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Beloved : Sethe

            
             Toni Morrison's novel Beloved is an intense story of Sethe, the protagonist, who's a runaway slave trying to find her identity and a connection to her past and present. The novel consists of ideas such as identity and rememory. These ideas are both connected in such a way that allows the plot and events to take place, flow and to fit together into one big picture. Morrison expresses the search for Sethe's identity throughout the novel with correlation through various events of rememory. .
             The last two pages of the novel are the most important factors behind Sethe's search for her identity. The passage within these two pages is talking about Beloved. Beloved is a reincarnation of Sethe's baby girl, whom she murdered as a child. The baby girl was one of Sethe's most cherished aspects of her life and it was only for her protection that she did what she did. Before Beloved's reincarnation, the spirit of Beloved was haunting 124, the house in which Sethe lived in. When the spirit suddenly disappeared, it came back as Beloved. Once again it disappeared and this whole passage is of the town trying to forget Beloved. The reason for her disappearance was probably because she was "disremembered and unaccounted for" and "she cannot be lost because no one is looking for her." "So they forgot her. Like an unpleasant dream during a troubling sleep." Beloved was a burden to the town and to Sethe and ones whom were close to her. They forgot about her. The line "This is not a story to pass on" is repeated various times throughout that passage and this is the same reason as to the quotes mentioned previously. Sethe and the whole town refuse to remember Beloved because all she does is bring bad luck. As a matter of fact, they refuse to think of the past, they don't want to remember anything negative that has happened. And if no one thinks of Beloved, then the occurrences with her in the past will never be mentioned again, thus it is "not a story to pass on.


Essays Related to Beloved : Sethe

1. Novel Summary - Beloved

... a person confides to others, they want their attention and have a feeling that it does not bored then and they actually care and that is how Beloved makes Sethe feels. She opens up knowing that the past hurts her but this "is a process which requires access to painful memories; the characters in the novel ... of the characters from the novel that already opened up and now they are slowly accepting their actions and memories. Yet, because Beloved is not a positive character, she leads Sethe to lose her mind when she is accepting her past. Denver notices it and asks the community for help ...

  • Word Count: 2475
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Toni Morrison's Beloved

... all her children, especially her baby girls from the pain she was forced to grow accustomed to. When Schoolteacher arrived at 124, Sethe's plan was to kill all her children, but Beloved was the only one to die. Denver grew up with her mother and grandmother and was never exposed to a life as a slave ... have been as well. If they had to continue to live on Sweet Home, Denver's identity would be known as a slave, not Sethe's daughter, or Beloved's sister. At least at 124, Sethe and Denver can be together and not have a fear of being split up. Being in Ohio was more beneficial to the both ...

  • Word Count: 1739
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Beloved

... past. These characters show some signs of peace and relief throughout the story, but then the ghost of Beloved appears and reveals all past memories. Beloved represents the tragedy symbol of the effects of slavery. With every confrontation with Beloved, Sethe, Paul D, Baby Suggs, and Denver understand their true identities. Each of main characters that were freed from slavery had their own ... Suggs encounter flashbacks from slavery. Each relapse brings each character closer to their true identity. During his stay at 124 Bluestone Rd, Paul D becomes Sethe's lover and the object of Denver...

  • Word Count: 2030
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Redemption And Community: Sethe's Search For Salvation In Beloved

... of the dead baby's ghost. When the ghost appears in human form, as a girl of eighteen, the same age as the dead baby would have been, Sethe and Denver accept her whole heartedly. As they realize this girl, Beloved, is actually the baby back from the grave, they become obsessed with her, and turn themselves away from the community even further. Both ... of agreement that backed it: Yes, yes, yes, yes, oh yes. Hear me. Hear me. Do it, Maker, do it. Yes." Sethe, hearing their voices, "opened the door and reached for Beloved's hand. Together they stood in the doorway. For Sethe it was as th...

  • Word Count: 3712
  • Approx Pages: 15
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Beloved

... be prevented from going back into slavery would be to end her life, and she did through her daughter, Beloved. Beloved was Sethe. This nameless child, who was buried under the headstone "Beloved," was christened on her burial. Sethe had heard the preacher say the words "dearly beloved, "in his prayer, and thus derived her name. (5) However, the preacher in saying these words is talking to ... the spectators. Sethe was the dearly beloved, and thus Beloved was named after Sethe. Not only was Sethe and Beloved connected by blood, they were connected in name. And Beloved became the embodime...

  • Word Count: 2301
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Beloved: Redemption

... of the dead baby's ghost. When the ghost appears in human form, as a girl of eighteen, the same age as the dead baby would have been, Sethe and Denver accept her whole heartedly. As they realize this girl, Beloved, is actually the baby back from the grave, they become obsessed with her, and turn themselves away from the community even further. Both ... of agreement that backed it: Yes, yes, yes, yes, oh yes. Hear me. Hear me. Do it, Maker, do it. Yes." Sethe, hearing their voices, "opened the door and reached for Beloved's hand. Together they stood in the doorway. For Sethe it was as th...

  • Word Count: 3715
  • Approx Pages: 15
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Beloved

... just-born Denver from the Ohio River, is the person that guides them to the community of former slaves. When Sethe does not need anyone after Beloved's death, Ella ostracizes Sethe and her family from the community for eighteen years. Her arrogance causes the black community of Cincinnati to shun her. ... make the physical connection between mother and child. She then decides that to be a family, she must escape Sweet Home. Beloved does come back to pass judgment on Sethe. When Sethe realizes that Beloved is the ghost of her third child, she welcomes the arrival as a chance to explain a...

  • Word Count: 1409
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

8. The living Spirit--beloved

... her throat could have healed. It is the scar from where Sethe cut her throat. There is a very strange scene when Sethe is at the clearing. Beloved comes over and starts kissing Sethe's neck. Eventually, Sethe pulls away and she smells Beloved breath. Sethe describes it as smelling "exactly like new milk". Then Sethe goes on to tell Beloved that's she's "too old for that." I believe that "that" ... was nursing. Beloved was trying to nurse off Sethe like she did when she was a baby. After the skating adventure, when Beloved, Denver and Sethe are at home, Sethe hears Beloved humming a tune...

  • Word Count: 1512
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Numbers In Beloved

... water: "Four times Denver filled it, and four times the woman drank" (51), and she then sleeps for four days (54). After the choking episode, Sethe notes that Beloved "behaved like a two-year-old" (98). Later, as Sethe is thinking, "it occurred to her that the two were as alike as sisters" (99). Denver is deaf for two years after the incident with ... the carnival. The shadows were holding hands, "all three of them" (47). This sacred trinity is that of father, mother and child. The trinity of Sethe, Paul D, and Denver is attacked and broken up by Beloved. Eventually, Beloved replaces hi...

  • Word Count: 2260
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

10. beloved

... is dichotomous in that she displays her love by mercifully sparing her daughter from a horrific life, yet Sethe refuses to acknowledge that her show of mercy is also murder. Throughout Beloved, Sethe's character consistently displays the duplistic nature of her actions. Not long after Sethe's reunion with Paul D. she describes her reaction to School Teacher's arrival: "Oh, no. I wasn't going back there[ ... her children is most graphically illustrated in her mad ravings to the reincarnation of "Beloved". Sethe details a defense for killing her baby to the woman she believes is her reinca...

  • Word Count: 3106
  • Approx Pages: 12
  • Grade Level: High School

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