By Aude Prezioso Year 11
Spoiler alert!
Beloved is set in 1873 Cincinnati, Ohio, and follows Sethe, a former slave living with her daughter Denver. Haunted by the ghost of her dead daughter, Sethe’s life is disrupted when Paul D, a fellow former slave from Sweet Home plantation, arrives. His presence triggers painful memories from Sethe’s past, including the horrors of slavery, the loss of her husband Halle, and her desperate act of killing her daughter to spare her from slavery. The novel unfolds across two timelines: the present in Cincinnati and flashbacks to Sethe’s life at Sweet Home. Through these fragmented memories, the story reveals the brutality of slavery, including Sethe’s rape and escape, and her eventual reunion with her children in Cincinnati. Sethe’s brief period of happiness ends when slave catchers arrive, prompting her to kill her daughter, who is buried with the name “Beloved” on her headstone. Beloved’s spirit haunts Sethe’s home, and when a mysterious young woman named Beloved appears, Sethe believes she is the reincarnation of her dead daughter. This leads to an intense and destructive relationship between Sethe and Beloved, culminating in a community effort to exorcise the spirit. Ultimately, Beloved vanishes, Paul D returns to Sethe, and the novel concludes with the community forgetting Beloved as though she were a bad dream.
There are multiple important themes throughout the novel. Firstly, the effects of slavery such as the loss of one’s sense of self, the constant belief of being subhuman or an animal, and the lack of control and freedom lead to the characters’ destruction of identity. This is seen through Paul D’s recurring questioning of his manhood and Sethe’s need to shield her children from slavery. Furthermore, in the novel, the slaves often face the shifting meanings of words decided by their owners. “Definitions belong to the definers.” This leads to a manipulation of the language by the slaves as a way to become indecipherable to their owners and give themselves some power. Lastly, family is deeply affected by slavery in many ways. When all of Baby Suggs’ children are sold except one, it does not destroy her, instead, it intensifies her bond with her remaining child, Halle. On the contrary, the fear of seeing family endure your trauma can lead to violence, like Sethe’s attempted murders of her children. Overall, Beloved is a rich and poignant novel on the horrors of slavery and the strength of those who endured it. It is a must-read.
