the review book beloved

tài liệu bộ môn văn học anh của sinh viên đại học hà nội. Review book: Beloved by Toni Morrison.Toni Morrison, the second of four children in a black workingclass family, was born as Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. Her parents, Ramah (Willis) and George survived the Great Depression with the aid of the government and by sharing with their equally poor black and white neighbors

Review book: Beloved by Toni Morrison

I. Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison, the second of four children in a black working-class family, was born as Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio Her parents, Ramah (Willis) and George survived the Great Depression with the aid of the government and by sharing with their equally poor black and white neighbors Living in an integrated neighborhood,

Morrison did not become fully aware of racial divisions until she was in her teens "When I

was in first grade, nobody thought I was inferior I was the only black in the class and the only child who could read," told Toni in an interview in The New York Times Dedicated to

her studies, Morrison took Latin in school and read many great works of European literature She graduated from Lorain High School with honors in 1949 Toni Morrison worked as novelist, editor and professor Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue and richly detailed African-American characters Among her best known novels

are The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Love and A Mercy Morrison's highest achievement is the novel Beloved, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 In 1993,

Morrison became the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature The Nobel

Foundation stated that Morrison “gives life to an essential aspect of American reality” through “novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import.”

II. Summary

Beloved is a big novel Therefore, in this paper, we attempt to cover only the first

chapter However, to get a grasp of the novel, it is essential to provide a brief summary of the novel followed by a synopsis of chapter one

1. The novel

Beloved begins in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio where Sethe, a former black slave has been

living with her daughter, Denver

On the day the novel begins, Paul D, whom Sethe has not seen since her escape from Sweet Home plantation in Kentucky around twenty years earlier, stops by her house From the fragmented flashbacks of main characters, all events are revealed When Sethe, the protagonist, turns 13, she is sold to the Garners, who own Sweet Home and practice a relatively benevolent kind of slavery There are also five other male slaves there, namely Sixo, Paul D, Paul A, Paul F and Halle Halle later becomes Sethe’s husband Together they have two sons, Howard and Buglar, and a baby daughter named Beloved Mr Garner’s death leaves Mrs Garner in a deep grief, and she eventually asks her sadistic brother-in-law, who

is known to the slaves as the schoolteacher, to run the farm The schoolteacher treats the slaves so brutally that they decide to run away When escaping from Sweet Home, Sethe is pregnant with her fourth child

The schoolteacher, however, anticipate their escape His two nephews violate Sethe and steal the milk her body is storing for her infant daughter, Beloved Unbeknownst to Sethe, Halle is watching the event from a loft above her where he lies frozen with horror and goes mad When the three villains find out that Sethe has reported their misdeeds to Mrs Garner, they whip her severely regardless of her pregnancy and that leaves chokecherry tree-shaped scars on her back Fortunately, Sethe manages to escape and is nurtured by a white girl named Amy Denver, who later helps her deliver her forth baby in a boat Sethe names the second daughter after her benefactress

Sethe spends twenty eight wonderful days in Cincinnati with her mother-in-law and her children On the last day, however, the schoolteacher comes for Sethe to take her and her

children back to Sweet Home Rather than surrender them to a life of dehumanizing slavery, she takes them to the woodshed and tries to kill them Beloved is the only one to die, having her throat cut with a handsaw by Sethe Sethe later resorts to sleeping with an engraver to get the word “Beloved” carved on the headstone Thanks to a group of white abolitionists, Sethe is released and returns to the house numbered 124

Meanwhile, Paula D is sold to another slave owner in Georgia where he has endured torturous experiences One day, a fortuitous rainstorm allows him to escape He travels northward and ends up on Sethe’s porch in Cincinnati years later

Paul D’s arrival at 124 makes the ghost of Beloved and Denver resent him right from the start Before moving in to 124, he chases the ghost away One day, when the couple returns home from a carnival, they encounter a strange young woman sleeping near the steps of

124 The woman calls herself Beloved Beloved and Paul D hate each other and Beloved controls him by moving him around the house and seducing him against his will

When Paul D learns the story of Sethe’s infanticide, he leaves 124 In his absence, Beloved grows increasingly manipulative and parasitic while Sethe is obsessed with satisfying Beloved’s demands and making her understand why she kills her Worried about Sethe, Denver leaves 124 and seeks help from her former teacher to exorcise Beloved from the house When arriving at 124, they see Sethe on the porch with Beloved who stands smiling at them, naked and pregnant Eventually, Beloved disappears for good and Denver

is taken to her new job Afterwards, Paul D comes back to Sethe and they live happily ever after

2. Chapter 1

The first chapter tells the present life of Sethe and Denver at 124 Eight years earlier, Sethe’s mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, also lives with them Before she dies, she sinks into a

deep depression and spends her last days requesting “color”- bits of brightly colored objects

she hopes would alleviate her sadness and loss of all eight of her children Not so long after her death, Sethe’s two sons, Howard and Buglar each runs away from the house because of the malevolent presence of an abusive ghost that has haunted the house for years

Sethe works hard to remember as little as possible about her past until one day she returns home and finds a surprising guest, Paul D They slip into easy conservation although they have not seen each other for eighteen years Paul D walks into the house and gets soaked by a wave of grief over him Sethe explains that the presence is the sad specter of her dead baby, Beloved Sethe also tells Paul D about the chokecherry tree on her back and firmly refuses to move out of the house when Paul D proposes the idea Sethe cries and says that the men whipping her stole her baby’s milk before she ran Paul D comes up to her and pulls down the top of her dress He cradles her breasts in his hand while he kisses each line

of her scars Seeing them flirt and talk about Sweet Home makes Denver jealous and excluded She bursts into tears, saying that she can no longer live a life of being isolated by the whole community The house immediately begins to lurch and shake as the ghost vents its rage Paul D shouts at the ghost and asks it to leave Denver resents his act, for the ghost

is the only company she has

In part III, we attempt to demonstrate author’s point of view on racial discrimination and motherhood

III. Author arguments

1. Problems of racism and slavery

“Beloved” deals with the themes of love, family, self-possession, slavery and the cruelty

of whites Racism is one of the most important fields in “Beloved” as well as chapter one

under which the cultural identity has been hidden or captured by white master’s bitter treatment The beginning of the novel is depicted by the pain and the pang of slavery and its aftermath The protagonist Sethe is described as the medium of Schoolteacher and his nephews’ sexual fulfillment and childbearing machine without regarding her motherhood

and humanity Schoolteacher’s nephew “took Sethe’s milk” and “used cowhide” on her

when she told Mrs Garner about it (p.10) Morrision condemns and raises her voice against the problem of racism in a very ironic tone This is clearly reflected in the epigraph

"Sixty Million and More"

The first sentence refers to the number of black people who died from the time of the Middle Passage (1770-1807), the stage of the slave trade in which millions of Africans were shipped to America Through this, the author reminds readers of the frightening history of the slaves

"I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved which was not

beloved." (Romans 9:25).

The rest of the epigraph is quoted from the New Testament in a letter from St Paul to the Romans In the letter, Paul encourages the new Christians in Rome by promising them that they are God's people and will receive God's love through grace God's promise of love and forgiveness comes even though the new Christians do not deserve to be beloved The Biblical quote is a fitting beginning for a novel that deals with love and forgiveness The epigraph also creates the tone for the opening chapter of the novel, which deals with

Beloved, the destructive ghost of Sethe's daughter who causes problems for Sethe Although Beloved was never a slave, she was a victim of bondage, for Sethe killed her so she would never have to endure the hardships of servitude like her mother Even though Sethe claims it

to be an act of salvation, she eventually haves to suffer the guilty of murdering her daughter

2. A new manifestation of motherhood

Toni Morrison, in Beloved, expresses her praise of the sacred motherhood that a black

slave mother, has for her children The love is vividly portrayed in the milk stealing scene in the first chapter Since Sethe was not only deprived of nursing from her mother for the first few weeks of life but also she was also left hungry, she fully understands the importance of breastfeeding for both mothers and children On that basis, she is concerned about providing

milk for her children as she shares with Paul D “all I knew was I had to get my milk to my

baby girl” (p.10) Her milk is all she has for her children and even though she is violated,

she still makes sure that her children have enough milk by telling “the women in the wagon

to put sugar in cloth to suck from so when I got there in a few days she wouldn’t have forgot me”(p.10) According to Barzey (2015), Sethe’s love is symbolized by her ability to

breastfeed them Therefore, after the schoolteacher and his nephews stole her breast milk, she reported the misdeed to Mrs Garner as a way of expressing her anger Yet when she spoke of the incident, she was even angrier about the fact that they had stolen her milk intended for Beloved than the severe whipping that leaves permanent scars on her back She

keeps repeating twice that “and they took my milk” (p.11) Sethe’s maternal love somehow

recalls us of that of Fantine in Les Miserable who is forced by circumstances to sell her hair and front teeth and become a prostitute in order to get some pennies for her daughter Their maternal instinct is so strong that they regardless of skin colors are both willing to do anything to support their children

Unlike vulnerable Fantine who, probably like other mothers, sacrifices her beauty and

health for the sake of her daughter, Sethe in Beloved would rather kill her children than subject them to the horrors of slavery Toni Morrison’s Beloved explores one of the most

poignant and devastating effects of servitude on motherhood It is slavery that turns children

of slaves into property- the property that is sadly not slaves’ but their masters’ Morrison also explores the fact that slave mothers are not allowed to raise or nurse their own children More deeply than anyone else, as a victim of slavery, Sethe understands that a life of bondage is full of injustice and indignity Therefore, she cannot leave her children living the life she has endured; death is much kinder than slavery

Sethe’s infanticide still remains a controversial topic No matter from which perspective each reader sees the event, it is undeniable that all mothers will do their best for their children Slavery may force mothers to make such harsh decisions that no mother should have to make but it never can destroy maternal love Thanks to Morrison, all the moral truths are once again portrayed dramatically and clearly

The next part reveals our thoughts on this novel and the first chapter in particular In other words, we will present outstanding features in terms of writing style and the plot as well as discuss subtle points which may cause confusions for readers

IV. Evaluations

1. Strengths

a. Metaphors

One of the factors making “Beloved” a popular novel is the author’s writing style full

of sensations and meanings Morrison knows exactly what she wants to convey and how to

do it, and she exploits every aspect of her subject by using various techniques including

metaphors According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (p.925), “a metaphor

is a word or phrase used to describe somebody or something else, in a way that is different

from its normal use, in order to show that the two things have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful” In the first chapter“124” serves as a metaphorical

symbol

“124 WAS SPITEFUL Full of a baby's venom” (p.1)

“Beloved” opens with the house numbered 124, a repeated mantra that suggests

numerological possibilities On one symbolic level, the numbers 1, 2 and 4 add up to 7which

is the number of letters on Beloved's headstone In Christian lore, the number 7 represents charity, grace, and the Holy Spirit, as well as completion and perfection As we will see later

in the novel, Beloved's death signifies the end of all these elements in both Sethe's life and the life of her family When Beloved died, the family lost the charity of the townspeople, the grace of a happy life together and Baby Suggs's connection to the Holy Spirit The family became incomplete and imperfect Furthermore, the house numbered 124 is itself symbolic

of the fact that Sethe's dead child's anger and bitterness continue to haunt and define 124 as her home (and her life) Howard and Buglar, Sethe’s first and second children are forced to run away years ago when the baby is angry, ghostly outbursts became too much for them to handle Denver, Sethe's fourth child, still lives with her mother in the house at the start of the novel The dead child whose spirit breaks dishes and clatters on the stairs was Sethe's third child, and her physical absence is represented by the fact that the house number lacks the number three

b. Flashbacks

Apart from metaphors, Morrison also demonstrates her tremendous talent for using flashbacks effectively Liz (2014) defined a flashback in literature as an occurrence in which a character remembers an earlier event that happened before the current point of the

story Flashbacks are often employed to provide additional information about characters and create suspense or add structure to a story

Right in the first chapter of Beloved, the technique is applied to explain more detail about the current state of the house, “by 1873, Sethe and her daughter were [the ghost’s]

only victims” (p.5) Flashbacks are also triggered by Sethe when telling Paul D about her

two sons running away from 124 “by the time they were thirteen years old- as soon as

merely looking in a mirror shattered it (that was the signal for Buglar); as soon as two tiny hand prints appeared in the cake (that was for Howard)” (p.5)

Thanks to Toni’s clever use of flashbacks, very few readers will miss the experimental

structure of Beloved It is not a linear tale, told from the beginning to the end The novel, in

essence, is written in fragments of memories The juxtaposition of the past with the present serves to reinforce the idea than the past is alive in the present no matter how many years have passed by As written in the first chapter, Sethe works hard to block her painful memories of the past but the appearance of Paul D once again evokes them all over Other authors like Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five and Julio Cortazar in Rayuela choose to tell their stories completely out of chronological order Unlike them, Toni structures her masterpiece in a way that flashbacks and present events are clearly switchable Therefore, it

is easier for readers to determine the time when events really happen and to grasp the flow

of the novel

c. Ironies

Morrison’s works are often full ironies and Beloved is no exception In the first chapter,

ironies are visibly manifested in various images such as the chokecherry tree, Sweet Home and the hat Let’s examine what lies behind Sweet Home Pretty obviously, the place sounds like a heaven based on how it is named However, it is literally more like a hell where slaves

have to bear extreme hardships as Paul D noted “it wasn’t sweet and it sure wasn’t

home”(p.6) Specifically, right in Sweet Home, Sethe was whipped and raped while Sixo

was killed after years of ruthless exploitation By using this ironic symbol, Morrison subtly strips the essence of the contemporary society

d. The chapter’s plot

The very first chapter presents a paradox about maternal love N.K Jemisin in The

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms once said “In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess”.

Tragically, Sethe, the goddess in this situation, ultimately decides to murder her own daughter with a handsaw even though she tries her best to make sure her body is storing enough milk for her children The question is why a mother can do such horrible things to her own children With this paradox, right from the first chapter, Toni successfully works up the reader’s thirst for the answer

From the beginning to the arrival of Paul D, the chapter is written in low and pleasant tone It is not until Paul D shows his sexual compassion to Sethe that the ghost vents its rage

by rushing a table toward him and making the house pitch However, Paul D shouts at it

“Leave the place alone! Get the hell out!” (p.11), and the house suddenly stops lurching.

Unlike other novels of horror genre, by letting the ghost appear right from the first chapter, Morrison wants to expose the unique African culture in which tales related to ghosts,

poltergeists are passed down through generations as a result of the troubled psychic state of

a person (Tiny Jump, 2010) Successive questions about the ghost come into reader’s mind: where it comes from, what it embodies and whether it disappears forever Its presence truly evokes the reader’s curiosity and readers are appealed to the novel right from the very first chapter