Beloved - Toni Morrison

A detailed Summary of Beloved - Toni Morrison


Set in post-Civil War Ohio, it is the story of Sethe, an escaped slave who has risked her life in order to wrench herself from a living death; who has lost a husband and buried a child; who has borne the unthinkable of killing her baby and not gone mad. Sethe, who now lives in a small house on the edge of town with her daughter, Denver, her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, and a disturbing, mesmerizing apparition who calls herself Beloved. Sethe works at 'beating back the past,' but it makes itself heard in her memory; in Denver's fear of the world outside the house; in the sadness that consumes Baby Suggs; whose childhood belonged to slavery. Sethe's struggle to keep Beloved from gaining possession of her present and to throw off the long-dark legacy of her past.

Morrison attempts to show us the horrors of slavery through its affect on these characters. One way that she does this is by showing how desperate the characters are to get themselves and their loved ones away from that awful life kn


own as slavery. Sethe shows this desperation when she sends her children away from Sweet Home, when she travels, alone and pregnant, from Sweet Home to Ohio, and when she attempts to kill her children to keep them from school teacher. Although she hardly can get on without them, Sethe, in desperation, sends her children to live with their grandmother, Baby Suggs, to keep them from becoming slaves themselves. The depth of her need for her children is expressed when she says, "I wouldn't draw breath without my children. This and the mere fact that she is saving milk for her baby girl who is living with her grandmother, shows her love for her children. Sethe suffers without them, yet she makes herself suffer because she knows that they are safer there. She sacrifices her time and the ability to be close to them in order to make sure that they are safe from slavery. This sacrifice shows that slavery is horrid.

Contrary to common sense and driven by her desperation to be free, Sethe, alone and pregnant, makes the

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Approximate Word count = 687
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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