American Literature

The Beloved by Toni Morison is a detailed account of events that exemplify thoughts and memories of the past days to relive the experiences of the African American as they suffered during the dangers of slavery. Memory in this novel plays the role of a voice that verbalizes the realities of slavery for both men and women. Morrison achieves this by structuring memories in the combination of the past s well as the present. The visions of these memories go a notch higher in arousing silenced emotions and forgotten experiences during slavery. Morrisons novel holistically serves as a meditation on the lasting effects of slavery as personified by the Beloved and the resulting mother-daughter bond. In addition, the novel invests greatly in the heterosexual relationship of a couple in the historical meaning.

Succinctly wrought in flashbacks, Toni Morrison captures his concerns modeled on memories as she allows the readers to travel with her in the paths that brought together the creation of the literary piece the Beloved. Arguably, memory in the Beloved seizes a center stage as Toni Morrison takes a direct path to bring to the reader the little known past of the characters, to purposefully depict the present and the future. In Beloved, memory comes out clearly as both incapacitating and treacherous sense of the human consciousness. For example, Sethe endures a host of oppression in the self imposed valleys of memory. This becomes evident in how she is insatiably obsessed with her past experiences which she remembers every now and then (43-47). In addition, Sethe is forced not only to explore but also give account of the overpowering sense of desire, craving and longing for something that is beyond her beloved, her daughter and herself (Morrison, 67-75). Although Beloved comes out as an ideal and physical manifestation of these memories, what is enshrined in her will and her memories are indeed tied in the emotions, thoughts and experiences of Sethe.

The mental picture of the events of slavery endures time and become a recurring factor that haunts all t hose people that were involved in the slavery. In her novel, Morrison uses memory to construct the past to be visible by making the pictures and images of slavery to be projected outwardly.  Essentially, this plays a role of helping the reader to become an integral part of the experiences of slavery which happens through memories. Arguably, Morison use of memory in her novel the Beloved suggests that it is prudent to move on in life despite how hard the going is. As a result, our past experiences are too hard to forget and regardless of how horrific and devastating it was, it does not change therefore, the memories we develop over this past largely determines how we move on in future. Apparently, this is Morisons critical theme in the novel the Beloved.

The struggle of Sethe is a more representation of memories which definitely is depicted as a personal process towards self negation. In light of this, the identity of Sethe, following her past experiences and what she can remember, is complicated, elaborate and almost consumed by her memory (Morrison, 78-83).  Memory is the struggle of a human being against their self power and relative to Seths insatiable efforts to forget, it is plausible to argue that memory is the struggle against forgetting. The personalized efforts to remember our past accounts are evidenced as a means of exchange where people renew their ancient concerns and personalize them. This follows the asserted aspect of a process such that we effort to access the stores of our private images and association to basically associate ourselves with the past.  In the Beloved, Toni Morrison implicitly suggests that the crisis of Sethe is by no means unique and thus memory is self destructive struggle power.

To succinctly survive in the world, it is imperative that one must depend on the integration as well as acceptance of the past as well as the present irrespective of the bitterness of the past. This becomes the basis on which Toni Morrison constructs events that are analogous to   pattern onto which the human mind functions. The activity of memory enables Sethe to restructure her past realities because the radiance that she brings to every episode through these theatrical recurring images, postulates the understanding of herself.

Memory in this novel helps the reader to concisely follow Sethe on her journey that moves from her being a woman who just identifies herself as a mother to a level where she identifies herself as a human being (Morrison, 81-89). Accordingly, Toni Morrison suggests that memory is a powerful language that helps to recognize the present state of affairs and connect it to the past something that Proust echoes vividly. As such, the joy certitude that returns in the life of Sethe originates from this connection of memory.

Slavery in the Beloved is depicted from a feminine perspective. Accordingly, the novel centers on Sethe, her past and how her first daughter died (Morrison, 52-57). As a consequence, Morrison uses feature of the female gothic writing and the overall themes such as the use of memory, motherhood, repression and living in confined places. With regard to this, she bases her novel on the devastating effects of slavery and the subsequent liberation of slaves. She pictures in a coherent manner the brutal image of slavery to reifor3ethe concept of repercussions of slaves. As such, these effects are manifested as a psychological torture and trauma expressed through memory.

The importance of the past in Beloved clearly builds the concept of memory. For instance, the importance and most captivating theme in this novel reside in the question of the past being inevitable to ones subconscious mind. The past is something that is hard to forget and regardless of how horrific it may be, it is indisputable that it can not be changed. Significantly, what is chosen to be done by the memory of the past definitely shapes the future. Construed as history, the theme of memory and the past in Beloved is reinforced by the fact that the novel is historical in itself. Morison uses characters and the language that embody the historical event which must be remembered. For instance, Beloved is overcome by the memory of the past at the time she spots Mr. Bodwin whom she believes to be the Whiteman who is coming fro her. Seeing Sethe runs fro him, she believes that the past is appearing into her present and thus she runs away in escape (Morrison, 48-56).

Morrison suggests that the past is horrible due to questions of slavery and the recovery of memories and she further claims that the past is possible of destroying an individual. However, our ability to move on in life and develop into normal beings depends on the healthy relationship which we have with our past. In addition, the benefits of memory is the personal confirmation of the self and if such is represented in art as in the case of Beloved by Morrison, it facilitates the second living which serves as both the historical and spiritual appraisal of ourselves because, life is a journey as enshrined in our most ancient metaphor. Moreover, memories show the impact oppression in the light of slavery had on blacks. Most slaves had to suppress these memories in a bid  to forget about a traumatic past. However, this suppression only leads to the disintegration of an individual as well as the loss of identity. For instance, Denver, Paul and Sethe all loss their identities which possibly can be salvaged by the fact that they accept their bitter past (Morrison, 97-101). Morrison therefore opens up these suppressed memories to how the horrific past can be healed in art through constructing it in form of creative language and thereby recount on the painful memories.

To recap, the Beloved puts in a nutshell irreconcilable models of memory. For instance, the memory by Sethe demonstrates how history is conveyed in dynamics of the nature of life that ranges from coming together, to instituting a relationship. Morrison has dwelt on memory to address history through Sethe which represents the possibility of human consciousness. The reader is able to see the Beloved as a literary piece that reaches into various accounts of the history of the American society. As it assumes that slavery in America ended in 1863, it equally haunts the reader to frown at the past. Morrison uses the Beloved to picture the recovery of human dignity in the history of America and at the same time challenges the faith of the American society in resolving the historical trauma.