Kevin Bales once explained, “Slavery is theft -- theft of a life, theft of work, theft of any property or produce, theft even of the children a slave might have borne” (Notable Quotes). This particular theme is one of the main points in Toni Morrison’s novel: Beloved. Toni Morrison has won several awards for her work, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature. Beloved was Morrison’s fifth novel and was written around the same time she left her job (Morrison XVII). The novel is set in Cincinnati, Ohio in the home of an ex-slave Sethe and her daughter Denver. The book details life for ex-slaves including characters such as Baby Suggs, Sethe and Paul D after their escape from a plantation called Sweet Home and the hardship
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She represents the toll that slavery has taken on many of the characters over the years. The first reason being that Beloved tells Denver she came from a dark place. She describes the dark place as an area filled with bodies. This could be compared to one the boats designed to bring slaves to America. Beloved states to Denver “I wait; then I got on the bridge. I stay there in the dark, in the daytime, in the dark, in the daytime. It was a long time” (88). Secondly, Beloved both physically and mentally drains Sethe’s energy, the way her memories from being a slave did. Towards the end of the novel, Sethe gives her food portions to Beloved and even skips work for her. She dedicates her life to Beloved. While Beloved is gaining weight Sethe is rapidly losing it. Sethe’s inability to stand up and do something for herself and rather doing everything for Beloved represent how Sethe is unable to face the struggles slavery have caused. Sethe’s memories and scars are consuming her, and Beloved is a human representation of it. Third, Beloved’s desire to engage sexually with Paul D show the temptations Paul D has faced and will continue to face since escaping slavery. Paul D is known to have had several children whom he doesn’t know, all with different women. This showing that Beloved conveys a certain message that since escaping slavery, Paul D is unable to commit to a relationship because of his
She represents the toll that slavery has taken on many of the characters over the years. The first reason being that Beloved tells Denver she came from a dark place. She describes the dark place as an area filled with bodies. This could be compared to one the boats designed to bring slaves to America. Beloved states to Denver “I wait; then I got on the bridge. I stay there in the dark, in the daytime, in the dark, in the daytime. It was a long time” (88). Secondly, Beloved both physically and mentally drains Sethe’s energy, the way her memories from being a slave did. Towards the end of the novel, Sethe gives her food portions to Beloved and even skips work for her. She dedicates her life to Beloved. While Beloved is gaining weight Sethe is rapidly losing it. Sethe’s inability to stand up and do something for herself and rather doing everything for Beloved represent how Sethe is unable to face the struggles slavery have caused. Sethe’s memories and scars are consuming her, and Beloved is a human representation of it. Third, Beloved’s desire to engage sexually with Paul D show the temptations Paul D has faced and will continue to face since escaping slavery. Paul D is known to have had several children whom he doesn’t know, all with different women. This showing that Beloved conveys a certain message that since escaping slavery, Paul D is unable to commit to a relationship because of his