Beloved (novel)
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| Beloved | |
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| Author | Toni Morrison |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Modernist Novel |
| Publisher | Alfred Knopf |
| Publication date | January, 1987 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 324 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 1-58060-120-0 |
Beloved is a 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. The novel is loosely based on the life and legal case of the slave Margaret Garner, about whom Morrison later wrote in the opera Margaret Garner (2005). The Book's Epigraph says: "Sixty Million and more." Morrison is referring to the estimated number of slaves who died in the slave trade. More specifically, she is referring to the Middle Passage.
In 1998 the novel was adapted into a film of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey.
A survey of eminent authors and critics conducted by The New York Times found Beloved the best work of American fiction of the past 25 years; it garnered 15 of 125 votes, finishing ahead of Don DeLillo's Underworld (11 votes), Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian (8) and John Updike's Rabbit series (8).[1] The results appeared in The New York Times Book Review on May 21, 2006. [2]
Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The book follows the story of Sethe (pronounced "Seth-uh") and her daughter Denver as they try to rebuild their lives after having escaped from slavery. Their house is apparently haunted, or at least poltergeist type events appear to occur there with frightening regularity. Because of this, Denver has no friends and is extremely shy. One day, a young lady shows up at their house, saying that her name is "Beloved." Sethe comes to believe that the girl is another of her daughters, whom Sethe murdered by slitting her throat with a handsaw when she was only two years old to save her from a life of slavery, and whose tombstone reads "Beloved." Beloved's presence consumes Sethe to the point where she ignores her other daughter and even her own needs, while Beloved becomes more and more demanding. Sethe's lover Paul D. and her friend Stamp Paid know that Beloved is evil, but do nothing out of fear.
The novel follows in the tradition of slave narratives, but also confronts the more painful and taboo aspects of slavery, such as sexual abuse and violence, which Morrison feels were avoided in the traditional narratives. In the novel, she explores the effects on the characters, Paul D and Sethe, of trying to repress—and then coming to terms with—the painful memories of their past.
At the outset, the reader is led to assume Beloved is a supernatural, incarnate form of Sethe's murdered daughter. Later, Stamp Paid reveals the story of "a girl locked up by a white man over by Deer Creek. Found him dead last summer and the girl gone. Maybe that's her". Both are supportable by the text. The concept that Beloved is the reincarnated child is supported by what would seem evidentiary revelations; she sings a song known only to Sethe and her children, and she speaks of Sethe's earrings without having seen them. However, the characters have a psychological need for Beloved to be that dead child returned. Sethe can assuage her guilt over the death of her child, and Denver has a sister/ playmate. Toni Morrison's intention (revealed in interviews) was to compel the reader to become active rather than passive -- working to discover what is going on. Thus, the emphasis is on interpretation rather than on the actual words in the narrative.
[edit] Major themes
Beloved is a novel based on the impact of slavery and of the emancipation of slaves on individual black people. There are several themes that remain central to the novel:
[edit] Motherhood
The concept of motherhood within Beloved is as an overarching and overwhelming love that can conquer all, strongly typified within the novel by the character Sethe, whose very name is the feminine of "Seth"- the Biblical 'father of the world'. This can also be seen within Morrison's other works and has led to her sometimes being cited as a feminist writer. The feminine capacity for love is maximal: "It hurt her when mosquitoes bit her baby". Further, Sethe's escape from the slave plantation (ironically named 'Sweet Home') stems from her desire to keep the "mother of her children alive" and not from any personal survival instinct. Sethe's maternal instincts almost lead to her own destruction. Readers can assume the interpretation that Beloved is a wrathful character looking to wreak revenge on Sethe for killing her, despite the fact that the murder was, in Sethe's mind, an entirely loving act. Sethe's guilt at Beloved's death means that she is willing to "give up her life, every minute, hour and second of it, to take back just one of Beloved's tears". The strength of her love leads her almost to the point of death as she allows Beloved complete freedom to destroy her household and relationships; the roles of mother and daughter are completely reversed. "Was it past bedtime, the light no good for sewing? Beloved didn't move, said, 'Do it', and Sethe complied".
[edit] History
Toni Morrison wrote Beloved on a foundation of historical events. The most significant event within the novel--the "Misery", or Sethe's murder of Beloved--is based on the 1856 murder by Margaret Garner of her children to prevent them from being recaptured and taken back into slavery with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Morrison admits to "an obsession" with this account after she discovered it while helping edit a scrapbook on black history. The novel itself can be seen as the reworking of fact into something with a very emotional central message. History is woven throughout the novel. The Middle Passage is referenced along with the Underground Railway in many parts of the novel; the 'Sixty Million and More' to whom Morrison dedicates the novel may refer to the many who died during the Middle Passage. The entire concept of the slavery described in the novel: Paul D's confinement in Georgia, ideas such as the "bit" and the legislature described are all based on history. This gives the novel a powerful impact.
Beloved's appearance reawakens memories of slavery among the other characters, and they are forced to deal with their past instead of trying to repress their memories. Reincarnation and rebirth are also themes in this novel.
[edit] Manhood
The only significantly developed male character is Paul D, described as "the kind of man who could walk into a house and make the women cry. Because with him, in his presence, they could cry and tell him things they only told each other". He is, however, emotionally crippled. During his service in a chain-gang, his hands uncontrollably shake until he can learn to trap his emotions and lock them away. It takes Beloved and her audacious seduction to release him and to free the "red heart" he's imprisoned in the "rusted tobacco tin" of his memories. Paul D is the only male character against whom the women's strengths are tested and contrasted. Nearly all the other men in the story are oppressors or comparatively lightly sketched. Paul D cannot cope with Sethe's murder of Beloved -- even though he knows it was an extreme act of love -- and leaves, but returns to "put his story next to hers", a display of his courage and mature love, if crippled by his slavery ordeal. Leaving the readers without ultimate answers, Toni Morrison concludes on a hopeful note, as Paul D convinces Sethe that she herself is her own "best thing."
[edit] Film adaptation
In 1998, the novel was made into a film directed by Jonathan Demme and produced by Oprah Winfrey.
[edit] References
- ^ In Search of the Best - New York Times
- ^ What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?, The New York Times May 21, 2006
- ^ Beloved - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME
| Preceded by A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor |
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1988 |
Succeeded by Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler |
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