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Ellen Boone
Kris Whorton and Seth Epstein
ENGL 1150
22 November 2016
Slavery and Beyond
In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison depicts the aching tale of a woman, Sethe who although she
has escaped the physical bonds of slavery, is unable to separate herself from the mental bonds of its
heartache. Through both Sethes story and the stories of those who surround her, such as her daughters
Beloved and Denver, she asserts that the pains of slavery do not cease to exist once someone escapes; rather,
the pain lingers and spreads through the lineage of slaves, causing masses of people suffer its anguish as
well. Morrison, through Beloved, reveals a world unbeknownst to those who are not affected by slaverys
clutches: one that is unrelenting and selfish of the ones it has captured.
Through Sethes hardships under slavery, Morrison reveals the extreme conditions that
shape her into an unstable individual. As a child, she only saw her mother but a few times
(Morrison 72), and when she discovered that she had been hanged, she was snatched away from
the body before she could ever prove that it was her mother or not. Such a lack of motherly love
leaves her, as Barbara Schapiro states in her article The Bonds of Love and the Bounds of Self
in Toni Morrisons Beloved, unable to satisfy the hunger for recognition, the longed for look,
that both her daughters crave (197). Unfortunately, the hardships did not end there for Sethe, for
she was then sent to another plantation, ironically named Sweet Home. There, she is immediately
treated as an object by her fellow, all-male, slaves, who await who she will choose as her partner.
Although this could be viewed as kind because they dont rape her, she is viewed merely as a
means to have sex and procreate. This mindset is again observed as Mrs. Garner, the wife of the

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plantation owner, asks if she knows that she will soon be pregnant, reducing her to what Jewell
Parker Rhodes, in her article Toni Morrisons Beloved: Ironies of a Sweet Home Utopia in a
Dystopian Slave Society, calls a cash crop machine (83), and inferring that if she had not
expressed an interest in sexual relations, [the Garners] would have demanded it of her (83).
Sethes most excruciating memory of Sweet Home occurs after Mr. Garner dies, under the
tyrannical rule of Schoolteacher, who is Mrs. Garners brother-in-law. After breaking the Sweet
Home Men into the demeaning images typically portrayed with slavery, and treating them all like
animals, his abuse climaxes when his nephews held [Sethe] down and took [her breastmilk]
(Morrison 19), and then beat her with a whip until the scars formed what looked like a tree.
Rhodes asserts such actions are a bridge from cruelty to sexual pleasure and echoes of the
boys viewing Sethe as an animal (Rhodes 88). During her time as a slave, Sethe went through
such horrendous experiences that it would be impossible for her to simply move on and function
as a balanced member of society, and as such the pain continues to affect her even after she
escapes.
Even in her life as a freed woman, Sethe is not able to pry herself from the clutches of
slavery and separate herself from its horrific repercussions. Although she is able to successfully
flee from Sweet Home, her fear for the futures of her children becomes so strong that it takes
complete control of her actions, causing her to commit the unthinkable. When she escapes and
finally makes her way to her mother-in-laws house, 124 Bluestone Road, she has twenty-eight
days of peace and merriment. However, this comes to a quick end once Schoolteacher comes to
reclaim her and her four children as his property. She immediately begins to panic and takes
Howard, Buglar, Denver, and her unnamed daughter to the shed behind the house. There she left
her two sons [bleeding] in the sawdust, cradled her older daughter in one arm, whose throat

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she had already cut with a saw, and held [Denver] by the heels in the other as she attempted
to bash her against the wall of the shed (Morrison 175). Thankfully, Stamp Paid grabbed the
infant from her before any harm could be done to it, successfully saving Denver from the
murderous hands of her mother. Schapiro puts it best when she states that Sethe commits these
crimes because her humanity has been so violated by [Schoolteacher], and by her entire
experience as a slave woman, that she kills her daughter to save her from a similar fate (195).
While she only maims her two boys enough to render them unfit for slave work, she attempts to
murder both of her daughters, for she knows that they would experience a similar fate as hers if
they were to be under Schoolteachers control. That thought is unbearable to her, and her
behavior falls under its spell, an image of the fact that the horrors of slavery never truly leave the
psyche of a former slave.
Morrison utilizes Beloved, the daughter that Sethe once murdered, as symbol of the
power that slavery holds over both those that experienced it and those who did not, as observed
in her effect on the lives of Sethe and her family. When she existed solely in the spiritual form,
the way she haunted the members of 124 caused Sethes two sons, Howard and Buglar, to run
away, leaving Sethe without the support of the majority of her children, whom she once
sacrificed her safety and sanity for. Once Beloved comes to fruition in her physical form, things
only get worse for Sethe and Denver, although they may not believe this at first. For example,
when Sethe takes Denver and Beloved into the Clearing and bows her head to pray, Beloved
chokes her. However, Sethe believes that it was the ghost of her mother-in-law, causing her great
despair and bringing her to the brink of death, an example of the fact that, as Christine Bieber
Lake asserts in her article The Demonic in the Service of the Divine: Toni Morrisons Beloved,
to keep people in this kind of a living death is the oldest goal of the demonic (56).

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Beloved is also incredibly selfish and separates Sethe from any source that may provide
her with healing. For example, she drives a stake between Sethe and Paul D, one of the only
relationships that Sethe has, in order to be the sole focus of her mothers attention, breaking up
the potentially life-giving relationship (Bieber Lake 58). Through this action, Beloved serves to
demonstrate slaverys to force people to concentrate only on the pain that it creates. She also
causes Denver to feel unwanted and unloved by Sethe toward the end of the novel, as she clouds
all of Sethes thoughts and actions. Her jealous nature toward her mother is symbolic of the fact
that the thoughts of slavery may overtake and overwhelm one entirely. This is further observed in
the deterioration of Sethes health. Beloved becomes more and more powerful, drawing from the
health of both Denver and Sethe, until Sethe begins to literally starve and shrink. She conquers
124 once again, proving that the memories of slavery are unrelenting and unable to be quenched.
Until Denver and the rest of the community finally drive her out of the house, she tyrannically
takes over the lives within it, causing physical pain where there once was only mental. Through
the cyclical birth and death of Beloved, Morrison illustrates a truly terrifying tale of the true
power slavery holds over all that have ties to it.
Although Denver herself was never a slave, her mothers pain is passed on to her, forcing
her to face similar repercussions. When Beloved asks Denver to tell the story of her birth, she
reveals that as soon as Sethe got close to the river [on her journey to escape slavery] her own
water broke loose to join it (Morrison 98). Denver was born on the Kentucky side of the Ohio
River, an allusion to the fact that she would never truly be free of the effects of slavery. When
she was young, she tried to be a part of the community through receiving an education under
Lady Jones, but she quickly stopped attending once another child, Nelson Lord, asks if it is true
that her mother was a murderer. From then on, she decides to withdraw from society, seeking

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refuge only in the ghost of her dead sister. Such occurrences are examples of slaverys traces of
trial and heartache that linger on the lives of anyone it can touch.
However, through Denvers story, Morrison reveals a glimmer of hope for those affected
by slavery. While she once worshipped Beloved, once she begins to take a toll on her mothers
health, causing the flesh between [Sethes] forefinger and thumb [to] fade (Morrison 285) and
to spit up something she had not eaten (Morrison 286), Denver knows that she must overcome
her fears of the judgement and exclusivity of the community in order to save her mother. Sheldon
George, in his article Approaching the Thing of Slavery: A Lacanian Analysis of Toni
Morrisons Beloved, theorizes that Denver comes to realize that her own well-being is tied to
the preservation of this woman in whose tracks she follows, allowing the reader to see the
danger of the route Sethe takes (126). Her mothers deterioration is what gives Denver the
strength to finally leave 124 on her own, for she knows that without outside help, her mother will
waste away into nothingness. She triumphs over her inhibitions and goes into the community to
ask for help. The women of the community go to 124 and exorcise Beloved out of the house,
allowing for peace to return into Denver and Sethes lives. Not only that, but through her
courage, Denver obtained reading lessons and a job, a demonstration of the fact that overcoming
hardship sometimes allows for victories not only in the issue at hand, but in other factors were
once binding. Through Denvers journey, Morrison implies both that slavery still effects those
who have never been enslaved and that such effects may be conquered through intense grit and
bravery.
Toni Morrison illustrates a truly terrifying tale through the lives of Sethe, Beloved, and
Denver through her novel Beloved, one of torrential pain and heartache. Through Sethe, she
demonstrates that a slave may never truly forget or overcome the pain that slavery holds on her

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life. Through Beloved, she illustrates that such a pain may drive away all love and safety from
both former slaves and their loved ones. Through Denver, she asserts that one must use the
utmost courage to have any hope of saving herself and those who surround her from a depressing
downfall. Overall, Beloved serves to warn those who have any effect of slavery in their lives to
be stronger than the pain and to use that pain to rescue themselves from a dark future, while also
allowing for those who are not tied to slavery to become aware of the truly terrible effects that it
still has in America today.

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Works Cited
Bieber Lake, Christina. The Demonic in the Service of the Divine: Toni Morrisons Beloved.
South Atlantic Review, vol. 69, no. 3/4, 2004,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20064609.pdf. Accessed 18 November 2016.
George, Sheldon. Approaching the Thing of Slavery: A Lacanian Analysis of Toni Morrisons
Beloved. African American Review, vol. 45, no. 1/2, 2012,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23783440.pdf. Accessed 17 November 2016.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Vintage Books, 2004.
Parker Rhodes, Jewell. Toni Morrisons Beloved: Ironies of a Sweet Home Utopia in a
Dystopian Slave Society. Utopian Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 1990,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20718960.pdf. Accessed 16 November 2016.
Schapiro, Barbara. The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrisons
Beloved. Contemporary Literature, vol. 32, no. 2, 1991,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1208361.pdf. Accessed 18 November 2016.