Beloved is a novel by the American writer Toni Morrison. Set after the American Civil War (1861–1865), it is inspired by the story of an African-American slave, Margaret Garner, who temporar…Full description
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A Project on
Beloved – Toni Morrison
Submitted to-
Submitted by –
Mrs. Alka Mehta
Rupali Vinod Ramteke
Faculty of n!lish
Section "#$ Semester – %%
n!lish Project Submitted on& '(-')-*'+,
Hidayatullah National Law University, University, Uparwara Region, New Raipur
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Declaration
% Rupali Ramteke hereby declare that the project ork entitled /0elo1ed – 2oni Morrison3 submitted to 4.5.6.7 Raipur is record of an ori!inal ork done by me under the able !uidance of Mrs. Alka Mehta Faculty Member 4.5.6.7. Raipur.
Rupali Vinod Ramteke Roll 5o. +89 '(:'):*'+,
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Acnowledge!ent
2hanks to the Almi!hty ho !a1e me the stren!th to accomplish the project ith sheer hard ork and honesty. 2his research 1enture has been made possible due to the !enerous cooperation of 1arious persons. 2o list them all is not practicable e1en to repay them in ords is beyond the domain of my le;icon. May % obser1e the protocol to sho my deep !ratitude to the 1enerated faculty-in-char!e Mrs" Ala Mehta for his kind !esture in allottin! me such a onderful and elucidatin!
research topic.
Rupali Vinod Ramteke
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A#stract
Beloved is a +<=( no1el by the American riter 2oni Morrison. Set after the American #i1il
>ar ?+=9+–+=9,@ it is inspired by the story of an African-American sla1e Sethe ho escaped sla1ery durin! +=,9 in entucky by fleein! to Bhio a free state. A posse arri1ed to retrie1e her and her children under the Fu!iti1e Sla1e Act of +=,' hich !a1e sla1e oners the ri!ht to pursue sla1es across state borders. Sethe killed her to-year-old dau!hter rather than allo her to be recaptured and taken back to Seet 4ome the entucky plantation from hich Sethe recently fled. A oman presumed to be her dau!hter called 0elo1ed returns years later to haunt SetheCs home at +*) 0luestone Road #incinnati Bhio. 2he story opens ith an introduction to the !host& D+*) as spiteful. Full of a babyCs 1enom.D 2he no1el on the PulitEer PriEe for Fiction in +<== and as a finalist for the +<=( 5ational 0ook Aard. %t as adapted durin! +<<= into a mo1ie of the same name starrin! Bprah >infrey. A New York Times sur1ey of riters and literary critics ranked it the best ork of American fiction from +<=+ to *''9. 2he bookCs dedication reads DSi;ty Million and moreD dedicated to the Africans and their descendants ho died as a result of theAtlantic sla1e trade. 2he bookCs epi!raph is Romans <&*,.
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Ta#le o$ %ontents
&ages
Declaration Acknowledgements Abstract
+. %ntroduction *. Plot B1er1ie 8. #haracter list ). Major themes ).+ Mother-dau!hter relationship ).* Psycholo!ical impact of sla1ery ,. #ritical reception 9. #onclusion
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“It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.”
-
Gao Xingjian
'ntroduction –
2oni Morrison as born #hloe Anthony >offord in +<8+ and spent the first years of her life in Bhio. She recei1ed an under!raduate de!ree in n!lish from 4oard 7ni1ersity and completed a master$s pro!ram at #ornell. >hen many of her classmates had difficulty pronouncin! her uncommon first name she chan!ed it to 2oni ?a deri1ati1e of her middle name@. %n +<,= she married 4arold Morrison an architect from amaica and the couple had to sons. 2hey di1orced si; years later. After pursuin! an academic career teachin! n!lish at 4oard Morrison became an editor at Random 4ouse here she specialiEed in black fiction. At the same time she be!an buildin! a body of creati1e ork that in +<<8 ould make her the first African-American oman to recei1e the 5obel PriEe for 6iterature. 4er +<(' no1el The Bluest Eye as folloed by Sula in +<() hich secured Morrison a nomination for the 5ational 0ook Aard. %n +<(( Morrison on the 5ational 0ook #ritics #ircle Aard for her book Song o Solomon! 4er other orks include Tar Baby ?+<=+@ "a## ?+<<*@ $aradise ?+<<=@ and of course Belo%ed! 2hat no1el considered by many to be her best on the PulitEer PriEe in +<==. 2oday Morrison is the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the #ouncil of 4umanities at Princeton 7ni1ersity here she conducts under!raduate orkshops in creati1e ritin!.
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Set durin! the Reconstruction era in +=(8 Belo%ed centers on the poers of memory and history. For the former sla1es in the no1el the past is a burden that they desperately and ilfully try to for!et. Het for Sethe the prota!onist of the no1el memories of sla1ery are inescapable. 2hey continue to haunt her literally in the spirit of her deceased dau!hter. i!hteen years earlier Sethe had murdered this dau!hter in order to sa1e her from a life of sla1ery. Morrison borroed the e1ent from the real story of Mar!aret Garner ho like Sethe escaped from sla1ery in entucky and murdered her child hen sla1e catchers cau!ht up ith her in Bhio. Belo%ed straddles the line beteen fiction and historyI from the e;periences of a sin!le family Morrison creates a poerful commentary on the psycholo!ical and historical le!acy of sla1ery.
Part of Morrison$s project in Belo%ed is to recuperate a history that had been lost to the ra1a!es of forced silences and illed for!etfulness. Morrison rites Sethe$s story ith the 1oices of a people ho historically ha1e been denied the poer of lan!ua!e. Belo%ed also contains a didactic element. From Sethe$s e;perience e learn that before a stable future can be created e must confront and understand the /!hosts3 of the past. Morrison su!!ests that like Sethe contemporary American readers must confront the history of sla1ery in order to address its le!acy hich manifests itself in on!oin! racial discrimination and discord.
Morrison once said that she anted to help create a canon of black ork notin! that black riters too often ha1e to pander to a hite audience hen they should be able to concentrate on the business of ritin! instead. Many readers belie1e Morrison$s no1els !o a lon! ay toard the establishment of her en1isioned tradition. 2he poetic ele!ant style of her ritin! in Belo%ed panders to no one. Morrison challen!es and reJuires the reader to accept her on her on terms.
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&lot (verview – Belo%ed be!ins in +=(8 in #incinnati Bhio here Sethe a former sla1e has been li1in! ith her ei!hteen-year-old dau!hter Ken1er. Sethe$s mother-in-la 0aby Su!!s li1ed ith them until her death ei!ht years earlier. ust before 0aby Su!!s$s death Sethe$s to sons 4oard and 0u!lar ran aay. Sethe belie1es they fled because of the male1olent presence of an abusi1e !host that has haunted their house at +*) 0luestone Road for years. Ken1er hoe1er likes the !host hich e1eryone belie1es to be the spirit of her dead sister.
Bn the day the no1el be!ins Paul K hom Sethe has not seen since they orked to!ether on Mr. Garner$s Seet 4ome plantation in entucky appro;imately tenty years earlier stops by Sethe$s house. 4is presence resurrects memories that ha1e lain buried in Sethe$s mind for almost to decades. From this point on the story ill unfold on to temporal planes. 2he present in #incinnati constitutes one plane hile a series of e1ents that took place around tenty years earlier mostly in entucky constitutes the other. 2his latter plane is accessed and described throu!h the fra!mented flashbacks of the major characters. Accordin!ly e freJuently read these flashbacks se1eral times sometimes from 1aryin! perspecti1es ith each successi1e narration of an e1ent addin! a little more information to the pre1ious ones.
From these fra!mented memories the folloin! story be!ins to emer!e& Sethe the prota!onist as born in the South to an African mother she ne1er kne. >hen she is thirteen she is sold to the Garners ho on Seet 4ome and practice a comparati1ely bene1olent kind of sla1ery. 2here the other sla1es ho are all men lust after her but ne1er touch her. 2heir names are Si;o Paul K Paul A Paul F and 4alle. Sethe chooses to marry 4alle apparently in part because he has pro1en !enerous enou!h to buy his mother$s freedom by hirin! himself out on the eekends. 2o!ether Sethe and 4alle ha1e to sons 4oard and 0u!lar as ell as a baby dau!hter hose name e ne1er learn. >hen she lea1es Seet 4ome Sethe is also pre!nant ith a fourth child. After the
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e1entual death of the proprietor Mr. Garner the idoed Mrs. Garner asks her sadistic 1ehemently racist brother-in-la to help her run the farm. 4e is knon to the sla1es as schoolteacher and his oppressi1e presence makes life on the plantation e1en more unbearable than it had been before. 2he sla1es decide to run.
Schoolteacher and his nephes anticipate the sla1es$ escape hoe1er and capture Paul K and Si;o. Schoolteacher kills Si;o and brin!s Paul K back to Seet 4ome here Paul K sees Sethe for hat he belie1es ill be the last time. She is still intent on runnin! ha1in! already sent her children ahead to her mother-in-la 0aby Su!!s$s house in #incinnati. %n1i!orated by the recent capture schoolteacher$s nephes seiEe Sethe in the barn and 1iolate her stealin! the milk her body is storin! for her infant dau!hter. 7nbeknonst to Sethe 4alle is atchin! the e1ent from a loft abo1e her here he lies froEen ith horror. Afterard 4alle !oes mad& Paul K sees him sittin! by a churn ith butter slathered all o1er his face. Paul K meanhile is forced to suffer the indi!nity of earin! an iron bit in his mouth.
>hen schoolteacher finds out that Sethe has reported his and his nephes$ misdeeds to Mrs. Garner he has her hipped se1erely despite the fact that she is pre!nant. Sollen and scarred Sethe ne1ertheless runs aay but alon! the ay she collapses from e;haustion in a forest. A hite !irl Amy Ken1er finds her and nurses her back to health. >hen Amy later helps Sethe deli1er her baby in a boat Sethe names this second dau!hter Ken1er after the !irl ho helped her. Sethe recei1es further help from Stamp Paid ho ros her across the Bhio Ri1er to 0aby Su!!s$s house. 0aby Su!!s cleans Sethe up before alloin! her to see her three older children.
Sethe spends tenty-ei!ht onderful days in #incinnati here 0aby Su!!s ser1es as an unofficial preacher to the black community. Bn the last day hoe1er schoolteacher comes for Sethe to take her and her children back to Seet 4ome. Rather than surrender her children to a life of dehumaniEin! sla1ery she flees ith them to the oodshed and tries to kill them. Bnly the third child her older dau!hter dies her throat ha1in! been cut ith a handsa by Sethe. Sethe later arran!es for the baby$s headstone to be car1ed ith the ord /0elo1ed.3 2he sheriff takes Sethe and Ken1er to jail but a !roup of hite
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abolitionists led by the 0odins fi!hts for her release. Sethe returns to the house at +*) here 0aby Su!!s has sunk into a deep depression. 2he community shuns the house and the family continues to li1e in isolation.
Meanhile Paul K has endured torturous e;periences in a chain !an! in Geor!ia here he as sent after tryin! to kill 0randyine a sla1e oner to hom he as sold by schoolteacher. 4is traumatic e;periences ha1e caused him to lock aay his memories emotions and ability to lo1e in the /tin tobacco bo;3 of his heart. Bne day a fortuitous rainstorm allos Paul K and the other chain !an! members to escape. 4e tra1els northard by folloin! the blossomin! sprin! floers. Hears later he ends up on Sethe$s porch in #incinnati.
Paul K$s arri1al at +*) commences the series of e1ents takin! place in the present time frame. Prior to mo1in! in Paul K chases the house$s resident !host aay hich makes the already lonely Ken1er resent him from the start. Sethe and Paul K look forard to a promisin! future to!ether until one day on their ay home from a carni1al they encounter a stran!e youn! oman sleepin! near the steps of +*). Most of the characters belie1e that the omanLho calls herself 0elo1edLis the embodied spirit of Sethe$s dead dau!hter and the no1el pro1ides a ealth of e1idence supportin! this interpretation. Ken1er de1elops an obsessi1e attachment to 0elo1ed and 0elo1ed$s attachment to Sethe is eJually if not more intense. Paul K and 0elo1ed hate each other and 0elo1ed controls Paul K by mo1in! him around the house like a ra! doll and by seducin! him a!ainst his ill.
>hen Paul K learns the story of Sethe$s /rou!h choice3Lher infanticideLhe lea1es +*) and be!ins sleepin! in the basement of the local church. %n his absence Sethe and 0elo1ed$s relationship becomes more intense and e;clusi1e. 0elo1ed !ros increasin!ly abusi1e manipulati1e and parasitic and Sethe is obsessed ith satisfyin! 0elo1ed$s demands and makin! her understand hy she murdered her. >orried by the ay her mother is astin! aay Ken1er lea1es the premises of +*) for the first time in tel1e years in order to seek help from 6ady ones her former teacher.
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2he community pro1ides the family ith food and e1entually or!aniEes under the leadership of lla a oman ho had orked on the 7nder!round Railroad and helped ith Sethe$s escape in order to e;orcise 0elo1ed from +*). >hen they arri1e at Sethe$s house they see Sethe on the porch ith 0elo1ed ho stands smilin! at them naked and pre!nant. Mr. 0odin ho has come to +*) to take Ken1er to her ne job arri1es at the house. Mistakin! him for schoolteacher Sethe runs at Mr. 0odin ith an ice pick. She is restrained but in the confusion 0elo1ed disappears ne1er to return.
Afterard Paul K comes back to Sethe ho has retreated to 0aby Su!!s$s bed to die. Mournin! 0elo1ed Sethe laments /She as my best thin!.3 0ut Paul K replies /Hou your best thin! Sethe.3 2he no1el then ends ith a arnin! that /tNhis is not a story to pass on.3 2he ton and e1en the residents of +*) ha1e for!otten 0elo1ed /lNike an unpleasant dream durin! a troublin! sleep.3
%haracter list – )ethe - Sethe the prota!onist of Belo%ed& is a proud and independent oman ho is
e;tremely de1oted to her children. 2hou!h she barely kne her on mother Sethe$s motherly instincts are her most strikin! characteristic. 7nillin! to relinJuish her children to the physical emotional se;ual and spiritual trauma she endured as a sla1e at Seet 4ome she attempts to murder them in an act of motherly lo1e and protection. She remains haunted by this and other scarrin! e1ents in her past hich she tries in 1ain to repress.
Denver - Sethe$s youn!est child Ken1er is the most dynamic character in the no1el.
2hou!h intelli!ent introspecti1e and sensiti1e Ken1er has been stunted in her emotional !roth by years of relati1e isolation. 0elo1ed$s increasin! male1olence hoe1er forces Ken1er to o1ercome her fear of the orld beyond +*) and seek help from the community. 4er foray out into the ton and her attempts to find permanent
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ork and possibly attend colle!e mark the be!innin! of her fi!ht for independence and self-possession.
Beloved - 0elo1ed$s identity is mysterious. 2he no1el pro1ides e1idence that she could
be an ordinary oman traumatiEed by years of capti1ity the !host of Sethe$s mother or most con1incin!ly the embodied spirit of Sethe$s murdered dau!hter. Bn an alle!orical le1el 0elo1ed represents the inescapable horrible past of sla1ery returned to haunt the present. 4er presence hich !ros increasin!ly male1olent and parasitic as the no1el pro!resses ultimately ser1es as a catalyst for Sethe$s Paul K$s and Ken1er$s respecti1e processes of emotional !roth.
&aul D - 2he physical and emotional brutality suffered by Paul K at Seet 4ome and as
part of a chain !an! has caused him to bury his feelin!s in the /rusted tobacco tin3 of his heart. 4e represses his painful memories and belie1es that the key to sur1i1al is not becomin! too attached to anythin!. At the same time he seems to incite the openin! up of others$ hearts and omen in particular tend to confide in him. Sethe elcomes him to +*) here he becomes her lo1er and the object of Ken1er$s and 0elo1ed$s jealousy. 2hou!h his union ith Sethe pro1ides him ith stability and allos him to come to terms ith his past Paul K continues to doubt fundamental aspects of his identity such as the source of his manhood and his 1alue as a person. Ba#y )uggs - After 4alle buys his mother 0aby Su!!s her freedom she tra1els to
#incinnati here she becomes a source of emotional and spiritual inspiration for the city$s black residents. She holds reli!ious !atherin!s at a place called the #learin! here she teaches her folloers to lo1e their 1oices bodies and minds. 4oe1er after Sethe$s act of infanticide 0aby Su!!s stops preachin! and retreats to a sickbed to die. 1en so 0aby Su!!s continues to be a source of inspiration lon! after her death& in Part 2hree her memory moti1ates Ken1er to lea1e +*) and find help. %t is partially out of respect for 0aby Su!!s that the community responds to Ken1er$s reJuests for support.
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)ta!p &aid - 6ike 0aby Su!!s Stamp Paid is considered by the community to be a
fi!ure of sal1ation and he is elcomed at e1ery door in ton. An a!ent of the 7nder!round Railroad he helps Sethe to freedom and later sa1es Ken1er$s life. A !ra1e sacrifice he made durin! his ensla1ement has caused him to consider his emotional and moral debts to be paid off for the rest of his life hich is hy he decided to rename himself /Stamp Paid.3 Het by the end of the book he realiEes that he may still oe protection and care to the residents of +*). An!ered by the community$s ne!lect of Sethe Ken1er and Paul K Stamp be!ins to Juestion the nature of a community$s obli!ations to its members. )chool teacher - Folloin! Mr. Garner$s death schoolteacher takes char!e of Seet
4ome. #old sadistic and 1ehemently racist schoolteacher replaces hat he 1ies as Garner$s too-soft approach ith an oppressi1e re!ime of ri!id rules and punishment on the plantation. Schoolteacher$s on habits are e;tremely ascetic& he eats little sleeps less and orks hard. 4is most insidious form of oppression is his /scientific3 scrutiny of the sla1es hich in1ol1es askin! Juestions takin! physical measurements and teachin! lessons to his hite pupils on the sla1es$ /animal characteristics.3 2he loer-case s of schoolteacher$s appellation may ha1e an ironic meanin!& althou!h he enjoys a position of e;treme poer o1er the sla1es they attribute no orth to him. Halle - Sethe$s husband and 0aby Su!!s$s son 4alle is !enerous kind and sincere. 4e
is 1ery much alert to the hypocrisies of the Garners$ /bene1olent3 form of sla1eholdin!. 4alle e1entually !oes mad presumably after itnessin! schoolteacher$s nephes$ 1iolation of Sethe. Lady *ones - 6ady ones a li!ht-skinned black oman ho loathes her blond hair is
con1inced that e1eryone despises her for bein! a oman of mi;ed race. Kespite her feelin!s of alienation she maintains a stron! sense of community obli!ation and teaches the underpri1ile!ed children of #incinnati in her home. She is skeptical of the supernatural dimensions of Ken1er$s plea for assistance but she ne1ertheless helps to or!aniEe the community$s deli1ery of food to Sethe$s pla!ued household.
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+lla - lla orked ith Stamp Paid on the 7nder!round Railroad. 2raumatiEed by the
se;ual brutality of a hite father and son ho once held her capti1e she belie1es like Sethe that the past is best left buried. >hen it surfaces in the form of 0elo1ed lla or!aniEes the omen of the community to e;orcise 0elo1ed from +*). Mr" and Mrs" arner - Mr. and Mrs. Garner are the comparati1ely bene1olent oners
of Seet 4ome. 2he e1ents at Seet 4ome re1eal hoe1er that the idea of bene1olent sla1ery is a contradiction in terms. 2he Garners$ paternalism and condescension are simply atered-don 1ersions of schoolteacher$s 1icious racism. Mr" and Miss Bodwin - Siblin!s Mr. and Miss 0odin are hite abolitionists ho ha1e
played an acti1e role in innin! Sethe$s freedom. Het there is somethin! disconcertin! about the 0odins$ politics. Mr. 0odin lon!s a little too ea!erly for the /heady days3 of abolitionism and Miss 0odin demonstrates a condescendin! desire to /e;periment3 on Ken1er by sendin! her to Bberlin #olle!e. 2he distasteful fi!urine Ken1er sees in the 0odins$ house portrayin! a sla1e and displayin! the messa!e /At Ho$ Ser1ice3 marks the limits and ironies of hite in1ol1ement in the stru!!le for racial eJuality. 5e1ertheless the siblin!s are moti1ated by !ood intentions belie1in! that /human life is holy all of it.3 A!y Denver - A nurturin! and compassionate !irl ho orks as an indentured ser1ant
Amy is youn! fli!hty talkati1e and idealistic. She helps Sethe hen she is ill durin! her escape from Seet 4ome and hen she sees Sethe$s ounds from bein! hipped Amy says that they resemble a tree. She later deli1ers baby Ken1er hom Sethe names after her. &aul A, &aul -, and )i.o - Paul A and Paul F are the brothers of Paul K. 2hey ere
sla1es at Seet 4ome ith him 4alle Sethe and earlier 0aby Su!!s. Si;o is another fello sla1e. Si;o and Paul A die durin! the escape from the plantation.
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Ma/or the!es –
Mother0daughter relationships
2he maternal bonds beteen Sethe and her children inhibit her on indi1iduation and pre1ent the de1elopment of herself. Sethe de1elops a dan!erous maternal passion that results in the murder of one dau!hter her on /best self3 and the estran!ement of the sur1i1in! dau!hter from the black community both in an attempt to sal1a!e her /fantasy of the future3 her children from a life in sla1ery. 4oe1er Sethe fails to reco!niEe her dau!hter Ken1er$s need for interaction ith this community in order to enter into omanhood. Ken1er finally succeeds at the end of the no1el in establishin! her on self and embarkin! on her indi1iduation ith the help of 0elo1ed. #ontrary to Ken1er Sethe only becomes indi1iduated after 0elo1ed$s e;orcism at hich point Sethe can fully accept the first relationship that is completely /for her3 her relationship ith Paul K. 2his relationship relie1es Sethe from the ensuin! destruction of herself that resulted from the maternal bonds controllin! her life. 0elo1ed and Sethe are both 1ery much emotionally impaired as a result of Sethe$s pre1ious ensla1ement. Sla1ery creates a situation here a mother is separated from her child hich has de1astatin! conseJuences for both parties.
&sychological i!pact o$ slavery
0ecause of the e;periences of sla1ery most sla1es repressed these memories in an attempt to for!et the past. 2his repression and dissociation from the past causes a fra!mentation of the self and a loss of true identity. Sethe Paul K. and Ken1er all e;perience this loss of self hich could only be remedied by the acceptance of the past and the memory of their ori!inal identities. 0elo1ed ser1es to remind these characters of their repressed memories e1entually causin! the reinte!ration of their sel1es. Sla1ery splits a person into a fra!mented fi!ure. 2he identity consistin! of painful memories and unspeakable past denied and kept at bay becomes a Dself that is no self.D 2o heal and humaniEe one must constitute it in a lan!ua!e reor!aniEe the painful e1ents
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and retell the painful memories. As a result of sufferin! the DselfD becomes subject to a 1iolent practice of makin! and unmakin! once acknoled!ed by an audience becomes real. Sethe Paul K and 0aby Su!!s ho all fall short of such realiEation are unable to remake their sel1es by tryin! to keep their pasts at bay. 2he CselfC is located in a ord defined by others. 2he poer lies in the audience or more precisely in the ord – once the ord chan!es so does the identity. All of the characters in 0elo1ed face the challen!e of an unmade self composed of their DrememoriesD and defined by perceptions and lan!ua!e. 2he barrier that keeps them from remakin! of the self is the desire for an Duncomplicated pastD and the fear that rememberin! ill lead them to Da place they couldnCt !et back from.D
%ritical reception – 2he publication of Belo%ed in +<=( resulted in the !reatest acclaim yet for Morrison. Althou!h nominated for the 5ational 0ook Aard it did not in and forty-ei!ht African-American riters and critics si!ned a letter of protest hich as published in The New York Times. Het Belo%ed did recei1e the PulitEer PriEe for fiction in +<== as ell as the Robert F. ennedy Memorial 0ook Aard the Melcher 0ook Aard the 6yndhurst Foundation Aard and the lmer 4olmes 0obst Aard. ++N Kespite its popularity and status as one of Morrison$s most accomplished no1els Belo%ed has ne1er been uni1ersally hailed as a success. Some re1ieers ha1e e;coriated the no1el for hat they consider its e;cessi1e sentimentality and sensationalistic depiction of the horrors of sla1ery includin! its characteriEation of the sla1e trade as a 4olocaust-like !enocide. Bthers hile concurrin! that Belo%ed is at times o1erritten ha1e lauded the no1el as a profound and e;traordinary act of ima!ination. 5otin! the ork$s mythic dimensions and political focus these commentators ha1e treated the no1el as an e;ploration of family trauma and the repression of memory as ell as an attempt to restore the historical record and !i1e 1oice to the collecti1e memory of African Americans. %ndeed critics and Morrison herself ha1e indicated that the contro1ersial epitaph to Belo%ed /si;ty million and more3 is dran from a number of studies on the African sla1e trade hich estimate that appro;imately half of each ship$s /car!o3 perished in
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transit to America. Scholars ha1e additionally debated the nature of the character 0elo1ed ar!uin! hether she is actually a !host or a real person. 5umerous re1ies assumin! 0elo1ed to be a supernatural incarnation of Sethe$s dau!hter ha1e subseJuently faulted Belo%ed as an uncon1incin! and confusin! !host story. liEabeth . 4ouse hoe1er has ar!ued that 0elo1ed is not a !host and the no1el is actually a story of to probable instances of mistaken identity. 0elo1ed is haunted by the loss of her African parents and thus comes to belie1e that Sethe is her mother. Sethe lon!s for her dead dau!hter and is rather easily con1inced that 0elo1ed is the child she has lost. Such an interpretation 4ouse contends clears up many puEElin! aspects of the no1el and emphasiEes Morrison$s concern ith familial ties.
%onclusion –
2here are reasons hy 2oni Morrison as aarded the 5obel PriEe for literature. 0elo1ed may be the bi!!est one. 2he structure is a !host story about a oman ho killed her on children rather than see them be dra!!ed back from freedom to li1e a life of sla1ery and ho the !uilt of that act comes back to haunt her. 0ut the real payload here is a portrayal of the sla1e e;istence ho it seeps into e1ery pore affects e1ery emotion defines one$s orld 1ie ho one 1alues education ho illin! one can be to lo1e another human bein!. %t is a triumph a masterork by one of the orld$s !reat riters orkin! so ell at se1eral le1els. More than just a !reat !host story or an outstandin! tale of sla1ery Morrison has ritten a classic of *'th century American literature. %t ill be read fore1er.
