Paul D and the Gang! Welcome to Beloved by Tony Morrison

Hi! I'm Dominic Repucci, and I've been reading the novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison.  

To provide a little bit of an introduction as to why I'm writing this blog, the major purpose is to share my thoughts and observations regarding Morrison's novel as a part of my AP English class.  The following blog post will cover my thoughts regarding the first quarter of the novel.

    Toni Morrison never ceases to amaze me with her use of magical realism.  Beloved starts right out with a section of magical realism, as Baby Suggs is theoretically a dead character and somehow still has the capacity to interact with Denver and Sethe! But I forgot something, in order to understand this, you all need to understand who the characters are! I’ll start out with the main character of the novel, who is Sethe.  Sethe is a single mother, who has lived an interesting life.  She used to be married to a man named Halle, of which she had a daughter with, whose name is Denver.  Just a quick note here.  I’ve read Toni Morrison before, in the form of Song of Solomon.  In that novel, there were stories and significances behind all of the names, but I have yet to figure out the significance of the names in Beloved.  Now back to the characters.  Sethe seems troubled because of her loss of Halle, and also because of the loss of her mother in law Baby Suggs.  Baby Suggs gave birth to eight different children, one of which was Halle.  Sethe has been raped before, which unfortunately occurred during her pregnancy with Denver.  This could contribute to Sethe’s seeming misogynistic view (I don’t know if it's to the extent of misogyny, but she has a distrust for males).  Now on to Denver.  Denver and Sethe seem to have an oppositional relationship, especially upon the arrival of Paul D (and no, I’m not talking about the reality TV star Pauly D, the character’s name is actually Paul D).  Denver is a very lonely person, and has a little house hideout for herself where she can run away from the family.  Her belief in the ghost of Baby Suggs is alarming, but not a new style of Morrison, so I believe it’s just a symbol for the fact that Denver doesn’t trust her mother and is looking for outside help.  Things at home get especially rough for Denver upon the arrival for Paul D, who seems to be a traveler without a home.  His immediate sexual gestures towards Sethe at just about the instant he arrives show his true abilities to treat a woman in a bad manner.  However, Sethe is lonely as well and seems to take a liking to Paul D.  The final important character that is introduced in this first quarter of the book is “Beloved”.  Yes, Beloved is the first name of the character.  Beloved is a young female without a place to go, so Sethe and Denver (as well as Paul D) take her into the house at 124 (I forgot to mention, the setting of this novel seems to be somewhere around Cincinnati).  Beloved can be characterized by her want to hear about stories, particularly those of pain, from Sethe.  Beloved seems to foil Denver in this manner, as Denver hates hearing stories.  This proves to be ironic because Denver and Beloved seem to get along especially well.  Just about the only person who doesn’t like Beloved in the 124 house seems to be Paul D.  I’m yet to learn more about Paul D Garner’s dislike for Beloved.

    In terms of overarching themes that I think may develop, I see the possibility of the complexities of transition from slavery into normal life, and the problems that may stem from the transition.  To paint this picture quickly, Sethe and Paul D have the capacity to develop a relationship so quickly because they knew each other prior to this encounter at the 124 house.  They knew each other on the Home Sweet slave plantation, and now have left and live in the North.  Bottom line, most of the older characters used to be slaves in the South.  Paul’s full name is Paul D Garner, but Garner is not his actual last name, it is the last name of his plantation owner.  I could also see this turning into a coming of age novel, as Denver seems to have many problems at home.  Morrison could revert to her style of the journey myth, just as she continued similar trends to that of which she had in Song of Solomon.  I have to admit, I did laugh when Morrison provided yet another in depth description of a character urinating.  I’ll update as soon as I finish the next quarter of this book!

Thanks for reading,

Dom