Week 13: Beloved by Toni Morrison (6)

Beloved is an interesting book, similar to Handmaid's tale, I find it to be quite a hard read as I always find myself to be unable to concentrate on the story as my mind starts to drift. In fact, it's devoid of any visual descriptions. Hence I don't know what to imagine, and my mind gets lost in the words as I simply don't find it stimulating. 

Nonetheless, a lot of things about it is quite good. Obviously, the book discusses the effects of slavery both, during and after the enslavement in some detail. However, what I find interesting within this story is the sense of community and its consequences or benefits. As a matter of fact, a good example of that is Paul D. The reason he managed to escape with the rest of the men is because they worked together. In contrast, at the end of the spectrum is when you have no community support. We see this through Sethe's infanticide. As a matter of fact, the community has failed to informed her of schoolteacher's visit, who takes children back to his slave house, I'm not sure if it's 124. Either way, as a result, Sethe believes that there is nothing worse than slavery and believes that the only way for her daughter to escape it is through death. 

Another thing slavery does is take away one's sense of self, and we see that Denver only finds herself after Sethe alienates her by becoming more and more childlike as she spends all her time with Beloved. They need a source of money, and so Denver steps out and finds herself by integrating herself within the community. Which not only brings help to her, but also Sethe, as this action will create a willingness for the rest to come help exorcise Beloved together in order to bring back normality to the Cincinnati community.

In conclusion, slavery is extremely draining both physically and mentally, and Toni Morrison shows that with a strong and close community, humanity can get over everything and only come out stronger.

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