Why should you read Toni Morrisons Beloved Yen Pham
A mirror that shatters without warning.
A trail of cracker crumbs
strewn across the floor.
Two tiny handprints that appear on a cake.
Everyone at 124 Bluestone Road
knows their house is haunted—
but there’s no mystery about
the spirit tormenting them.
This ghost is the product
of an unspeakable trauma;
the legacy of a barbaric history
that hangs over much more
than this lone homestead.
So begins “Beloved,” Toni Morrison’s
Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
about the suffering wrought by slavery
and the wounds that persist in its wake.
Published in 1987, “Beloved”
tells the story of Sethe,
a woman who escaped enslavement.
When the novel opens, Sethe
has been living free for over a decade.
Her family has largely dissolved—
Sethe’s mother-in-law died years earlier,
and her two sons ran away
from fear of the specter.
Sethe’s daughter Denver remains
in the house,
but the pair live a half-life.
Shunned by the wider community,
the two have only each other
and the ghost for company.
Sethe is consumed by thoughts
of the spirit,
whom she believes to be
her eldest daughter.
When a visitor from Sethe’s old life
returns and threatens the ghost away,
it seems like the start of a new beginning
for her family.
But what comes in the ghost’s place
may be even harder to bear.
As with much of Morrison’s work,
“Beloved” investigates the roles of trauma
and love in African-American history.
Morrison writes about black identities
in a variety of contexts,
but her characters are united
by their desire to find love and be loved—
even when it’s painful.
Some of her novels explore when love
challenges social conventions,
like the forbidden affection that grows
between the townsfolk of “Paradise”
and their fugitive neighbors.
Other works examine how we can be
blind to the love we already possess.
In “Sula,” one character realizes
that it’s not her marriage,
but rather, one of her friendships
that embodies the great love of her life.
Perhaps Morrison’s most famous
exploration of the difficulty of love
takes place in “Beloved.”
Here, the author considers how
the human spirit is diminished
when you know the things and people
you love most will be taken away.
Morrison shows that slavery
is destructive to love in all forms,
poisoning both enslaved people
and their enslavers.
“Beloved” examines the dehumanizing
effects of the slave trade
in numerous ways.
Some are straightforward,
such as referring to enslaved people
as animals with monetary value.
But others are more subtle.
Sethe and Paul D.—
the visitor from her old plantation—
are described as trying
to “live an unlivable life.”
Their coping mechanisms are different;
Sethe remains mired in her past,
while Paul D. dissociates
himself completely.
But in both cases, it’s clear each
character has been irreparably scarred.
Morrison also blends
perspectives and timelines,
to convey how the trauma of slavery
ripples across various characters
and time periods.
As she delves into the psyche
of townspeople, enslavers,
and previously enslaved people,
she exposes conflicting
viewpoints on reality.
This tension shows the limitations
of our own perspectives,
and the ways in which some characters
are actively avoiding the reality
of their actions.
But in other instances, the characters’
shifting memories align perfectly;
capturing the collective trauma
that haunts the story.
Though “Beloved” touches on dark subjects,
the book is also filled
with beautiful prose,
highlighting its characters’ capacity
for love and vulnerability.
In a stream-of-consciousness sequence
written from Sethe’s perspective,
Morrison unspools memories of subjugation
alongside moments of tenderness;
like a baby reaching for her mother’s
earrings, spring colors,
and freshly painted stairs.
Sethe’s mother-in-law had them
painted white, she recalls,
“so you could see your way to the top…
where lamplight didn’t reach."
Throughout the book, Morrison asks
us to consider hope in the dark,
and to question what freedom really means.
She urges readers to ponder
the power we have over each other,
and to use that power wisely.
In this way, “Beloved” remains a testimony
to the destructiveness of hate,
the redeeming power of love,
and the responsibility we bear
to heed the voices of the past.