Joel Booster
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Who is Beloved?
by Joel Booster
“I AM
BELOVED and she is mine.”
-Toni Morrison, Beloved
“You think she was sure enough YOUR sister?
What if
that girl was sure enough not a girl, but something more?”
-Toni Morrison, Beloved
These two passages from the novel Beloved both describe
in some way the book’s title character. Who was Beloved?
Was she the allegorical bride of vengeful love to her mother,
or was she the reflection of past pain and hardship to a community
of former slaves? These questions are both answered and not
answered numerous times throughout the text. It seems as though
Morrison, through her quest to explore the lives and experiences
of the freed slave, misstepped in her narrative, leaving the
reader without a clear picture of who or what Beloved is supposed
to be. The ambiguity of such a question is neither addressed,
nor accepted by Morrison in her book. Because of the disjointed
amount of narrative and first person descriptions of Beloved
and her effects on the family and community to which she set
upon, Morrison does not allow for any clear answers to be built
up, because she herself tears them down. We hear from Beloved
that she is Sethe’s. We see through the eyes
of the narrator that Beloved is neither Sethe’s, nor
anyone else’s—merely a ghostly manifestation of
pain that is associated with Sethe, but effecting everyone
else as well. Whether manifesting the psychological frustrations
of Denver, or the merely the emotional repository for an entire
community of former slaves, it is both clear and unclear that
Beloved’s influence reaches far beyond the property lines
of 124. In Lynda Khoolish’s article “To Be Loved
and Cry Shame,” She summarizes this thesis quite accurately
when she stated, “Morrison makes the question of who
Beloved is so ambiguous that the characters as well as the
readers of the novel are frequently confused as to Beloved’s
identity” (171). Through this ambiguity, Morrison added
to the mystique of the character overall, but weakened the
effectiveness of Beloved as a character through her inability
to paint a clear picture of what her presence was meant to
be.
One could argue quite clearly, that Beloved’s purpose
in the novel has to do solely with her relationship with her
mother Sethe. The most valid argument has to do with the fact
that Beloved’s presence in the novel has everything to
do with the actions that Sethe took when Beloved was a baby.
Obviously, if Sethe had not murdered Beloved when she was a
child, Beloved would not be present now in ghost like form.
There are numerous images throughout the novel that speak about
Beloved needing only Sethe, and no one else, “licking
up devotion from Sethe like a starving dog” (Morrison,
287). Passages such as these speak not only to Beloved’s
need emotionally, but Morrison goes on in passages such as
these to describe how Beloved literally seems to be sapping
physical energy away from her mother. “As Beloved grew
fatter with every passing day, so too did Sethe grow thinner… Giving
up every ounce of food and energy she had to keep Beloved happy.” (Morrison
290). No where in the novel does it describe this effect of
Beloved on anyone else, nor does anyone else observe an ounce
of the “hunger in her eyes” while looking at anyone
but Sethe.
However, this lack of hunger could speak about the effects
that absence has on other individuals throughout the story.
Paul D describes a distinct uneasy feeling while observing
this same hunger in Beloved’s eyes when she looked on
Sethe (Morrison 143). In her article, Mary Carden suggests
that because Paul D notices such a hunger in Beloved’s
eyes, Beloved serves as a mirror to his own desires, deeper
than he is willing to acknowledge at this point (414). This
fixation of Beloved on Sethe makes it seem as though Sethe
is the only important factor in her life, and that perhaps
Sethe and Beloved are the only important characters in the
novel, however by examining how their actions towards each
other effects the other accessory characters in the story,
Beloved’s function in the novel becomes unclear. Is it
to simply further Sethe’s character by embodying the
love that she attempted to save by murdering her child, or
does Beloved represent something much deeper? By reflecting
back at Paul D his own emotions, Beloved could perhaps serve
as a mirror for the entire community of former slaves, reflecting
back the desires that they so desperately suppress, because
they themselves have sacrificed those same desires because
they wanted to keep them away from their own personal “school
teacher” (Koolish, 185).
Reginald Watson describes this kind of “physical and
emotional milking” as Morrison’s way of manifesting
both the guilt and burden of Sethe, and the willingness of
Sethe to give herself over to such a burden as “the natural
sacrificial bond which occurs between a mother and a child
starting from morning sickness until the weaning process” (Watson
161). The bond of mother and daughter that Sethe and Beloved
shared is stressed upon countless times throughout this novel,
and speaks to perhaps what could be Beloved’s main purpose
in the novel, a physical manifestation of a mother’s
grief and love. Beloved returns, and suddenly Sethe’s
attention is turned to nothing but her, and her needs. Her
motherly instincts, combined with the guilt over her own role
in her daughter’s murder immediately kicks in, and she
can do nothing but “explain away her own actions, and
throw herself over Beloved in the most embarrassing way.” (Morrison
296). Beloved, in this way isolates herself from not only from
Denver, but the entire community. “By emphasizing the
mother-daughter bond between [Beloved and Sethe] the novel
seemingly forces away the importance of setting, character,
and history in much the same manner that Beloved ultimately
forces Paul D from the house” (Watson 173). The dynamic
of their familial relationship ultimately forces the focus
to be centered on Beloved and Sethe as mother and daughter.
This dynamic focuses little on Denver, Paul D, or the African-American
slave community at all.
Throughout the novel however, the mother and daughter relationship
is only emphasized through someone else’s explanation.
Through Denver’s own narratives of what their relationship
meant to her, is the only gateway we have into what their relationship
was actually like. “By having Denver be the one to explain
the latter part (the destruction part) of Beloved and Sethe’s
relationship, Morrison creates the ‘other sight’ of
the youngest daughter” (Watson, 162). By creating this
other sight, the reader cannot fully understand the complexity
of what was going on in the house near the end of the novel.
While there is no reason to suggest that perhaps Denver’s
narrative is less reliable then the other’s in the book,
it is plausible to suggest that Beloved appears only to represent “the
jealous love that absence creates when a mother surreptitiously
detaches the love that is placed on one child, and refocuses
it onto another, (what the displaced child will feel is the)
more favorable child” (Watson, 161). In this way, Beloved’s
purpose in the novel ceases to have anything to do with the
relationship that she shares with Sethe, but rather exists
to contrast for the reader the relationship of Sethe and Denver,
with that of the newly found Beloved and Sethe. Beloved in
a similar way contrasts Sethe’s relationships with every
character in the novel.
In an article for MELUS, Peggy Ochoa not only asserts that
Morrison utilized the Biblical book of Song of Solomon, and “revised
it to inform the relationships between Morrison’s characters… Specifically
the relationship between Beloved and her mother Sethe” (Ochoa
107). Ochoa specifically makes the case that Beloved represents
the Old Testament bride described throughout the various poems
in Song of Solomon. Just as the need for love seemingly pulled
Beloved back from the grave to her mother’s side, “the
pain of separation from one who is object of overwhelming love
is an integral part of the Biblical text” (Ochoa 115).
Beloved, similarly to the bride of Solomon in the Bible, laments
the separation that forces her away from her mother’s
(or lover’s) side. Sethe, on the flip side of the equation
could easily be seen as the object of love in that she abandoned
Beloved in her time of need, just as in the biblical passage: “I
opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself
and was gone” (Song of Solomon, 5:6). Beloved, in this
reading of the text, exists to embody the painful longing that
results from abandonment. By looking at these two women as
the allegorical manifestations of the lovers in the Biblical
text, the relationship between Beloved and Sethe becomes paramount,
and all other relationships throughout the novel cease to become
anything more than distractions to the story at hand. Beloved
in this sense, represents what Ochoa calls “[Sethe’s]
painful past… the abandoned portion of that past” (Ochoa
116). By putting such an emphasis on Beloved and Sethe’s
relationship, Morrison seems to be talking about the power
of love, and its ability to transcend the grave in Beloved’s
case. The bond between these two women transcends history and
culture, and the community in which they live. By focusing
on the importance of the relationship between Sethe and Beloved,
allegorizing them as the biblical lovers, Morrison makes a
distinct comparison between the biblical passage “I am
my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” (Song of Solomon,
6:3) and Beloved’s statement “I AM BELOVED and
she is mine” (Morrison, 214). In this way it becomes
obvious that Beloved’s purpose in the novel is all about
Sethe, and has little or nothing to do with the hardships of
the community in which she appears.
While the allegorical relationship between Sethe and Beloved
makes a strong case for the importance of Beloved and Sethe’s
relationship, and her existing as an image of jealous loving
rage, the evidence to suggest such a relationship between the
two does not exist within the text. Even Ochoa who attempted
to make the case herself admits that “Although Beloved
physically resembles Solomon’s beloved more than Sethe
does, the circumstances of Sethe’s life and her time
as a bride more closely parallel that of the biblical counterpart” (Ochoa,
119). In this way, Beloved does not have any place in the novel
as an image of much else but the catalyst of what the events
that propel Sethe and Denver out of their house, and change
their lives forever. In fact, because of Beloved’s absence
by the end of the story, the comparison to the Biblical couple
cannot be made, as the latter couple is defined less so by
the journey of their relationship, but the ultimate end—their
bond being made permanent, never changing and forever strong.
Without this bond, without this ending dynamic, Beloved cannot
be added into this equation, but rather the people who end
the book bonded and permanent must be considered the bride
and groom. In this way, Morrison, in keeping with the biblical
allusion makes the case that the Sethe (and indeed, all of
the former slaves) and her memories are all that are left to
be bonded together (Ochoa, 126). By the end of the novel, Beloved
is merely one in a large grouping of painful memories that
exists to physically and emotionally torment those who still
live to be effected by them. Marginalized by her ultimately
anticlimactic end, the focus is taken off of the Sethe/Beloved
relationship, and instead put on the former slaves’ relationship
to their life now, as opposed to what they left behind, and
how they reconcile those differences.
Beloved herself claims that she is Sethe’s. Or rather,
she says that “she” is mine (Morrison, 214). However
the reader is left unsure of whom exactly Beloved is talking
about. We are to assume that Beloved is speaking about Sethe,
however this assumption is based off of in equal parts what
the reader does know, and what the reader does not know. The “she” in
this passage could be an informal “she,” referring
to the woman race as a whole. Beloved could be claiming the
womanhood that she never had a chance to live out in her original
life. When she was murdered as an infant, Beloved had no chance
to experience the womanhood that is afforded to Denver, her
younger sister. Returned now, as a ghostly presence in the
house, she is neither able to live out her life as a woman,
or a true “she.” The text here builds the case
that Beloved is fixated on Sethe, but it could also be said
that Beloved is instead fixated on the idea of womanhood in
general. In this same passage, Beloved expresses “the
inability to separate herself from her mother… her identity
becomes unclear, even to herself” (Koolish, 176). In
this way, Beloved represents the sexuality that is not able
to come forth because of the abandonment at a young age by
Sethe. According to Koolish, in this way Beloved cannot represent
anything to do with Sethe alone, for she represents the psychological
displacement of all African American slave girls of that period
(Koolish, 187). However, the text simply says “She is
mine,” and goes on further to talk about the displacement
from her mother, who in this section is the only individual
called “She.” In this way, Sethe could both be
representative of Beloved’s loss, and her confusion. “I
AM BELOVED, and she is mine” could be talking about Sethe’s
identity, or her womanhood in general. Returning, and not being
able to have lived out her life, but rather skipping ahead
into womanhood, caused the displacement of identity and therefore
Beloved became a mirror of what her own actions caused. In
this way, Beloved becomes a reflection of Sethe’s
own actions, and is not meant to represent the reflection of
anyone but Sethe.
To say that Beloved represents only something to Sethe in the
novel, ignores the text that supports her affect on every other
character throughout the story. Baby Suggs, for instance, who
never knew Beloved as anything but a “crawling, already?
Child” (Morrison, 41). Baby Suggs it seemed only to want
to watch the colors and gave up much of what she loved about
her life because of the death of Beloved. While it was less
about the actual death of her grandchild, and more about the
act of murder that was committed by her daughter, the effects
on Baby Suggs psyche were numerous. “Beloved’s
presence exceeds both time and her physical life, as she went
on affecting everyone who stumbled onto that house from her
death on” (Koolish, 174). Her presence not only affected
individuals after her original death, but upon her return,
she found ways in which to profoundly touch the lives of not
only Sethe, but Paul D and Denver as well. In Paul D’s
case, Beloved forces him from the house, into the cold of storage
shed, all the while loosening the rust on the “tin can” in
which he kept his deepest secrets. Driven by her desire to
have Sethe all to herself, Beloved succeeded in not only breaking
down a bond between two individuals, but also in breaking down
the spirit of an emotionally hardened slave. Beloved, similarly
forced an immense change in Denver as well. No longer afraid
to leave the house, Denver ventures out on her own to find
work and support her mother. Denver clearly makes the largest
shift in character as she not only moves from an introverted,
emotionally lonely individual, to an empowered vision of new
generation African-American woman (Shulman, 301). The entire
community as well is affected, as for the first time in over
a decade the women of the community gather outside the property
of 124 to oust the demon that has plagued one of their own.
Beloved in this way is a unifying force. Where once she served
the purpose of disjoining the rest of the household, by the
novel’s end, she ultimately unifies an entire grouping
of people.
In the end, Beloved cannot merely be categorized as Sethe’s
alone. Although Beloved herself claims that Sethe is “hers
and hers alone” (Morrison, 210), there is also text that
supports the idea that Beloved exists as an “emotional
repository” for the community that birthed her (Khoolish,
170). But while the evidence suggests otherwise, Morrison’s
ultimate purpose in creating the character of Beloved cannot
be proved or disproved through textual support alone. The author
herself encourages readers to “arrive at readings which
may or may not coincide with those intended by the author” (Morrison,
29). However, while this goal is an admirable one to be sure,
how can one accurately prescribe an image, idea or thesis to
the ultimately ambiguous character of Beloved? Whether a manifestation
of the collision between one character’s love and guilt,
or a reflection of what the buried pain and anguish that an
entire community feels after centuries of repression, Beloved
can only exist outside of both of these ideas—a mere
catalyst for events that ultimately define both Sethe as a
character and the post emancipated African American community.
Works Cited
"Song of Solomon." The Bible. Boston: Crossroads,
2003.
Carden, Mary P. "Models of Memory and Romance: the
Dual Endings of Toni Morrison's Beloved." Twentieth
Century Literature 45 (1999): 401-427.
Koolish,
Lynda. ""to Be Loved and Cry Shame" a
Psychological Reading of Toni Morrison's Beloved." Twentieth
Century Literature 43 (2001): 169-195.
Morrison,
Toni. Beloved. New York: Vintage
Books, 1987.
Ochoa, Peggy. "Morrison's Beloved: Allegorically
Othering "White" Christianity." MELUS 24
(1999): 107-123.
Schwarz, Daniel R. "What is Deconstruction." The
Dead. New York: Bedford/St. Martin, 1994. 206-215.
Watson, Reginald. "Power of the "Milk" and
Motherhood: Images of Deconstruction and Reconstruction in
Toni Morrison's Beloved and Alice Walker's the Third Life of
Grange Copeland." CLA Journal 48 (2004): 158-182.
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