The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison is a very honest and thought-provoking novel that gives the reader a deeper insight to the horrors and aftermath of slavery that other novels fail to mention or reveal. Beloved is a story told between two time periods. The first being while the protagonist, Sethe is attempting to escape slavery and the second being about twenty years later, after she is free and has established her new life and family. The novel also switches focus and point of views between many secondary character including Baby Suggs who is Sethe’s mother in law, Denver who is Sethe’s youngest daughter, Paul D who is Sethe’s most recent love interest, and Beloved who is thought to be the resurrection of Sethe’s eldest daughter who died
…show more content…
Although Denver is 18, she doesn’t have much experience with other people aside from her mother. When Denver leaves the house to seek help towards the end of the novel, it is her first time doing so in roughly 12 years. Because she has no friends due to her mother’s and her own gruesome history, when Beloved shows up at 124, Denver immediately feels an attachment to her and begins to lose herself to Beloved. The longer Beloved is at 124, the more obsessed and attached Denver becomes to her and even feels jealousy and anger when she turns her attention to someone else. When Beloved focuses on Denver, she feels as if her “skin dissolved under that gaze and became soft and bright...she floated near but outside her own body, feeling vague and intense at the same time” (139). Denver’s feelings for and near Beloved show that she is letting her sense of identity and humanity go, like many other characters in the novel. Denver is so hungry for Beloved’s attention that she allows her obsession and infatuation to consume her, consuming her identity as well. The excerpt also describes Denver feeling dehumanized, all because Beloved looks at her. Denver feels a detachment from her body and feels as though her skin is dissolving, showing that she too, is being …show more content…
Slavery has a detrimental affect on those involved, both directly and indirectly. Slavery strips individuals of their humanity and their sense of identity, which they fight to regain for the rest of their lives. Paul D., Sethe, and Denver all struggle with this. At one point, Paul D. cannot even control and understand his own mind and body, Sethe convinces herself that she is justified in murdering her children and does so in an animalistic manner, and Denver becomes so obsessed with a girl who appears out of thin air that she begins to feel as if she is an extension of the girl and that she can live solely on her attention. Slavery tears apart families, relationships, and individuals and no human involved is left untouched by it’s wicked talons. Beloved clearly illustrates this point and shows that the history and personal accounts of it must never be forget or suppressed, not matter how ugly the truth
Although Denver is 18, she doesn’t have much experience with other people aside from her mother. When Denver leaves the house to seek help towards the end of the novel, it is her first time doing so in roughly 12 years. Because she has no friends due to her mother’s and her own gruesome history, when Beloved shows up at 124, Denver immediately feels an attachment to her and begins to lose herself to Beloved. The longer Beloved is at 124, the more obsessed and attached Denver becomes to her and even feels jealousy and anger when she turns her attention to someone else. When Beloved focuses on Denver, she feels as if her “skin dissolved under that gaze and became soft and bright...she floated near but outside her own body, feeling vague and intense at the same time” (139). Denver’s feelings for and near Beloved show that she is letting her sense of identity and humanity go, like many other characters in the novel. Denver is so hungry for Beloved’s attention that she allows her obsession and infatuation to consume her, consuming her identity as well. The excerpt also describes Denver feeling dehumanized, all because Beloved looks at her. Denver feels a detachment from her body and feels as though her skin is dissolving, showing that she too, is being …show more content…
Slavery has a detrimental affect on those involved, both directly and indirectly. Slavery strips individuals of their humanity and their sense of identity, which they fight to regain for the rest of their lives. Paul D., Sethe, and Denver all struggle with this. At one point, Paul D. cannot even control and understand his own mind and body, Sethe convinces herself that she is justified in murdering her children and does so in an animalistic manner, and Denver becomes so obsessed with a girl who appears out of thin air that she begins to feel as if she is an extension of the girl and that she can live solely on her attention. Slavery tears apart families, relationships, and individuals and no human involved is left untouched by it’s wicked talons. Beloved clearly illustrates this point and shows that the history and personal accounts of it must never be forget or suppressed, not matter how ugly the truth