoolteacher found her and tried to bring her back. In fear that her children would be brought back into slavery, Sethe killed her older daughter and attempted to kill Denver and her boys. Sethe, along with Denver, was sent to prison and spent three months there. Buglar and Howard, her two sons, eventually ran away. After about eighteen years, another ex-slave from Sweet Home, Paul D., came to live with Sethe and Denver. A few days later, while coming home from a carnival, Sethe, Paul D., and Denver found a young woman of about twenty on their porch. She claimed her name is Beloved. They took her in and she li

Water is again used as a motif that signifies re-birth later on in the novel, but this time for Sethe. When Sethe arrives at Baby Suggs' home, she is met by Baby Suggs who then tries to wash and bathe Sethe's body. "She led Sethe to the keeping room and, by the light of a spirit lamp, bathed her in sections, starting with her face. Then, while waiting for another pan of heated water, she sat next to her and stitched cotton. Sethe dozed and woke to the washing of her hands and arms...the rest of the night Sethe spent soaking" (p. 93). In this passage, Sethe has just arrived at Baby Suggs' home in Cincinnati after escaping from Sweet Home. While on the way, Sethe was molested by schoolteacher's nephews and also gave birth. She was obviously very soiled and needed to bathe. Thus, Baby Suggs bathes Sethe's whole body. This is like a re-birth for Sethe because not only does she feel refreshed and anew, but this also signifies her freedom from Sweet Home.

Water represents freedom for Sethe as well. In order to get away from schoolteacher and slavery, she had to cross the Ohio River, which is a large body of water. "Just when she thought he was taking her back to Kentucky, he turned the flatbed and crossed the Ohio like a shot. There he helped her up the steep bank" (p. 91). In this passage, Sethe has just delivered Denver, her baby, when she runs into Stamp Paid and two boys. She tells them who she is and where she is going. Stamp Paid takes her across the river because someone would be waiting there for her. If Sethe didn't cross the river, she wouldn't have escaped Sweet Home and slavery all together.

Morrison also uses the motif of water to represent freedom and escape from slavery. For Paul D., water was an essential part of obtaining his freedom from the prison camps in Alfred, Georgia. "It rained. In the boxes the men heard the water rise in the trench and looked out for cottonmouths. They squatted in muddy water, slept above it, peed in it...it happened so quick he had no time to ponder...one by one, from Hi Man back on down the like, thy dove. Down through the mud under the bars, blind, groping" (p. 110). In this passage, Paul D. is at a prison camp in Alfred, Georgia. All of the prisoners were locked up and chained.

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Approximate Word count = 1526
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels