Throughout the narrative of Morrison’s Beloved and rather emphatically in the evocative epilogue, the character Beloved is directly connected to the lives of all the forgotten slaves. Sethe’s painful remembrance of Beloved and slavery changes by the end of the epilogue, and evidence of Sethe’s acceptance and growth is clear. In this epilogue, Morrison suggests that people who knew of Beloved, or heard of her, and by association the whole history of slavery, have had to forget her. This shows up in the refrain when she echoes, “It was not a story to pass on” (274-275) and compares Beloved to a “bad dream” (274). Beloved is indeed a painful memory, however, she must not be forgotten for she is an undeniable part of Sethe; life in the grasp slavery must not be thought of as a forgotten past, for it is an undeniable part of all the freed blacks trying to get on with their lives. The end of this closing narrative shows these realities must not be pushed aside and forgotten, but must be accepted and lived with. A painful life without substance or validity would occur if such truths were not acknowledged.

Morrison’s epilogue encapsulates the connection between the life of

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