Isolationism In Beloved

Beloved by Toni Morrison, centers on the life of a family who are literally living with the ghosts of their past. The protagonist, Sethe, escaped a life of slavery in hopes of securing a better life for herself and her children. When her plan turned sour she made a fatal decision that would cause her family to fall apart and live in isolation. The format of the book prevents any separation between past and present. Written in a series of flashbacks, Beloved weaves together the decisions of the past with the ramifications they have on the present. Beloved’s most prevalent theme demonstrates the struggles individuals have with their history, and how one must face their demons in order to move forward with their life. According to Sigmund Freud,

Since education was believed to empower and strengthen individuals, slaves were prohibited from learning any form of reading and writing. Therefore, storytelling became the textbooks of their people, passing on history, moral values and spiritual beliefs. The house at 124 was no different. Denver’s knowledge of her family primarily came from stories from her mother and grandmother. Her father, Halle, was kept alive to her through the stories by Baby Suggs. In a way, Denver knew her father personally even though she never got to meet him. Denver was able to formulate the type of man Halle was through the small anecdotes given to her by her grandmother. The tale of Denver’s birth was a very “Lorelai and Rory Gilmore” experience shared from mother to daughter, and a gift Denver held close to her heart at all times. However, in order to remember the bright and joyful memories of their past, the characters realized that the painful images “comes back whether we want it to or not.” On the other hand, the rebirth of Beloved “was not a story to pass on” and therefore the memory of her was forgotten. To the townspeople Beloved had died at the hands of her mother and never

In reference to the most climactic incident of the book, the murder of Beloved by Sethe, every character took away something different. Sethe who believed she acted in a merciful way felt a rush of relief when realizing that Beloved was her “already crawling? Baby”, thinking Beloved was there to forgive her. After seeing the abandonment Beloved felt, Sethe used every waking second to prove her love. The dismantling of this event caused Sethe to become engulfed in a world of grief and inadequacy. In the midst of Sethe’s decline, Denver saw the unhealthy and useless attempts individuals make to fix their past, spurring her into