How Does Amy Morrison Use Water In Beloved

Symbolism In Tony Morrison’s Beloved, symbolism within water and color represents the prolonging connection between African Americans and slavery. Mainly within the life of Sethe and her children, the connection between freedom and servitude is signified by water and its natural properties as a boundary. The hope for freedom is captured throughout the novel as forms of color. Color plays an important role as it shows the emotion that united all slaves: hope. Specifically, the hope for freedom. Flowing and ever moving, water is a natural and needed connection allowing peoples to be joined or separated both physically and emotionally. Morrison uses water because of its previous connections with slavery, such as the Middle Passage and the Ohio …show more content…
The white slave smugglers are shown through Amy, the slaves through Sethe, and the Middle Passage through the river. Irony in this situation is the white figure, Amy transporting the slave Sethe, from servitude into freedom; opposite of the Middle Passage. Rape was common on the Middle Passage which parallels the birth of Denver in the Canoe. Morrison chooses to use the symbolism of Sethe’s voyage to indicate the irony within the situation and to highlight but also criticize the past voyages of slaves. Water undoubtedly embodies the boundary between freedom and slavery, but Morrison also uses water to show elements of certain …show more content…
Paul D was told to look for color to find freedom and as Baby Suggs lost her freedom and hope, she slowly lost color which she had so desperately craved. This desire for color is naturally occurring as bright colors are associated with happiness and life while dull colors are given to death, oppression, and depression. This search for color and in turn freedom, is engrained into the characters of Beloved, African Americans, and humans in general. Morrison focuses much of the novel on colors because of what it represents,