Summary Of Toni Morrison's Beloved

Beloved is written in such a way that the narrator, time, and place change throughout the story. Though it can leave the reader questioning exactly what is going on, and even who is narrating at times, this enhances the way in which the story is told. It invites the reader into what is occurring and what has occurred in the characters’ past rather than simply being told. These changes, particularly those in time, demonstrate the strength of their affect, the adjustment in interpretation, and how they occupy real time. Sethe is brought back to her experiences at Sweet Home often throughout the novel. Rather than Morrison simply spelling out that Sethe is thinking back to that time or another common method for writers to explain how their characters …show more content…
It is up to the reader to determine which character is speaking, which can be confusing, but clues are provided to aid the reader in deciphering it. Beloved’s point of view is presented twice: the first being highly poetic and abstract and the second a little more structured. These memories for Beloved occurred when she was a young child. She tells them in such a way that forced the reader to face that. Rhodes says, “Memory is a disorienting, disjointed function which Morrison captures through the complex layering and interweaving of her narrative structure.” This is seen with Beloved’s narration. It is disorienting and seemingly changes time and location, even when it becomes clearer the second time around. Beloved tells her childhood memories first, describing them in the best, though unstructured manner, she has as a child and then again as if describing them through her adult mind. There are parts that seem almost dreamlike in description and vagueness, but it is easier to decipher in its form. The reader in a small way experiences the fear and confusion along with Beloved, greater understanding where her pain and even perhaps why she acts the way she does and much of this is due to these style