20th Century Writing Is Often Characterised by The Quest For Identity. To What Extent Is This True of Beloved? by Ellie Rialas

20th Century writing is often characterised by the quest for identity.
To what extent is
this true of Beloved? (1000 words)
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, the reader sees characters such as Sethe, Paul D, Beloved and
Denver in an exasperating “quest for identity.” Morrison explores each of these characters
uncertainties about their own identities and how each finds or fails to find an identity for
themselves in the story of Beloved.
The “quest for identity” is not only seen as a pattern in each of Morrison’s characters in
Beloved, but also in herself as a black female writer of the 1980’s trying to get into the
literary canon. Toni Morrison struggled to get into the literary canon so she had the personal
battle of seeking an identity for herself in the literary canon as a black female writer in a
predominantly white male literary world. Although she struggled, Phiri argues that Morrison
“not only secured her a place in, but permanently shifted the face of, the American literary
canon.1” Morrison was rewarded in her novel by being the first African American woman to
receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. In an interview, Morrison once said that she wanted to
start and help create a canon of purely black works seeing as black writers often had to
pander to a white audience. In her claim for identity, Morrison once said that she “insisted! –
upon being called a black woman novelist,2” and this was something she could finally do
through the voices of Beloved. This wasn’t easy though, as she said that her “enthusiasm,
shared by some, was muted by others,3” mostly white authors and critics. Whites as well as
blacks also had a change in identity. Morrison writes in Beloved through the voice of Stamp
Paid says that they “changed and altered...made...bloody, silly, worse than they ever wanted
to be.4” From this it’s clear that slavery also affected the collective identity of Americans and
so Morrison as well as claiming an identity for herself looked to heal the identity of the
nation, helping her in her battle to be included in the American literary canon.
Paul D wants to put “his story next to [Sethe’s]5” claiming an identity for himself however
Sethe also struggles to find an identity for herself, not only as a woman outside of slavery,
but also as a mother who has murdered her child. In the same way that Morrison “claimed6”
her identity, Paul D also looks to attach or claim Sethe’s identity by putting “his story” next
to hers. As for the character of Sethe, this proves to be difficult as being an African American
woman in America at this time was a struggle in itself. This again is reflective of Morrison’s
own struggles with claiming an identity within the American Literary canon. Piotrowska
writes that the story of Beloved “is an attempt to portray the various paths that Beloved’s
1
Aretha M M Phiri, Toni Morrison and the Literary Canon: Blackness, Whiteness, and the Construction of Racial
Identity (Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in English
Literature at Rhodes University, 2009) Pg. 10
2
Quoted from the archives of “The Boston Globe,” Gail Caldwell, “Morrison Awarded Nobel Writer’s ‘Visionary
Force’,”
3
Toni Morrison, Beloved (Vintage, 2005, first published by Chatto & Windus Great Britain, 1987) Pg. 234
4
Toni Morrison , Beloved (Vintage, 2005) Taken from the foreword, pg. X
5
6
Quoted from the archives of “The Boston Globe,” Gail Caldwell, “Morrison Awarded Nobel Writer’s ‘Visionary
Force’,”
protagonist take while searching for their true identity.7” It is true that Sethe needs to take
these various paths, one being setting up a life with Paul D and claiming family identity,
raising Denver by herself with or without Paul, claiming an identity as a mother and getting
over her past and memories of the past in order to move on with her life and allow Paul D to
“put his story next to hers8” and regaining her identity as a woman, free slave and mother.
Sethe’s “cherrychoke tree9” scar serves as a permanent reminder that no matter what, there
will always be a part of her identity that can’t be regained, but rather can slowly grow back
like the “tree10” that represents it. However she still seeks to find an identity outside of
slavery and as a mother. Her identity was taken as a mother and even her love for her
children couldn’t regain that. Schoolteacher’s nephews as seen in chapter 1.1 physically and
violently take Sethe’s breast milk, they “stole her milk” and so stole her identity as a mother
leaving unable to care for her child. Morrison writes that all Sethe knew was that she “had to
get [her] milk to [her] baby girl.11” This quote shows that although she had been stripped of
her identity in feeling like a mother, she still had the instinct (as an animal would) to get the
milk to her child, but what Sethe wants to do is claim back her identity in feeling like a
loving, caring, mother. Morrison writes in the forward that she thought about “what “free”
could possibly mean to women12” and how “being their parent was as out of the question as
freedom.13” Morrison through Beloved, was able to relate the struggle that Sethe went
through in this area reflecting the same struggles that black mothers had to go through at that
time and having that identity as a mother was virtually impossible.
During slavery, slaves were stripped of their identity both physically and mentally making it
difficult for them to find an identity outside of slavery once they were “free14”. The
destruction of identity for slaves was prominent during this period of time in ways that left
the slaves lost and unsure of whom they were. Slaves were to be iron branded and given a
new name by their slave owners marking then as possessions to the white people. “There had
been six of them who belonged on the farm.15” This quote and the use of the word ‘belonged’
highlights the fact that they were property and merchandise. They were told that they were
subhuman possessions of white slave-owners and their value would be expressed in dollars.
This took away their identity as a human and they became as objects when they were stripped
of the one thing that gave them the smallest bit of identity; their name. At ‘Sweet Home’ the
men were all given the name Paul, making one just the same as the other, taking away their
7
Jagoda Piotrowska, The Formation of Personal and Communal Identity in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, (College of
Foreign Languages in Poznan, Department of English Language, Dissertation written under the direction of Dr.
Monika Hagarty, Poznan, 2005) Pg. 3
8
9
10
11
12
Toni Morrison, Beloved (Vintage, 2005, first published by Chatto & Windus Great Britain, 1987) Taken from
the Forward pg. X
13
the Forward pg. XI
14
the Forward pg. X
15
individuality. Freeman points out in her book that the thoughts behind the act of naming was
“the power to name rather than be named,16” this puts emphasis on the fact that once a slave
was given a name, that was their name and they were property of the slave-owner. Freeman
then goes on to say, “...the ability to give meaning to scars rather than merely bare them. 17”
This links back to Sethe’s cherrychoke tree scar and how Amy Denver gave that a meaning, a
hopeful meaning rather than just acknowledging the scar as a remnant from a traumatic past.
This was something that happened to many slaves, but most found it difficult to extract this
kind of hope out of something so negative and that’s the kind of hope for an identity
Morrison gives her characters in Beloved. Morrison’s portrays the characters attitudes to their
real identities in the novel as precious and protective. When Sethe meets Amy Morrison
writes, “No point in giving out her real name to the first person she saw...’Lu’...18” This
shows the reader that they were careful with their identity as the next person they meet could
be the one to take it away again. Paul D is also an example and representative of slaves that
were stripped of their identity. We read that in the prison, Paul D and others around him are
sexually abused by the white men. This strips them of their identity of a man, something they
would have had left in them to be proud of. This coupled with the trauma of the ‘iron bit19’
forcing them silent both physically and metaphorically in terms of the wider theme of slavery
in the book, drives Paul D to the point of not knowing whether or not a scream is his own or
someone else’s. Paul D wonders if he can call himself a real “man20” which leads to the
manifestation of his “tobacco tin21” as a replacement of his literal heart where he can lock up
his emotions in the hope that he will never have to deal with them again. The way Morrison
shows how each of the slaves deals with their past problems and trauma’s highlights how
damaged slaves must have been and what a negative impact it had on any kind of identity as a
human being.
Morrison strived to give the character of Beloved an identity by creating a manifestation of

her, her reasoning being that she wanted Beloved to have a voice because she was “the one
who lost everything and had no say in any of it.22” By giving Beloved this identity, Beloved
allowed her to give an identity to the “Sixty Million and more23” who’s story had not initially
been “pass[ed] on.24” With that being the ultimate “quest for identity”, Morrison has fit into
the category of 20th century writing that is characterises by the quest for identity.
[1476 words]
16
Barbara Claire Freeman, The Feminine Sublime: Gender and Excess in Women’s Fiction ( The Regents of the
University of California, 1995) Pg. 134
17
Barbara Claire Freeman, The Feminine Sublime: Gender and Excess in Women’s Fiction ( The Regents of the
University of California, 1995) Pg. 134
18
19
20
21
22
the Forward pg. XII
23
the dedication
24

20th Century Writing Is Often Characterised by The Quest For Identity. To What Extent Is This True of Beloved? by Ellie Rialas

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20th Century writing is often characterised by the quest for identity.

Morrison strived to give the character of Beloved an identity by creating a manifestation of

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