Beloved Pre-Reading Information
Toni Morrison’s Beloved is not an easy read. Nor is it a lovely one. This is because Morrison uses language that may be hard for some of us to read, situations that may make us feel as though we are suffering with the characters, and uncomfortable encounters to tell her story. She doesn’t hold back—nor should she. The novel asks us to explore the darkest side of human nature: mankind’s capacity to enslave and kill one another. Which is better?, Morrison seems to be asking us, to be enslaved or to come to a violent end at the hands of one who was supposed to protect you? To what lengths can a human drive another when he seeks to blot out everything that is human in her? These questions (and many more) drive the text.
So why read it? It’s not as conventionally uplifting as To Kill a Mockingbird, as satirical in tone as Huckleberry Finn, and Sethe—the woman whose crime about which we read—is infuriating at times. Morrison doesn’t paint her as the angelic embodiment of the wounded former slave. No. Instead, she seeks to make Sethe’s struggle as gritty and real as possible; therefore, we don’t always know what to think of her. The novel is an important read for us, however, simply because it’s not easy. As expert readers (and that’s what you are at this point), you must learn to be ok with struggling through a text not because the prose is difficult, but because the subject matter is. This kind of struggle produces the richest fruit. If you can be uplifted in spite of the heavy subject matter, then you know you’ve become the best kind of reader—one who seeks to be changed by the words on a page. With that said, see me if you have concerns or questions about what you read. That’s why I’m here…to serve as your guide through this text.
Important Information and Historical Context (info. borrowed from Prestwick House)
Fill in the blanks below as I discuss the following information.
o Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for the novel in the year ______. She was the first black woman to win it.
o The novel’s events span the years ______. This encompasses the last days of the ______South, the Civil War (in passing), and most of the ______era.
o The novel’s dedication to “______” refers to the nameless people who suffered death as a result of the slave trade, and this makes it clear that the work addresses the history and institution of slavery.
o The plot draws from real-world events. According to an account Morrison found while working on an anthology of black history, Margaret Garner, a runaway slave in Kentucky, killed her daughter and tried to do the same to her other children to shield them from an enslaved life. The novel, being a work of fiction, does stray from the true story in more ways than one.
o The Fugitive Slave Act, which Baby Suggs refers to as the “______” in the novel, required the return of runaway slaves. Whereas many laws previous to this one were weakened by local laws or even deemed voluntary, the Fugitive Slave Act threatened a severe ______penalty on local law enforcement agents who did not search out and apprehend runaway slaves. Additionally, any person caught aiding in the escape was jailed and fined. The law was so harsh, in fact, that Southern slave masters and Northern officers could investigate and apprehend African Americans with little or no proof. Remember this when Baby Suggs repeatedly declares, “______
______.”
o Morrison’s novel addressed the misconception that former slaves were embraced and enfranchised in the years immediately following the Civil War. Although the ______amendment of 1865 prohibited slavery and the ______amendment of 1868 provided equal protection, due process, and other citizenship rights to all peoples, formerly Confederate states passed what were known as “Black Codes.” These were passed at the local and state level to restrict voting rites and mobility of freed slaves. The 1860s and 1870s were decades filled with lynchings, the rise of the KKK, and race riots. This system of prejudice, known as ______affects each character in the novel. Morrison asks us to consider how these characters must feel in light of the cyclical nature of suffering and shame to which they seem destined.
Notes on Genre and Text:
o ______: Incorporates magic, the supernatural, or illogical situations and events among ordinary events and characters in normal settings. It is “characterized by an equal acceptance of the ordinary and the extraordinary,” according to Critic Naomi Lindstrom. This blend expresses itself in conflicts of perspective: multiple narrative points of view and the acceptance of the surreal and supernatural along with rational reality. This genre or mode of telling a story allows the fantastic to be as acceptable as the mundane to both the characters within the narrative and the reader. Elements of the genre include:
o Juxtaposition: Look for theses in Beloved: fantastic and rational, ______and ______, ______and ______, ______and ______, ______and ______.
o Absence of Author’s perspective: The writer must maintain an objective view of the narrative, and he or she cannot validate or question the presence of the supernatural. This would affect the balance between real and surreal, thus reducing the story to a simple fantasy.
o Narrative Point of View: ______, the narrator simply tells the story, allowing the characters to judge one another and themselves, without ever judging them herself. She does not impose her view. The readers are left to arrive at their own conclusions from getting inside the minds and situations of the characters.
Themes of Note (You may find more):
o Terror precludes renewal: Characters’ emotional states, especially those horrors that they don’t want to face, prevent them from moving forward. Terror, therefore, forces them to face these old horrors head on, albeit painfully. Find examples throughout the text.
o Time is cyclical instead of linear: What has happened in the past is destined to happen again (does Morrison refute or underscore this belief? Does the do one and then the other?)
o The carnivalesque: this is a literary mode in which life is portrayed in terms of the humorous, grotesque, and chaotic nature of a carnivale (for example, Mardi Gras). Normal social structures are challenged. Fools become wise, beggars become kings, etc. Look for this in the text.
Throughout the novel, decide what Morrison is trying to say through use of the following:
o A mother’s relationship to her child(ren). Focus on milk and blood. Other things may be pertinent as well.
o Scarring/Falling Apart of Bodies
o Biblical allusions, especially this one from Song of Songs 6:3: “I am my beloved’s and he is mine.” This is a bride speaking to her groom, interpreted to symbolize the promise of the Church (the bride) to Jesus Christ (the Bridegroom). Consider, when you read this repeated invocation, who is the Church and who is Christ? What does this mean?
o Color:
o Of skin (men with no skin—lack of)
o Of night vs. day
o Baby Suggs wanting to think about blue and yellow, not red
o The red light
o Sethe wanting to show Beloved all of the colors (the vegetable garden)
o What makes a person good or bad (or is there room for both)?
o Sethe
o White people—Don’t let this question offend or scare you. A couple of the characters consider this. Try to understand each character’s point of view on the matter and the circumstances that led him/her to this belief.