About the book “Beloved” by Toni Morrison

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Summary about the book
The book “Beloved” by Toni Morrison is divided into three main sections each of which
describes the house or the location of the main character in that particular section. The
book helps the reader understand the lives of the different people and how they have
been tough and brutal because of slavery.

The first section of the book “124 was Pitiful” talks about the first house, and
respectively the first character, who lives in 124 Blue stone road, which is apparently
haunted by a ghost. This ghost is the ghost of a baby that has been murdered. The
people who live in that house are Sethe and her daughter Denver. Sethe was a former
slave. Sethe had two sons that have been driven away by the ghost. Sethe’s mother in
law , Baby Snuggs, died. (Cathy Lowne, 2018)

The action in this section all begins when Paul D arrives. Paul D tries to move the ghost
out and then moves into the house. After getting used to the arrangement, a woman
arrives at the same road of the house and seems weird and disturbing. Her name was
beloved. The family then allowed beloved to move into the house with them and take
care of her until she became in a better mind state. However, Beloved keeps asking
questions that bring up the disturbing past. By answering Beloved’s questions. Sethe
encloses different details that are only know by Sethe from the past. The answers
accordingly make Denver believe that Beloved is her dead sister’s ghost. Paul D on the
other hand felt controlled by Beloved’s presence. Paul D accordingly decides to move
out to the cold house. There Beloved unlocks memories of Paul D’s past when she
courses him for Sex.

It was then discovered that School Teacher tried to get Sethe and her children out of the
house. Sethe accordingly tries to kills her children where she ends up wounding her
sons, and slitting the throat of her baby daughter. Denver was hurt. Paul D knew about
the murder from the newspaper, where Sethe confirms that she killed her baby out of
love , where she was see as an animal in Paul’s eyes. ( Shmoop, 2008)
The second part of the book, “124 was loud” describes how Stan feels he is to blaim
about what happened between Paul D and Sethe. Stan then goes to the house on 124
to fix things. He then hears strange sounds from the house, and leaves. Stan however
returned more than once, but was never able to knock on the door, until his final attempt
where he sees Beloved. (Cathy Lowne, 2018)

In this section of the book, it seems that Sethe has coped with living in the house and is
no longer bothered about the stories in the past. Beloved then informs Sethe that “She
comes from the other side” or in other words the other word. It was then understood by
Sethe that Beloved was her dead baby’s ghost. Sethe explained to Beloved that she
killed her out of love. In parallel, Paul D sits in front of the church trying to understand
what went wrong. Stan then finds Paul D and apologizes.

Part three on the other hand, “124 was quite”, talks about how Sethe no longer works at
the restaurant she worked in before and how the family began to starve as they spent
all their savings on ribbons and clothes that beloved felt delighted by. Denver was no
longer cared for and Sethe’s attention all went to beloved. Denver felt fed up and
decides to leave to find work.

After knowing that Beloved has returned, the neighbors kept sending them food near
the door step. Then 30 women from the community go to 124 to chase the ghost away.
The house was also approached by Denver’s boss. Sethe then thinks he is the school
teacher by mistake and goes to attack him by an ice pick. Denver and the women then
stop Sethe, where she then discovers that Beloved has disappeared. Sethe in return
lays down to die. (Cathy Lowne, 2018)

After the climax, in the falling out of the story, Denver works and begins to think of
college and Paul D returns to Sethe to plan their future. As a resolution, the community
and the family in 124 are no longer under the control of Beloved and begin to move
forward.( Shmoop, 2008)

A few of the themes that are reflected in this book include:

  Slavery’s destruction of Identity, where the character’s past especially Paul D
and Sethe reflects on the way the live and they behave.

 The Importance of Community Solidarity, where the book shows how important it
is for the community to support everyone who is in need in order for them to
survive, just like when the 30 women and Denver’s boss came to the house
when they heard about the presence of Beloved.
 The Powers and Limits of Language

Slavery
Slavery is a very harsh and horrible way to live, and living in chains and without freedom
is not living as a human should. The African Americans among the different humans
have been degraded by slavery where they were treated as animals. The African
Americans were not treated with any respect, or even proper care. Even the modern
day criminals, those that have murdered large numbers of people are treated more
humanly then the average slaves ever were.

In the book the impact of slavery was shown in the first part, where Sethe had to hurt
and even kill her children to survive. Beloved lends a gateway to understanding the
trials and tribulations of the modern African American.  The book basically revolves
around explaining to the readers how the African Americans were treated and the
impact of slavery on them, where the book as a whole shows to what lengths African
Americans were willing to go to avoid enslavement of themselves or their children.

One of the main themes of this book is “Slavery’ Destruction of Identity” were the book
explores the physical, emotional, and spiritual devastation wrought by slavery, and how
the impact of slavery has affected them in the future and in the way they live. One of the
worst impacts that the books display about the impact of slavery is self alienation such
as that shown by Paul D. This impact of Slavery is carried with each person from their
past and should be removed from the people’s lives. (Spark Notes,2002)
The Situation of Women at the time

For Morrison's women, sexuality is the reward and burden of their gender. She
describes Paul D's effect on females this way: "Strong women and wise saw him and
told him things they only told each other: that way past the Change of Life, desire in
them had suddenly become enormous, greedy, more savage than when they were
fifteen, and that it embarrassed them and made them sad; that secretly they longed to
die — to be quit of it — that sleep was more precious to them than any waking day."

For Morrison's post-slave era women, menopause is the resurgence of desire, a fleshly
encumbrance that precedes death, a well-deserved respite from indiscriminate
breeding, unsatisfactory mates, and children sold before mothers could return home to
wave goodbye. For women, the suffering of procreation is compounded by seeing
offspring forced into the slave milieu and by knowing that children will have no choice
but to go on producing more of their kind to stock the limitless slave rolls that power the
plantation system. (Spark Notes, 2002)

Another situation in the book that displays the strength of the women, and how they
represent a strong part of the community was when 30 women gathered together and
went to 124 road when the heard about the presence of Beloved and the impact that
she had on Sethe.

References
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Beloved.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Beloved." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008.

Cathy Lowne Beloved Encyclopædia Britannica October 29, 2018.