The novel is centered on Sethe, a mother of four children and an escape from slavery on a Kentucky plantation 18 years ago. She lives with her daughter, Denver, in a shabby house at 124 Bluestone, which they share with the ghost of a dead baby that haunts Sethe by reminding her of past tragedies. Paul D, Sethe's new lover and a former Kentucky slave man whom Sethe took in, helps shed light in Sethe's sad life. Also arriving at the doorstep is a mysterious, ill young woman who calls herself Beloved. Gradually, Beloved penetrates the lives of all who live in the haunted house, forcing Sethe to confront her nightmarish memories. Morrison's compelling scene in chapter 27 of the thirty community women congregating in front of 124 Bluestone to battle the ghost haunting the house is carefully constructed to contribute to the theme of healing and structure of the work.
As Denver is awaiting transportation for her first day on the job as Bodwin's evening nurse, thirty neighborhood women pray and sing at the edge of the yard after hearing speculations that the ghost of Sethe's dead daughter is causing the family to deteriorate. Sethe and Beloved are intrigued by the music move to the porch. "Sethe was breaking a lump of ice into chunks. When the music entered the window, she was wringing a cool cloth to put on Beloved's forehead. Sethe and she exchanged glances and started toward the window" (Morrison, 261). As Bodwin approaches in a cart with his horses to pick up Denver, Sethe is triggered by a flashback of when the schoolteacher and the slave catcher came to get her children 18 years ago. Racing towards the cart, Sethe releases the hand of Beloved and runs toward the crowd using the ice pick as an attachment of her hand to protect her Beloved. "He is coming into her yard and he is coming for her best thing. And if she thinks anything, it is no" (Morrison, 262). The thirty community women whom Sethe was running toward stop her and Beloved, on the porch by herself, disappears. "Sethe is running away from her, running, and she feels the emptiness in the hand Sethe has been holding. Now she is running into the faces of the people out there, joining them and leaving Beloved behind. Alone. Again. Then Denver, running too. Away from her to the pile of people out there." (Morrison, 262) Morrison symbolically describes this scene to illustrate Sethe and Denver moving on in life and leaving the tragedies of the past behind.
Morrison describes Beloved in this scene as having an expanding waist in order to illustrate Beloved as an expanding monster who is greedily consuming everything that belongs to the family and is shattering the fragile infrastructure the family is tentatively gripping on to. In this scene, Sethe is presented as obsessively centering all of her attention and energy into pleasing Beloved because she is penitent for her past tragedies 18 years ago when she killed Beloved in order to keep her from bondage. Morrison portrays Denver as a guard watching over the yard; the duty Denver has assumed since her mother's crime years ago. By allowing the flashback and violent attack to occur, the vicious cycle that each character is miserably engulfed by is broken, which allows a new beginning to the individuals lives.
This scene contributes to the structure of the work because it allows the novel to narrate itself in the present tense. After Sethe's violent attack, she is able to heal and no longer has to dig into the horrifying tragedies of her past. From that scene the rest of Sethe’s flashbacks and lashes in violence take place in present tense. Morrison narrates the rest of the novel in present tense in order to illustrate that the past no longer haunts Sethe as it once did. Sethe can now start a new life without reminders of her shameful past experiences.
Morrison works this scene into conveying her themes of healing and confronting past memories. After the thirty neighborhood women congregates in front 124 Bluestone singing and praying and when Mr. Bodwin comes with a cart, the thirty women stop Sethe from committing the same act she did 18 years ago. Sometimes getting rid of, or not having a reminder of, one's past tragedies will allow room to heal. When Beloved disappears, Sethe is able to heal. Sethe and Denver can conduct a life of peace and harmony without being disturbed by the ghost from Sethe's past.
Morrison's deepest purpose for constructing this scene is to illustrate a time for healing, a theme that Morrison develops from this compelling scene. After this violent episode and Beloved disappearing, Sethe and Denver are finally able to resume their lives with peace and harmony, as Morrison symbolically represents when Sethe releases Beloved and run towards the crowd with Denver. Morrison illustrates the healing process taking place in her conclusion when each character seeks ways to better their lives and situations. Denver is working at the Bodwin's to help the family, and may possibly attend Oberlin College while Sethe is restoring her self-esteem with the help of Paul D.
In talking with Paul D about Home Sweet Home and their past, Sethe says, “but it's where we were, All together. Comes back whether we want it to or not" (Morisson, 14). The way Sethe personifies the past with a demon that shows up without warning to wreak havoc on the one possessed, is an image that continues to come up throughout the book. In fact, Sethe has difficulty in dealing with the past so much so, that she expends all of her energy on it, leaving little to build a future. "Her brain was not interested in the future. Loaded with the past and hungry for more, it left her no room to imagine, let alone plan for the next day" (Morrison, 70).
Baby Suggs and Sethe are not the only ones who are left dealing with an all-consuming past. Paul D and Ella, along with the rest of the community, are plagued with similar issues. In fact, as mentioned earlier, Sethe says while talking to Paul D, that they are "all together" in dealing with Home Sweet Home. Hence, Paul D begins to share his memories, finding it difficult to speak about something he has never before shared (Morrison, 71). However, just as he begins to reveal some of the darkest parts of his past, he stops because saying more might push them both to a place they couldn't get back. He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be. (Morrison, 73)
To this, Sethe responds by rubbing his knee trying to calm the both of them in "beating back the past" (Morrison, 73). The difficulty they have in dealing with the past is obvious and, the fact that both keeping pushing it back in an effort to escape it, is no wonder.
Ella, another member of the community which is found with a past just as terrible, is found taking a different view to the way it comes back to haunt:
Ella didn't like the idea of past errors taking possession of the present…Daily life took as much as she had. The future was sunset and the past something to leave behind. And if it didn't stay behind, well, you might have to stomp it out. (Morrison, 256)
Hence, Ella looked forward to the future with a positive view. In believing, that no one's past should have so much power, Ella, upon realizing that Sethe and the others at 124 are being invaded by the past, decides to help. In bringing together the women of the community to act as a support for each other, as they once did in the clearing when Baby Suggs was a preacher, they are able to accomplish what Sethe could not do on her own. By unifying their strength, they broke 124 free from past's firm hold, so that future's sun could shine.
Having this accomplished, Sethe and Paul D are able to realize: "[they] got more yesterday than anybody. [And] need some kind of tomorrow" (Morrison, 273). Hence, they are able to feel the support that Baby Suggs once enjoyed, which enables them to realize that they can have a future when their energy is used in planning one rather than escaping the past.
As is seen in the last chapter, this revelation applies not only to Sethe and to Paul D. Through the use of "everybody", "their", and "they" this chapter seems to have been written by the community itself with the final understanding being that the past is at times better forgotten and not passed on. Baby Suggs continually told Sethe, "lay em down.” So the last words of the book are translated with the hope that all will take the advice and move on to the future, not forgetting the past, but simply letting it remain in there. (Morrison, 86)
Morrison is successful at combining elements of structure and theme to facilitate the course of the novel’s events to take place.
The narrative jumps from one setting to another, from the past to the present. However, the complex chronology is necessary to understand the psychological and emotional state of all the participants in the story. Events that occurred prior and during the 18 years of Sethe's freedom are slowly revealed and pieced together throughout the novel. Ever so painfully, Sethe is in need of rebuilding her identity and remembering the past and her origins. The author moves around the characters allowing each participant in the story a turn--Baby Suggs, Paul D, Stamp Paid, Denver, Sethe and Beloved--to convey their perceptions of events to the reader. These various voices act as witnesses to Sethe's experiences and showing how black women had no control over their husbands, children or own bodies.
Racial issues are one of the main issues in Beloved. The story revolves around the life of a former slave and her attempts to get on with her life as best as she can, considering what the white slave owners have put her through. The cruelties of the slaves by the slave owners in this story are probably conservative compared to what really occurred in many cases. This novel is about emotions and perceptions of African-Americans and of the burden of sorrow that they have inherited from being deprived of their homeland and treated like animals. Sethe's mother threw away the children of the abusers, exercising the choice to kill, as her daughter will do herself later. One did it for hate and the other one for love, but for both mother and daughter the choice to kill was the ultimate act of protection.
Gender issues are also dominant in the story. Three of the four main characters are female, and it not only tells the story of an ex-slave but of a woman's life. Slavery is the cause of Sethe being in the situation she is. The bulk of the story deals with the relationship between a single mother (Sethe), her daughter (Denver) and a female stranger (Beloved). Sethe's relationship to Paul D is a source of contrast on the three women. Sethe and Paul D could symbolize the joint potential of a people united no longer held apart from slavery and a possible solution to heal everyone's pain. The freedom to love one another.
The story revolves around the scars and the psychological state of African-Americans during and after slavery. Beloved materializes when Seth's plantation past re-emerges with a visit from a fellow ex-slave, Paul D. He offers her love and the possibility of a new life. This triggers Beloved incarnation that is extremely jealous to be recognized as the proof of her mother's deed. The signs indicating that the young woman was Seth's child materializing in flesh and blood were many, such as her name 'Beloved' and her weak neck: "Her neck, its circumference no wider than a parlor-service saucer, kept bending and her chin brushed the bit of lace edging her dress" (Morrison, 50). The sudden emergency Sethe experienced as she noticed Beloved, remind the reader of Sethe giving birth. Beloved's struggle to reclaim connection with her mother, could symbolize their struggle for freedom by reclaiming their past. In order to never forget their enslaved history and confrontation could be the catalyst to growth.
Although this novel is full of symbolism and metaphors, the ghost of Sethe's dead baby could reflect the author's beliefs in the paranormal. Anyone who enters the house on Bluestone Road actually witnesses the presence of this ghost which may symbolize slavery's "rememories" that haunt Sethe and her people throughout the story. All of the characters try to repress their memories, which need to be faced and exorcised as you would a ghost.
The end of this novel emphasizes the importance of the community and the individual's search for self which characterizes the survival struggle of Black Americans. Sethe is destroyed by her memories and her isolation with the ghost of Beloved, (representing the memories of slavery) until the community intervenes and saves her. The black community and their cohesiveness and harmony are an essential factor to further the healing of hundreds of years of slavery and political abuse.
