Well, I actually made it through the whole book, though I'll admit to having to look up criticism & reviews to figure out some of what she was trying to say and skimming some things like the section where the baby's memories are presented. (I've included some weblinks below which were extremely helpful.) At the center of the book lies Sethe's guilt over murdering her two year old girl, rather than allowing her to return to slavery (this is apparently based on a true story). The child's ghost, Beloved--so named because that was all Sethe could get put on her tombstone, has returned to 124 Bluestone Road as an 18 year old woman to haunt her mother. The book details Sethe's efforts to come to terms with her grief and guilt and quiet the turbulent ghost. Beloved is apparently also supposed to be a symbol for Slavery in general.
Sethe must come to terms not just with her action, but with the fact of
Slavery as a whole.
One initial fact is very troublesome. If slavery is so awful why didn't
Sethe kill herself, instead of just killing the baby? One thinks of the
Jews at Massada. When the Romans finally took the fortress they found that
all of the defenders--men, women and children--had killed themselves, rather
than
I suppose it's significant that the character who most forcefully argues
that the murder was wrong is Paul D--the male character. The essence of
Morrison's writing is supposed to be that black women have had to face
a double burden, first as blacks then as women. As a white male I'll admit
that I don't
There are a number of other books that deal with the theme of responsibilty
for the death of a child--Sophie's Choice (see Orrin's
review), Fearless (Rafael Yglesias) and Ironweed (see
Orrin's
review). Sophie was interred at Auschwitz and was allowed to
save either her son or her daughter from death. Her guilt over having to
make this choice leads her into a masochistic relationship with a
As to Morrison's style, I suppose that she is trying to render her tale in a sort of afro-mystic manner. I found it merely annoying. RESPONSE (from Amy Reilly): One of the themes in Beloved, I thought, was not only the mother's guilt
Was Sethe nuts? That's one thing we talked about. Probably. Guilt made
her
We also talked about whether or not Beloved was real. Was she a real
ghost?
I didn't get the weirdo pages of Beloved's inner dialogue. When I read
I for one have no interest in seeing the movie. Can't imagine Oprah
as
(Reviewed:) Grade: (F) Tweet Websites:See also:Toni Morrison (2 books reviewed)African American Literature Women Authors Amazon.com Top 100 Books of the Millenium Feminista 100 Greatest Works of 20th Century Fiction by Women Writers Library Journal: Top 150 of the Century Nobel Prize Winners Pulitzer Prize (Fiction) The Hungry Mind Review's 100 Best 20th Century Books Vintage Books List of the Best Reading Group Books Westchester Women's Book Club -WIKIPEDIA: Toni Morrison - -INTERVIEW: Toni Morrison on Craft, Inspiration, and the Time She Met Obama: Sarah Ladipo Manyika Talks to an American Literary Icon (Sarah Ladipo Manyika, February 2, 2023, LitHub) -REVIEW ESSAY: The Genius of Toni Morrison’s Only Short Story: In the extraordinary “Recitatif,” Morrison withholds crucial details of racial identity, making the reader the subject of her experiment. (Zadie Smith, January 23, 2022, The new Yorker) -ESSAY: Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” Showed Me How Race and Gender Are Intertwined (KORITHA MITCHELL, 11/10/20, Electric Lit) Book-related and General Links: -Nobel Prize -BIO: (Encyclopaedia Britannica) -Anniinna's Toni Morrison Page -General Notes on Toni Morrison's Beloved -Toni Morrison References on the Internet -Web Page of Toni Morrison's Beloved -Writing and Resistance>> Authors>> Toni Morrison -Authors Online: Toni Morrison (Book Spot) -ESSAY: Controlling the Images of Black Womanhood: The Contemporary African-American Women's Novel (E. Lâle Demirtürk, Journal of American Studies of Turkey) -ESSAY : Transforming the Chain into Story: The Making of Communal Meaning in Toni Morrison's Beloved (Claire Cowan-Barbetti, Janus Head) -REVIEW: of Paradise (YVONNE CRITTENDEN -- Toronto Sun) -REVIEW: of Paradise (DIANE MENZIES -- Edmonton Sun) -REVIEW: BLACK MADONNA: Toni Morrison's popularity is less a matter of literary taste than of mass psychology (David Klinghoffer, National Review) |
Copyright 1998-2015 Orrin Judd