The Novel Beloved by Toni Morrison depicts the life of Sethe's family before, during, and after
slavery. Baby Suggs was born into slavery and given her freedom by her son Halle, who she never
sees again. Sethe is born into slavery and escapes, having to do the unthinkable to keep her children
safe. Denver is born into freedom but is forever haunted by her family's past. Beloved shows how
slavery effects people of all different ages, even if they aren't slaves themselves.
Baby Suggs was a slave for the majority of her life, only gaining freedom after her son Halle
buys it. After moving to Cincinnati, Baby Suggs is never able to see her son again, and nobody
knows what really happened to him. Halle is the only child of hers that Baby Suggs really knows
because the rest of her children were sold. She tries not to let herself love her taken children. Along
with the hard work entailed in slavery, Baby Suggs has to deal with a lot of tough emotions that
nobody should have to go through.
Sethe is born into slavery like Baby Suggs but spends the majority of her life outside of slavery,
though it leaves life long scars. While being found by School Teacher, Sethe kills her young
daughter, "Beloved", in hopes of keeping her children from the horrors of slavery. Even though this
plan works, Sethe can never forget what she did. Scared of their mother, Sethe's sons Howard and
Buglar leave home, never to return again. Sethe is left alone with Denver after Baby Suggs dies.
Beloved's spirit continues to haunt Sethe, until it leaves forever. After this, Sethe is still broken over
the past.
Denver is born during her mother's escape from slavery. Denver never has to experience slavery
first hand, but has to deal with its after effects on Sethe. Denver is lonely, as both her brothers have
left home, her older sister is dead, and Baby Suggs is dead. When Beloved arrives, Denver realizes
she is her sister and they start to become good friends. As Sethe and Beloved grow closer, Denver is
left to herself. Sethe loses her job and stops providing for Denver and Beloved. Denver finds herself
a job and starts bringing food home for everyone. Because of Sethe's past trauma, Denver is forced
to grow up and care for her broken mother.
It is interesting to see how slavery effected different generations of one family. They suffered because of it. If it wasn't for the Fugitive Slave law though, maybe Sethe & her children wouldn't have had to suffer after their escape. Denver, in way, loses almost her entire family because of slavery.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I especially feel bad for Denver because even though she was never a slave, because of slavery she lost almost all her family at such a young age. This just shows how slavery continues to effect people, years and years after slavery was actually abolished
DeleteThe idea that different generations in different time periods are affected by one time period is kind of daunting and I feel like this still holds true today. Currently, many blacks who had relatives that went through slavery are still being segregated. There is still no true "freedom" for blacks even though Abe Lincoln said in the Emancipation Proclamation that all black people would be free. But they were not truly free and black people today deal with this problem. They are not free from slavery.
ReplyDeleteTrue, this is still something that effects black families today. Even though slavery was abolished about 150 years ago, black people are still suffering here in the US. Because of slavery, there is still a lot of racism today. It is not as bad as what Denver may have experienced, but it is not all better either.
DeleteBeloved does a great job of portraying the kind of intergenerational trauma that we now know exists. Sethe's concept of rememory, and her fear that Denver would be caught by Sweet Home if she ever went, is especially interesting given that we now know that traumas can be passed down epigenetically, literally affecting the bodies and minds of future generations, in addition to the societal impacts of slavery and later semi-freedom.
ReplyDeleteTrue, this novel portrays this very well. As we see, Denver has a lot of emotional problems because of what her family went through, even though she was only a baby when everything happened. Denver will forever be affected by her families past trauma, as well as her children probably will be.
ReplyDeleteThe novel shows how the future generations of families who endured slavery are also affected. Denver, having never been exposed to slavery, has to go through horrible things because of slavery, such as being afraid of her own mother. The trauma of slavery will never die, and that is shown really powerfully in the novel.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea is that you can never escape slavery, no matter what form it is in. As you mentioned, Baby Suggs and Sethe were slaves themselves. They did technically "escape" slavery, but there's still a sense that they're still slaves, but not to a slave master. In the case of Sethe, I feel like she is a slave to her past. That's why she yearns for Beloved's forgiveness and can't move forward with her life.
ReplyDeleteThis book does a good job of portraying how slavery can affect multiple generations, even if only some of the generations were directly affected by it. I think Denver is still tied to slavery because she was born during Sethe's escape from slavery. Denver acts as a physical embodiment of the transition from slavery to freedom and the difficulties that come with that change.
ReplyDeleteI find the whole purpose of Beloved's return to be linked to this very topic. She is a metaphor to the 'undyingness' of slavery. Even though the prior generation left it in the past, it still remains very relevant today.
ReplyDelete