A Review of “Beloved” By Toni Morrison

A Review of “Beloved” By Toni Morrison

Beloved by Toni Morrison is a fictional masterpiece with historical relevance. Published in 1987, the book takes place after the Civil War, from the perspective of an escaped slave named Sethe. Beloved tells the story of a home haunted by an enigmatic spirit with Sethe and her daughter Denver living inside the house. The spirit seems to go out of its way to make Sethe and Denver’s lives miserable, such as compelling Sethe’s two sons to run away from home. Denver becomes desolate due to loneliness after her brothers’ departure and attempts to summon the spirit through black magic in a desperate attempt to have a friend. A few days later, a woman with no knowledge of who she is or where she came from appears at Sethe’s front door and refers to herself as “Beloved”. Beloved follows the story of identifying who this mysterious woman is, and how she connects to Sethe’s unfolding and shocking backstory.

Slavery is an important theme throughout this book. Readers are able to see Sethe experience flashbacks from her days of slave labor, physical abuse, rape, and the brutality of the system of slavery as a whole. The dehumanizing premise of slavery may leave prominent physical and mental scars on an individual. The sheer abhorrence of slavery may drive people to take desperate measures to protect the ones they love. Taking vast measures and committing dramatic acts out of protectiveness and passion is a big aspect of Beloved, and is a key element to piecing together Sethe’s backstory and the identity of Beloved. I thought this theme was interesting to bring up because it is a key point in the book, and it is important for people to be educated on this topic. To be educated about slavery is to have a better understanding of how American society has evolved from those times.

An accompanying theme in Beloved is how love can be misinterpreted, and how one’s “love” towards another, may actually be a veil covering one’s guilt and shame. People may be guilted into love without realizing the forgery of these emotions. As the book progresses, Beloved becomes increasingly demanding of Sethe to spend more time with her and to care more for her. Sethe, driven by Beloved’s manipulations, obliges, until Sethe’s only purpose is to keep Beloved satisfied, to no avail. The misinterpretation of love Sethe holds for Beloved is an example that real love is not one-sided, nor does it entail the satisfaction of solely one individual. The myriad of emotions that assemble love are meant to be represented by both, or all individuals in a loving relationship.

Toni Morrison’s Beloved explores themes that may be correlated to fictional ideas we see in our daily lives, such as determination, and love. People will take drastic measures to protect the ones they love, whilst others may take drastic measures to manipulate others for love. Toni Morrison does an excellent job providing twists and turns in this novel, as well as equipping readers with historical information, such as the aftermath of the Civil War from an escaped slave’s perspective. I think Beloved is an amazing novel, and I would highly recommend it to others.