Beloved Book Review

“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” ~Toni Morrison

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/736076-beloved

Happy Women’s History Month! To start off this months of amazing women writers, I decided to choose a well known novel written by the beloved Toni Morrison called ‘Beloved’.

The novel takes place after the civil war, late January of 1856, with Margaret Lewis, an African American slave, running away from slavery in Kentucky with her two sons and her two daughters. Once she was caught, to make sure she wouldn’t get sent back, she killed Beloved and was stopped before she could killed her other children.

Going by the name Sethe, she lived with her eldest daughter Denver and her two sons, before they ran away due to the house being haunted by Beloved’s spirit. Prior to the beginning of the novel, her mother-in-law died in bed.

Sethe was then reconnected with Paul D, who was one of the slaves on the same plantation as her, Sweet Home, who tried to get the spirit out of the house and thought he was successful, until they encountered a woman who called herself Beloved.

I’ll stop right there without revealing that much of a plot, the novel itself tackled many themes: mother-daughter relationships, psychological effects of slavery, the definition of manhood, family relationships and pain. I do warn that this movie is graphic since it touches on the topic of slavery and show some scenes from it

This novel had a film adaptation released on October 16, 1998 with Oprah Winfrey playing Sethe. I recommend watching the movie after reading the novel because the movie brings out a lot of imagery to certain scenes that Sethe went through during slavery and some scenes with ‘Beloved’.

“There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker. It’s an inside kind–wrapped tight like skin. Then there is the loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive. On its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one’s own feet going seem to come from a far-off place.” ~Toni Morrison

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/736076-beloved