Beloved by Toni Morisson
Beloved by Toni MorissonBeloved is actually a quintessentially American story. Its topic slavery however may not seem to be a traditional one in American literature. The novel written by Toni Morrison is an American survivor�s tale, which depicts the collective experience of slavery defined by the identity of the black community in America for years. The topic of slavery continues to be a vital part of the American consciousness today, in addition, slavery as an institution was a part of American culture as a whole until the Civil War, and its repercussions on race relations are still being felt today. The genre of the survivor's tale is one way that contemporary authors can depict and discuss this formative American experience.
�Beloved� is the tale of Sethe, a survivor of slavery, and her family. Sethe is an escaped slave who made the split second decision to kill her daughter, rather than have her return to a life of enslavement. The entire novel revolves around this horrific act; the entire story is slowly unraveled through the remembrances of Sethe and others. These memories and "re-memories" do not follow chronological order. However, when they are all pieced together, the whole picture of slavery, Sethe's act, and its aftermath emerges.
A universal characteristic of the survivor's tale is the subjectivity and incompleteness of the survivor's knowledge. The author works to provide a more objective view of events by including several storytellers. Digression also provides a more complete picture by including minute details, such as the story of Miss Amy Denver and her love of velvet. Entwined with digression is regression. The story is told in the present, referring back to different points in the past. These references are interrupted, and jumbled chronologically, reflecting the survivor's inability to dwell in one area for too long and his or her own difficulty in articulating the story. Oftentimes, this regression stems from the pain of the memories.
In Beloved, these digressions and regressions take the form of "re-memory". The concept of re-memory is central in the author�s telling of Sethe's story. Sethe explains what a re-memory is to her remaining daughter Denver in the following passage:
" . . . Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was...
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