Anyone wanna read my English final Essay?!
Beloved as a Supernatural Text
The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, functions in many different ways. One of those ways is as a supernatural text. Much of the action in the book goes unexplained, and would seem to the practical mind to be impossible. But even in a fictional story, the way that these events are explained and depicted brings many questions to one’s mind. One can’t help but question why certain things did or didn’t happen.
The first sign of the novel Beloved having anything to do with the supernatural is when it is revealed that there is a ghost haunting the house at 124 Bluestone Road. In chapter one the reader is also told about how Sethe’s two sons, Buglar and Howard, are run off by the ghost. In the beginning of the story it is also declared that the ghost is actually the spirit of Sethe’s first born daughter, who died before she was two years old.
The supernatural dealings in this book evoke a lot of character and mystery. The type of mystery that makes the reader want to keep reading just to find out what happens. There are many supernatural / mysterious things that happen throughout the story line. Sometimes there are so many unanswered questions going through one’s mind that it gets a little confusing, because every time one mystery gets solved two more arise. But then there is something that brings it all back together.
When Paul D comes to visit Sethe after Baby Suggs’ death, he stands up to the ghost and it goes away, after that it never returns. But that is definitely not the end of the abnormal happenings in this story.
In chapter five the mysteries continue with the arrival of a strange woman on the stump in front of 124, a woman who goes by the name Beloved. The question that first arises is, where did she come from? She had new clothes and smooth “new” skin, therefore it was very unlikely that she was a slave. Later on in chapter six, Beloved asks Sethe, “Where your diamonds?/ Tell me you diamonds” (Morrison, 58.) Sethe goes on to tell the story about the diamond earrings That she received as a wedding present. The question that comes up at the end of the chapter is “how did she know?”
Throughout the book, Beloved’s actions and way of communicating are very childlike. The way she is always wanting sweet things to eat, always asking questions, and always wanting attention, especially from Sethe. All through the story, it is a constant question of exactly who Beloved is. Is she the corporeal form of Sethe’s dead child? Is she a runaway slave? Or is she a new slave just coming from the slave ships?
Ever since Beloved arrived at 124, Denver had been her “protector” per say. There is a strange connection between the two girls, they understand each other in ways that no one else has. The sisterly bond that Denver feels with Beloved is what enables her to be the first one to realize that Beloved is Sethe’s dead child. That she is the white dress that she saw kneeling beside her mother when she came home from her special place in the boxwoods.
When Sethe goes to the clearing, in chapter nine, with Denver and Beloved to seek “guidance” from Baby Suggs, something strange happens. Sethe begins to feel Baby Suggs’ hand on her neck , it goes slowly from the feeling of a massage to being choked, and not until Denver and Beloved come into the clearing from playing does the choking go away. After having left the clearing, back at the house, Denver said to Beloved, “ ‘You did it, I saw you, / I saw your face. You made her choke’ ” (Morrison, 101). Another mystery left unsolved by the brilliant Toni Morrison which leads further into the book.
Not all of the questions sparked by the many supernatural happenings in this novel are answered. Enough of ones curiosity is filled to give a sense of closure, but some is still left to keep the mind wandering, what if....
In chapter sixteen it is disclosed that Sethe was the one who killed Beloved, because she would rather have them die by their mother’s hand than to go back into slavery. She also attempted to kill her other three children as well as herself. This is very crucial evidence to the fact of why Beloved “came back.” When Paul D finally finds out he say to Sethe, “Your love is too thick” (Morrison, 164). Paul D left because of what he found out, and after that, as Stamp Paid said, “124 was loud” (Morisson, 19). Voices that sounded like the interior sounds that a woman makes when she is unobserved at her work.
When Beloved gives her monologue in chapter twenty-two, some of the question of where she came from is answered when she talks of a slave ship and describes what it was like. She also talks about a face that is hers, a face that she was to join with. At the end of the chapter she comes down with the rain and joins with her face. Now this could very possibly be the baby’s spirit coming down from heaven and merging with another slave who looked like she would have if she had lived to be that age. It is also a possibility that Beloved could be a slave girl who was kept locked away for her master’s own purposes and never let out. That would explain the new skin and the new clothes.
Sethe finally figures out who Beloved is when she hears her hum the tune that she made up and only her children knew. And when she realizes that Beloved is her daughter who has come back to her she starts trying to make up for lost time. She loses her job and tends to Beloved’s every whim. Her life withers away as Beloved becomes “over abundant.” When the women of the community find out who the new girl in Sethe’s house is, they believe that she is beating Sethe. And they come to the house to “exercise” Beloved out of the house. At the end of the book it is not specified whether it was the lady’s exorcism or not, but we do know that Beloved was gone. This time for good.
