He shows up at 124 and tries to make a life with Sethe. He has also suffered horribly, and has reacted by shutting away any deep feelings.

She represents the power of the past to intrude into the present. She is the embodiment not only of the baby's ghost but also the legacy of slavery. Belovedīeloved is the ghost of Sethe's third child, murdered to protect her from schoolteacher. She has a mass of scars on her back that resemble a tree. Sethe has a troubled relationship with her own past, often not willing to speak about it but obsessively reliving it in her own head. When schoolteacher, the brutal master at Sweet Home, tracked her down, Sethe attempted to kill her children rather than see them returned to slavery. She had four children, pregnant with the fourth when she fled Sweet Home on foot and alone. As a young teenager she was brought to Sweet Home, where she took a man named Halle Suggs for her husband. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.Born on a distant plantation that she barely remembers, Sethe is the child of an African-born slave woman whose name she never knew. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you:Īvailable in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. Toni Morrison is one of America’s most acclaimed living writers, having received awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Nobel Prize in Literature in the course of her decades-long career.įind out everything you need to know about Beloved in a fraction of the time! The novel explores the aftermath of her actions, and starkly illustrates the devastation wreaked by the institution of slavery and the legacy of trauma it left for African-American families. This engaging summary presents an analysis of Beloved by Toni Morrison, which tells the story of Sethe, a former slave who was prepared to commit a horrific crime rather than be forced back into slavery with her children. Unlock the more straightforward side of Beloved with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

Beloved toni morrison sparknotes