In Beloved, Toni Morrison portrays various themes and messages through methods and literary techniques such as characterization and symbols. Sethe, for example, provides a strong depiction of the strength of the love of a mother. In addition to this, various symbols that Morrison uses throughout the novel provide representations for the way in which slavery affects the characters. Through both the characterization of Sethe as a mother and the use of the symbol of Sethe’s tree-shaped scar, Morrison conveys the message that the experience of living through slavery significantly psychologically damages a person, causing what once was beautiful and benevolent to become tarnished with abuse and cruelty.
Through various symbols throughout the novel, Morrison conveys how slavery affects and scars the psychological functionings of someone. For example, Morrison's use of the chokecherry tree-shaped scar on Sethe’s back acts as a physical representation of how Sethe’s past as a slave impacts her throughout her life. The imagery of a tree brings to mind the idea of growth and roots. Through illustrating this tree as a scar from slavery on Sethe’s back, Morrison uses it to show how slavery impacted Sethe’s roots. In doing so, she illustrates how slavery has caused her to grow and develop with permanent psychological scars which cause her to act in certain ways and harm those around her. However, the image of a tree is one that is oftentimes thought of as beautiful and that represents life and nurturing. This juxtaposition between beauty and life and pain and suffering illustrates how slavery damages what was once loving and benign.
Not only does Morrison use symbolism to express the psychological effects of slavery, she also accomplishes this through Sethe’s journey as a mother by illustrating how slavery takes away a sense of humanity from those within its grasp. She shows how it deprives one not only one’s freedom, but also one’s sanity. In “Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: A Psychological Reading”, Sandra Mayfield explains how Sethe’s experience as a slave caused significant psychological damage to Sethe, leading her to “ente[r] a phase of self-hatred and contempt that paralyze her actions and her thought” (9). Through the article, Mayfield analyzes how slavery psychologically and physically damages people. Mayfield focuses on Sethe’s actions and role as a mother and how it is affected by her past of slavery. As a slave, Sethe constantly experienced people exploiting her and stealing from her. These people dehumanized her. Through various acts of abuse, the white people who “owned” Sethe treated her as “not a woman, but a piece of property” and “not a mother, only the breeder of more slaves” (Mayfield 9). As a result of this treatment, Sethe learned “to cling to life and to the lives of her children” (Mayfield 10-11). Once she escaped from slavery, she had developed a mindset of doing whatever may be necessary to protect her children, for whom her love was the strongest, from the abusive cruelty of slavery. This intense love that Sethe has for her children has been tainted by Sethe’s past as a slave. Thus, it causes her to act irrationally. Similar to the tree being nurturing and loving, the love of a mother is often seen as one of the most pure and powerful forms of love. While this type of love can often be seen as truly benevolent, Morrison illustrates how slavery can take this love, something which is innately kind, and through the deterioration of humanity, transform it into something malevolent and ultimately lethal.
Through her portrayal of motherhood and development of symbols, Morrison conveys the psychological damage slavery can have on a person. She expresses how it can turn something that was beautiful, pure, and loving into something malevolent, harsh, and cruel. The way Sethe is shown as a mother and how her past has impacted her behavior towards her children exemplifies the way slavery causes those it affects to lose somewhat of a sense of humanity and to act in ways which may seem irrational. The tree-shaped scar on Sethe’s back symbolizes both the love and nurturing care Sethe provides as a mother and how this love and care is scarred, or damaged, by her past as a slave. Examining this theme and how Morrison portrays it in her novel allows us to further understand it and its depth. We, as readers, are able to look into what Morrison is saying through her novel and realize that the characters, plotline, and other aspects of the book serve more purpose than merely telling a story; they expose a message and truth of humanity that demands to be known. This message and truth uses various literary techniques to expose to the reader how slavery affects the mind of someone and damages what was once beautiful and benevolent within him or her.
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