Community in Beloved
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, the community has a very significant and complex role. At times the community has a very helpful presence and at other times harsh and harmful. This is a community of former slaves in post-Civil War era; they have been deeply scarred emotionally, psychologically, and physically by slavery. And it is through the community’s relationship with Baby Suggs and Sethe that Morrison demonstrates the slaves’ emotional and psychological scars. The former slaves do not like pride because it is the common characteristic the dominant whites that had enslaved them. The community sees pride in Baby Suggs and Sethe and therefore feels justified in punishing them. And just as the community first punishes Sethe, Morrison makes emphasizes the point that they must unite to help her in the end by exorcizing the ghost from 124.
The community serves a very critical and involved purpose, playing the ‘hero’ and ‘semi-villain’ in Beloved. For the majority of the novel, the community is very harsh and unforgiving toward Sethe. After Baby Suggs’ elaborate welcoming feast for Sethe, the community is so ashamed of their own gluttony that they blame the excessiveness on Baby Suggs. After the feast and Beloved’s murder, the community turns its back on Baby Suggs and Sethe for years. They want to punish Baby Suggs and Sethe for what they see as extravagance and pride. The day after the feast Baby Suggs noticed a “…scent of disapproval lay heavy in the air,” and she soon realized that “Her friends and neighbors were angry at her because she had overstepped, given too much, offended them by excess. (162-3)” They feel that it is their responsibility to punish Sethe and Baby Suggs to, as they see it, humble them. The dramatic transformation in the atmosphere of the community is seen at Baby Suggs’ funeral: “So Baby Suggs, holy, having devoted her freed life of harmony, was buried amid a regular dance of pride, fear, condemnation and spite.(202)” Although the community acts as a ‘semi-villain’ throughout the majority of the novel, they also have ‘hero’ moments. In the beginning of the novel, the community is seen as a caring and helpful people. When Sethe comes to the Ohio River with her newborn, Stamp Paid feeds, clothes, and transports the two to safety. There she meets Ella who gives Sethe shoes to walk in, helps her breastfeed the baby, and takes her to Baby Suggs. Much later in the novel, the community helps Denver by giving her food to take care of herself and Sethe. And most importantly the community exorcizes the ghost of 124. And with this, Morrison shows how ultimately the community is nourishing and caring. The community does exhibit ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ characteristics but more importantly is what influences their actions.
