Strength In Toni Morrison's Beloved

Morrison's a
Beloved
Markeshia Reece
Period 7
11/21/14

Morrison's a
Beloved
Beloved
, by Toni Morrison, is a story that takes place after the American Civil War. The point of view in the novel switches between an ex­slave woman named Sethe, her young daughter named
Denver, and a wandering escaped slave man named Paul D; all who have had a troubled history.
Strength is gained through the hardships of life; this is represented by Sethe's haunted past, Paul
D's past experience in slavery, and Denver's lack of relationships growing up.
Morrision shows the theme that strength is gained through the hardships of life through Sethe’s dark past. Sethe was a slave that lived on a plantation in Kentucky named Sweet Home in the past.
Sweet Home was run by a cruel man called schoolteacher, who allowed his nephews to abuse
Sethe while he took notes for his studies of blacks. “After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk...Them boys found out I told on 'em.
School teacher made one open up my back” (19­20). Sethe was able to gather up enough strength and push through her fears of being caught and killed to escape Sweet Homes torture with her newborn child to meet up with her grandmother and other three children. Though Sethe’s past caught up with her when men from
Kentucky came to take her and her children back to the Sweet home plantation. Not wanting to go back to that life or her children to also be forced into it Sethe slit her young daughters throat and was going to kill her other children before she was apprehended.“Not only did she have to live out her years in a house palsied by the baby's fury at having its throat cut...her knees wide open as the grave, were longer than life, more alive, more pulsating than the baby blood that soaked her fingers like oil”(Pg 16). This shows that one gains strength through one’s hardships in life because though Sethe loved her children dearly and didn’t want to kill them she didn’t want

them to live a life she lived and thus she was able to muster up enough strength to kill her
own child. Morrison expresses how strength is gained through the hardships of ones life through
Denver's difficult past because of her lack of relationships as the reader gets further into the
story.
Present time Denver is shown to be a person who purposely sets herself away from society. In her past she was ostracized by her peers because of her mother's dark history. "Didn't your mother get locked away for murder? Wasn't you in there with her when she went" (123).
Ever since then Denver strayed away from the community and kept to herself. This changed once
Beloved appeared and progressively tore her mother apart mentally. Denver, although hesitant to ask for the community's help, gathered up the strength to face her past and fears and asked the community to help exorcise Beloved to save her mother. "Nobody was going to help her unless she told it­told all of it" (298). This shows Denver has gained strength because of her hard past because she was able to face her fears of being judged once more by her peers.
Paul D's dark past in slavery shows the theme that strength is gained through the hardships of life. Slavery destroyed Paul D mentally. He became a lost man, never wanting to settle down because the fear of having everything he gained taken away from him. He also
lost his self­identity "Even if you cooked him you'd be cooking a rooster named mister. But wasn't no way I'd ever be Paul D again, living or dead" (86). That all changed when Paul D found Sethe and became deeply involved in her and Denver's life. He faced his fear of staying in a place too long and became a supporting and loving figure in their life. "I'm not saying this because I need a place to stay...We can make a life,girl. A life" (95).

Ones past can overtake oneself if they allow it to consume them and take over who they are. Though if one fights to overcome their dark past by gaining the strength to face their fear of facing all of the awful memories.