Morrison is Back, and More "Beloved" than Ever!

We’re back, and better than ever! Welcome to the second installment of this blog, which for those who haven’t followed yet, is about Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

I’ve recently finished the second quarter of the book, and have begun to realize some interesting trends in the novel.  The first thing that the second quarter of the book has personally done for me, is a reassurance of Toni Morrison’s writing style.  For example, upon reading Song of Solomon, Morrison included flashbacks as a primary mean of creating historical knowledge of characters.  But quickly, I’ve learned some more about the name Beloved.  Denver asked Beloved why people called her that, and the name seems to stem from some sort of name men have given to her.  Time to get back to the point here.

Song of Solomon included many interesting flashbacks, and so does Beloved, but on some level, the flashbacks are a little bit different.  In Beloved, there are so many flashbacks regarding the lives of each separate character that Morrison seems to be describing each of their lives up until the current point from at least a few years ago.  In this particular section, I was graced with further knowledge regarding the birthing of Denver, and actually how Denver was named.  Remember that girl Amy who helped Sethe give birth to her child?  Well Amy’s full name was Amy Denver, and this is how Denver got her name.  I also learned more about Baby Suggs, and how she played a role in the lives of those who live in 124.  Just a quick clarification here, I know that I mentioned the presence of Baby Suggs as almost a ghost like figure in the last post, but this is incorrect.  I think that Morrison has Denver haunted by Baby Suggs not in the literal manner, but in the manner that Denver has missed the presence of Baby Suggs ever since her death.  

So back to Baby Suggs.  Baby Suggs seemed to be an instrumental figure in the wellbeing of Sethe, not necessarily because her son is Halle (the missing husband of Sethe), but rather because she communicated and created ethical and powerful moral beliefs to the escaped slave community in and around the Cincinnati area.  Moving towards the escaped slave idea, we learned about the escape of Paul D, and how he walked from Georgia to Delaware, and then further to Ohio.  In this particular flashback, Paul D was attached to 45 other men on a chain (which was described as the finest iron in all of Georgia), and crawled under a fence to escape his “prison”.  I missed just how Paul D got out of his chain with the 45 other men, but nonetheless his journey on foot was impressive.  In between all of these very important flashbacks, problems have grown at the house in the novel’s current time.  For example, Sethe, Beloved, and Denver all venture to an old Clearing (clearing is capitalized in the novel, so I will continue the capitalization here), and somehow, Sethe ends up with some very serious bruises around her neck.  Denver accuses Beloved of creating the bruises, but I’m pretty sure this is another one of Morrison’s ventures into the magical realism realm, and hopefully I’ll find out more later.  Beloved also has been interfering with the life of Paul D, as one night she storms into his room and pleas for sexual intercourse.  This situation is even worse, especially based on the fact that Paul D just asked Sethe to bear a child for him (even after the narrator goes on some rant about how Paul D can’t handle all this stability because he doesn’t trust himself).  

Those are a lot of the major developments, but on top of that, I’ve begun to notice some overlapping themes.  Morrison has repeated some words in Beloved that I think serve as motifs.  I’ll go over two now just for kicks.  I’ve noticed a strong repetition of the word milk, especially if the milk comes from either Sethe of Baby Suggs.  Other characters always seem to be drawing on the milk of those two.  The wellbeing of Sethe seems to depend on if she has enough milk to give others or not.  A second motif I’ve noticed is the repetition of the word velvet.  Velvet has only been mentioned with the white character Amy, and so far appears to me as a dividing factor between the two races.  Amy says at one point that she desires velvet, showing that she has privilege and opportunity, and the response of Sethe is to ask Amy what exactly velvet is, showing that rather than having opportunity, Sethe does not stand in the position of whites to better her position in society.  

Thanks for tuning in again,

Dom