Published Paper Details:

Abstract: Toni Morrison's Beloved asks that question: what does freedom look like when its possibilities are behind closed doors, on neglected porches, shrouded in moonlit hallways? The book, which takes place after the American Civil War, explores the hard and long-lasting emotional scar that slavery causes -- not only on the body but also the mind and spirit. Instead of portraying slavery as an issue of physical violence, Morrison shows its effect on the human psyche, its rupture of kinship and its deformation of the sense of self. Sethe's history as an enslaved woman of Sweet Home is a horrific past that lingers with her, in freedom. So she determined to shield her children from the horrors of returning to a life of slavery that she does the unthinkable, she kills her own daughter. "The madness will not be in his, Ahab's, but in the system." This is not madness but a system that is not so much cruel as makes death a better option than continued slavery. In doing so, Morrison demonstrates how slavery works to disable a person's ability to trust, love, and decide. A spirit of Sethe's dead daughter, who returns as the enigmatic figure Beloved, represents imprisoned trauma and unhealed anguish. The return of Beloved makes Sethe remember (in defiance of her best attempts to forget) her past, showing how violence and abuse and oppression and slavery continue to live inside the heads of the freed. By cantering the story on the interior lives of former enslaved people, Morrison speaks their suffering and perseverance, and reminds us that the end of slavery was not the end of its long reach. Beloved appears as a testament to the enduring psychological wounds left by an inhumane system. Key Words: Psychological, emotional, trauma, madness, mysterious.