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

It is almost as if Beloved is a figment of Sethe’s imagination with no solid evidence of her severely abbreviated life.

After reading over the epilogue for the first time, one might not spot the difference in the third repetition of the refrain. If one does spot the slight change in word usage, the difference may not seem to be a key change of tone for the entire narrative. The first two parts of the refrain beginning with the words “it” and “was”, the last part starts with the words “this” and “is”. Morrison declares, “This is not a story to pass on” (275). Again the attention rests on two simple words that normally do not hold as much significance as they do in this refrain. “This” has a sense of personal recognition; a sense of acceptance shows through. The story is not a distant memory that can only be talked about in the past tense, but a living memory that continues to occur. While the word “it” displays distance, the word “this” displays a sense of here and now. The second word, “is”, shows that Beloved still has meaning and is not simply a “bad dream” (274) that does nothing but harm those that must. Throughout the epilogue Morrison has talked of Beloved as a memory that must be forgotten, because if it is not, Sethe will not be able to live with any sense of comfort in her life. For the first time in the verse, the story of Beloved is talked of as something that continues to have significance and worth.

Though throughout the epilogue Morrison sets up Beloved to be a distant memory that must be left behind, it is clear that Sethe has accepted her reality and begins to see the need for living with her past. Morrison resolves this horrible memory by saying if Beloved is forgotten so will be the other thousands that yearn for remembrance. Morrison writes, “By and by all trace is gone and what is forgotten is not just the footprints but the water too and what is down there”(275). Just as Morrison opened the novel with a simple inscription in remembrance of the slaves lost on the voyage to slavery, she closes by clearly connecting Beloved to these lost individuals whose stories have never been told. If Sethe were to let go of Beloved and not accept her as a part of her being, the minimal justices these lost and forgotten Africans have left would be nullified.

She says that the past is something that must be forgotten, and if it is recollected and thought about, then the horrors will bar any sense of growth or comfort in the life of an ex-slave. She says, “Remembering seemed unwise”(274). The memory of Beloved and the many other awful memories will always be there, but they cannot be relived; the past is a fearful thing, and Morrison shows this by portraying it through ghos

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