Beloved

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Toni Morrison's Beloved is set in rural Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1873. The novel is centered on a woman named Sethe, who is the mother of four children, and an escapee from slavery in a Kentucky plantation 18 years ago. She lives with her daughter, Denver in a shabby house at 124 Bluestone, that they share with the ghost of a dead baby, which haunts Sethe by reminding her of past tragedies. Paul D, Sethe's new lover and a former Kentucky slave man whom Sethe takes in, helps shed light in Sethe's sad life. Also arriving at the doorstep is a mysterious, ill young woman who calls herself Beloved. Gradually, Beloved penetrates the lives of all who live in the haunted house, forcing Sethe to confront her nightmarish memories. Morrison's compelling scene in chapter 27 of when the thirty community women congregate in front of 124 Bluestone to battle the ghost haunting the house, is carefully constructed to contribute to the theme of healing and structure of the work.
As Denver is awaiting transportation for her first day on the job as Bodwin's evening nurse, thirty neighborhood women pray and sing at the edge of the yard after hearing speculations from that the ghost of Sethe's dead daughter is causing the family to deteriorate. Sethe and Beloved intrigued by the music move to the porch. "Sethe was breaking a lump of ice into chunks.When the music entered the window she was wringing a cool cloth to put on Beloved's forehead.Sethe and she exchanged glances and started toward the window" (Morrison 261). As the Bodwin approaches in a cart with his horses to pick up Denver, Sethe is triggered by a flashback of when the schoolteacher and the slave catcher came to get her children 18 years ago. Racing towards the cart, Sethe releases the hand of Beloved and runs toward to crowd using the ice pick as an attachment of her hand to protect her Beloved. "He is coming into her yard and he is coming for her best thing..And if she thinks anything, it is no" (Morrison 262). The thirty community women whom Sethe was running toward stop her and Beloved neglected on the porch by herself disappears. "Sethe is running away from her, running, and she feels the emptiness in the hand Sethe has been holding. Now she is running into the faces of the people out there, joining them and leaving Beloved behind.

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