Citation 1: "Toni Morrison's Beloved." . SIRS RENAISSANCE , 30 Jan. 2007. Web.
19 Apr. 2014. <http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMCSTUDENT-0-1737&artno=0000256894&&shfilter=U&key=Beloved%20%28Book%29&title=Toni%20Morrison%27s%20%22Beloved%22&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N>.
Article 1: http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMCSTUDENT-0-1737&artno=0000256894&&shfilter=U&key=Beloved%20%28Book%29&title=Toni%20Morrison%27s%20%22Beloved%22&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N
Toni Morrison's Beloved incorporates historical fact and fiction to explore the destructive effects of slavery on the human body, mind, and spirit. The novel was influenced by Margret Garner's story. Garner was a slave in Kentucky who escaped to Ohio with her kids. When they were captured by slave catchers Garner attempted to kill her kids instead of them being returned to slavery. She only managed to murder her infant daughter before she was overpowered and taken into custody. Sethe, Beloved's main character, has to do the unthinkable task of killing her kids instead of sending them back to a life of slavery. The death of the child is a lifelong source of torment and agony for Sethe.
The slaves and former slaves in the book suffer the destructive effects of racism, abuse, and psychological control. Halle, Sethe's husband goes insane after seeing her sexually assaulted. Paul D questions his manhood after spending years on a chain gang. Baby Suggs falls into depression and dies a lonely and miserable woman. Denver is afraid of humanity so much that she is afraid to leave the house. But none of the characters represent the destructiveness of slavery more than Sethe. She demonstrates her determination to find her family a better life when she plans an escape from Sweet Home. When she gets to Baby Suggs' house in Cincinnati she gets this feeling of hope that her family is actually free but all that is shattered when 'Schoolteacher' and his slave catchers find her. In the climax of the book Sethe murders her infant daughter. The rest of the book is the falling action of a suffering woman's will to survive.
Citation 2: "Why is Beloved Beloved?." . N.p., 18 May 2006. Web. 19
Apr. 2014. <http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_dilettante/2006/05/why_is_beloved_beloved.html>.
Article 2: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_dilettante/2006/05/why_is_beloved_beloved.html
Beloved is Morrison's award winning book that tells the story of Sethe, an ex slave that resides in Cincinnati with her daughter Denver, her mother in law Baby Suggs, and her to sons Howard and Buglar. In the very beginning of the novel the boys run away not being able to handle the spirit that haunted their house. Not long after Baby Suggs passed away dying a lonely old woman, leaving Denver and Sethe all alone. Years later the two are joined by Paul D, one of the ex slaves that worked with Sethe at Sweet Home back in Kentucky. It's 1873 and the end of the civil war, and even though slavery is over it has only just begun its haunting of the African-American psyche. Morrison represents this with the haunting of Sethe's daughter. Paul D ends up exorcising the house of the spirit, but they later return from a day at the carnival to discovers a younger woman
sleeping near the front door. The woman goes by Beloved and from her appearance she appears to be the embodied spirit of Sethe's daughter. Twenty years earlier Sethe beheaded her baby girl with a handsaw instead of having her return to a life of slavery. Denver develops an attachment to Beloved, and Beloved's attachment to Sethe is equal if not greater. When Paul D finds out about Sethe's 'rough decision' he leaves and starts sleeping in the basement of the local church. While he's gone Beloved's relationship with Sethe becomes more intense. Beloved grows abusive, manipulative, and parasitic, and Sethe is obsessed with satisfying Beloved's demands and making her understand why she killed her. He worried about her mother Denver leaves the house for the first time in twelve years in order to find help. The community provides the family with food and eventually comes together to help exorcise Beloved from the house. When they arrive at Sethe's house they see her on the porch with Beloved who stands smiling at them, naked and pregnant. Sethe mistakes Mr. Bodwin (who came to take Denver to her new job) for school teacher and charges at him with an ice pick. She is restrained, but in the commotion Beloved disappears and is never seen again.
Citation
3: "JAUNTED BY THEIR NIGHTMARES ." . MARGARET ATWOOD, 13 Sept. 1987. Web. 19
Apr. 2014. <http://web.archive.org/web/20020204064944/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/8212
Article 3: http://web.archive.org/web/20020204064944/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/8212.html
Beloved is set after the Civil War ended during the reconstruction period. It not only takes place in the present but in the past through flashbacks. The setting is split between the countryside near Cincinnati, Ohio and a slave-holding plantation in Kentucky. This story is told from many perspectives, but the central voice is Sethe, a woman in her mid 30's living in Ohio with her daughter and her mother-in-law. This book could be considered a supernatural story because of the ghost that is part of its center, Sethe's deceased baby, Beloved. She haunts the farm house where they live. All of the main characters in the story believe that ghost, the other world, and magic are real. With all
the different stories and memories in the book, we get glimpses of American slaver by the people who actually lived during that time. It was a world where people just suddenly vanished, and it was a normal, everyday aspect of life. The author was careful to make sure that she didn't portray all whites as horrible people or all blacks as angels. In the story the black neighbors had their own issues, as well as that white people could be kind. This is true even today. You have good and bad in every race. It is hard to give an overview of this book without giving away the entire story because of all the different side to the story.
19 Apr. 2014. <http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMCSTUDENT-0-1737&artno=0000256894&&shfilter=U&key=Beloved%20%28Book%29&title=Toni%20Morrison%27s%20%22Beloved%22&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N>.
Article 1: http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMCSTUDENT-0-1737&artno=0000256894&&shfilter=U&key=Beloved%20%28Book%29&title=Toni%20Morrison%27s%20%22Beloved%22&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N
Toni Morrison's Beloved incorporates historical fact and fiction to explore the destructive effects of slavery on the human body, mind, and spirit. The novel was influenced by Margret Garner's story. Garner was a slave in Kentucky who escaped to Ohio with her kids. When they were captured by slave catchers Garner attempted to kill her kids instead of them being returned to slavery. She only managed to murder her infant daughter before she was overpowered and taken into custody. Sethe, Beloved's main character, has to do the unthinkable task of killing her kids instead of sending them back to a life of slavery. The death of the child is a lifelong source of torment and agony for Sethe.
The slaves and former slaves in the book suffer the destructive effects of racism, abuse, and psychological control. Halle, Sethe's husband goes insane after seeing her sexually assaulted. Paul D questions his manhood after spending years on a chain gang. Baby Suggs falls into depression and dies a lonely and miserable woman. Denver is afraid of humanity so much that she is afraid to leave the house. But none of the characters represent the destructiveness of slavery more than Sethe. She demonstrates her determination to find her family a better life when she plans an escape from Sweet Home. When she gets to Baby Suggs' house in Cincinnati she gets this feeling of hope that her family is actually free but all that is shattered when 'Schoolteacher' and his slave catchers find her. In the climax of the book Sethe murders her infant daughter. The rest of the book is the falling action of a suffering woman's will to survive.
Citation 2: "Why is Beloved Beloved?." . N.p., 18 May 2006. Web. 19
Apr. 2014. <http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_dilettante/2006/05/why_is_beloved_beloved.html>.
Article 2: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_dilettante/2006/05/why_is_beloved_beloved.html
Beloved is Morrison's award winning book that tells the story of Sethe, an ex slave that resides in Cincinnati with her daughter Denver, her mother in law Baby Suggs, and her to sons Howard and Buglar. In the very beginning of the novel the boys run away not being able to handle the spirit that haunted their house. Not long after Baby Suggs passed away dying a lonely old woman, leaving Denver and Sethe all alone. Years later the two are joined by Paul D, one of the ex slaves that worked with Sethe at Sweet Home back in Kentucky. It's 1873 and the end of the civil war, and even though slavery is over it has only just begun its haunting of the African-American psyche. Morrison represents this with the haunting of Sethe's daughter. Paul D ends up exorcising the house of the spirit, but they later return from a day at the carnival to discovers a younger woman
sleeping near the front door. The woman goes by Beloved and from her appearance she appears to be the embodied spirit of Sethe's daughter. Twenty years earlier Sethe beheaded her baby girl with a handsaw instead of having her return to a life of slavery. Denver develops an attachment to Beloved, and Beloved's attachment to Sethe is equal if not greater. When Paul D finds out about Sethe's 'rough decision' he leaves and starts sleeping in the basement of the local church. While he's gone Beloved's relationship with Sethe becomes more intense. Beloved grows abusive, manipulative, and parasitic, and Sethe is obsessed with satisfying Beloved's demands and making her understand why she killed her. He worried about her mother Denver leaves the house for the first time in twelve years in order to find help. The community provides the family with food and eventually comes together to help exorcise Beloved from the house. When they arrive at Sethe's house they see her on the porch with Beloved who stands smiling at them, naked and pregnant. Sethe mistakes Mr. Bodwin (who came to take Denver to her new job) for school teacher and charges at him with an ice pick. She is restrained, but in the commotion Beloved disappears and is never seen again.
Citation
3: "JAUNTED BY THEIR NIGHTMARES ." . MARGARET ATWOOD, 13 Sept. 1987. Web. 19
Apr. 2014. <http://web.archive.org/web/20020204064944/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/8212
Article 3: http://web.archive.org/web/20020204064944/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/8212.html
Beloved is set after the Civil War ended during the reconstruction period. It not only takes place in the present but in the past through flashbacks. The setting is split between the countryside near Cincinnati, Ohio and a slave-holding plantation in Kentucky. This story is told from many perspectives, but the central voice is Sethe, a woman in her mid 30's living in Ohio with her daughter and her mother-in-law. This book could be considered a supernatural story because of the ghost that is part of its center, Sethe's deceased baby, Beloved. She haunts the farm house where they live. All of the main characters in the story believe that ghost, the other world, and magic are real. With all
the different stories and memories in the book, we get glimpses of American slaver by the people who actually lived during that time. It was a world where people just suddenly vanished, and it was a normal, everyday aspect of life. The author was careful to make sure that she didn't portray all whites as horrible people or all blacks as angels. In the story the black neighbors had their own issues, as well as that white people could be kind. This is true even today. You have good and bad in every race. It is hard to give an overview of this book without giving away the entire story because of all the different side to the story.