Beloved: Learning To Forgive and Forget

Beloved by Toni Morrison presents a variety of complex themes that tend to revolve around Beloved or other factors throughout the book. Her novel ties issues relating to family, redemption and slavery. However, throughout the book and it’s entirety one of the most noticeable over arching theme revolves around Beloved and a source of redemption for Sethe and issues in general about humanity. Though some scholars might challenge the role Beloved plays throughout the novel, such as a demon, it’s most noticeable how Morrison uses the symbol of Beloved to help Sethe and other characters reflect on their past to essentially help the reader understand that as humans we must learn to “forgive and forget”.
Ideally, it’s clear how Beloved initially almost becomes symbol of redemption and of family towards Sethe and at times even for Denver. Beloved represents the lost baby that Sethe originally killed and Beloved even describes to Denver about being in a dark place,“[laying] down in her side curled up” (88) something commonly noticed in babies while they are in their mothers wombs. Essentially, pushing the reader to think that she is talking about her experiences of being Sethe’s dead baby. However, none the less, this only helps contextualize the fact that Beloved or the idea of Beloved is purposely back to help Soothe heal from her “wounds” as she goes onto state to Denver that she is here to, “ ‘See her [Sethe’s] face”(89). While, other scholars to this day may argue Beloved’s contribution to the theme; such as Pamela E. Barnett who argues that Beloved’s purpose throughout Beloved was to strengthen the idea of sexual abuse or play a role of a succubus, or a female demon that terrorizes males in there sleep. While there might be some truth to this, personally I would not say this is Beloved’s main role throughout the book. Beloved predominantly haunts females for a greater cause, such as Sethe, by having them reflect on their past experiences to learn and grow from them. For instance, throughout chapter 27 we first see how Sethe relives her experience of having white men come back and nearly kills Mr.Bodwin. This scenario originates from her initial experience of killing her baby so he wouldn’t have to endure being enslaved by “white men”. Additionally, we later go onto find that Beloved has left Sethe as Paul D finds Sethe around 124 she tells Paul D that “ ‘She [Beloved] has left me [Sethe]’ … ‘She [Beloved] was my best thing’ ”(321). This is almost a repetition of the past, and how Sethe felt after having killed her own baby. However, instead of being hung onto the past and not being able to move on. Paul D helps her understand the notion that “It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind” (321) after remembering anecdotes from a conversation with Sixo. This pushes Paul D to tell Sethe that they have a “yesterday” and need a “tomorrow”. Though the loss of Beloved stings, and always will be a scar in The heart, Beloved leaves Sethe and Paul D to figure the remaining pieces of the puzzle. They must not be scared to move forward. Paul D’s superego helps him realize that Sethe is the one for him because she understands him, and vice versa; such as their trip to the carnival as almost a family. As a result of Beloved leaving now, Paul D and Sethe help each other mutually in the end and is only right that they attempt to have a “tomorrow” or a family and forget about their sad haunting pasts. This helps illustrate the idea that Beloved helps haunt females not just for the fun of it, but for a better cause, to help promote movement and growth in different characters.
Another scholar by the name of Philip Page discusses the idea of family throughout Beloved. Particularly stating that,“Family-the creation of it, the attempt to preserve it, the nostalgia for it-dominates the plot”. Much like Page, I tend to agree more with her statement. Hence it becomes clear that Beloved plays a role to rehabilitate Sethe’s family and past. For instance, we see how initially she tends to protect Beloved telling Paul D to ,“stop picking on her” (77) something we often see mothers do which is to defend their baby. Beloved to Sethe serves as a second chance at being a mother. More noticeably we see this when she states, “Beloved, she my daughter. She mine. See. She come back to me of her own free will…” (236). Though she is physically not the same baby Sethe had, Sethe has correlated Beloved as her own daughter and has helped her think about her role as a mother and has almost even given her the chance to be a mother all over again. Not only that, but Beloved helps Sethe and others remember painful memories and helps Sethe, and the other characters like Denver reflect on their past. For example, Sethe is often pondering about her time as slave at Sweet Home, and why she killed Beloved. Presumably after seeing these four white men. Sethe, as a result, is traumatised as the white Nephew had nursed Sethe, however, having Beloved around she even swears that now “No one will ever get my [Sethe’s] milk no more except my own children”(236). Now having Beloved again gives Sethe a sense of her priorities. Sethe more noticeably prioritizes her family now that she has a second chance at having Beloved. Nonetheless, it is quite clear how Beloved impacts Sethe in particularly to help her move from her past memories. Sethe must learn to forgive herself and move forward in life.

Rape and Its Consequences On the Mind

Beloved is a complex novel that depicts the extreme hardships of black slaves. Throughout the book, many themes arise regarding race, gender, power, and the mind. There have been many interpretations of this novel through differing lenses and points of view. One of these articles that analyzes Beloved through a psychoanalytic lens is “Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural in Beloved” by Pamela E. Barnett.

This interpretation of the text focuses on the theme of rape throughout the story. At the beginning of the story, Barnett interprets the story’s central theme as rape and how it played a role in slavery, both for women as well as men. Barnett uses the example of the rape committed by the white men towards slaves on the plantation to show how rape in Beloved is not determined by gender, but by race (107-9, 229). Barnett also uses examples of Sethe’s rape by the “mossy toothed [white] men” on the plantation, and how they robbed her of her breast milk due to their objectification of her. Throughout the history of slavery, people used rape as a form of control and domination over black people. Almost every black character in Beloved is affected by rape.

Later on in the story, however, the theme of rape makes a subtle shift with Beloved’s arrival. Towards the end of the novel, the theme focuses on rape’s implications on the mind as well as on “supernatural rape” caused by Beloved and her hunger for power. Beloved is interpreted as a demonic, vampire-like being that “sexually assaults male sleepers and drains them of semen” like Paul D, and haunts them by reenacting their past assaults. In Sethe’s "undreamable dreams... a gang of whites invaded her daughter's private parts, soiled  her daughter's thighs and threw her daughter out of the wagon" (251). Beloved haunts Sethe’s mind and doesn’t seem to understand Sethe’s intense fear of her own daughter being raped. Because of this, Beloved goes on to inflict rape on others to demonstrate the power that she had lost when she had been killed. Barnett uses these examples to convey the idea that Sethe’s life, as well as the novel as a whole, are consumed by, and revolve around the idea of rape as a form of power over others.

One broader theme represented in both the book as well as Barnett’s interpretation is how one’s past can be devastatingly haunting, even many years later. Beloved has the ability to bring up Sethe’s past which starts to completely destroy Sethe. Beloved shows signs of being an omniscient character; for example, Sethe realizes that Beloved recognized a song which only Sethe’s children knew (178). Furthermore, Beloved asks Sethe about where her “diamonds” are, even though Beloved has never been told about Sethe’s earrings. This makes it likely that she is a representation of Sethe’s subconscious, a part of her which is haunted by her past of slavery. With the arrival of Beloved also comes the painful memories of hardship and abuse from many years ago.

The theme of the past being a forever constantly haunting memory relates to Barnett’s interpretation because they both relate to sexual abuse. However, the theme that the past can be devastatingly haunting is not only related to rape, but power and human rights as a whole. While the theme of rape that Barnett identifies plays a huge role in the novel, an interpretation without touching on how one's past can be devastatingly haunting would be incomplete.

Sethe`s internal conflict and id, when remembering Halle

In this passage it is shown how Paul D triggers Sethe's memories of Halle, and how Sethe needs Paul D's love, because she hasn't experienced desire since she left Sweet home without Halle.

“Paul D sighed and turned over. Sethe took this opportunity afforded by his movement to shift as well. Looking at Paul D´s back, she remembered that some of the corn stalks broke, folded down over Halle´s back, and among the things her fingers clutched were husk and cornsilk hair. “

In this passage on page 32 in Beloved, Sethe has just been intimate with Paul D, making her remember her first sexual encounter with her former husband; Halle, this creates a flashback in the book, that had just finished when this passage is written. The passage tells us that, when Sethe sees Paul D´s back, she is instantly thinking about Halle, instead of the man she just shared a moment with.

Sethe is throughout the book haunted by her past, making current events constantly trigger her mind to think of past memories, good and bad. We can see this in this passage when it is written that; “Looking at Paul D´s back, she remembered that some of the corn stalks broke”

Focusing on the word remembered, we can see how seeing Paul D´s back triggers a memory in Sethe´s subconsciousness. Paul obviously reminds her of her husband, maybe because he is the first man she has been with, since the loss of her husband, or because he too was one of the men at Sweet home.

Why she chooses to grant Paul D´s wishes to find comfort with her, is a mix of many different factors, thought through by her subconsciousness, letting her id make the decision. This is based on her desire to be loved, and need for attention, which is animalistic needs. The way she describes herself throughout the book, makes us believe that she has never been desired by any man, except for the men at Sweet home. This is addressed in the book as Denver is thinking about Paul D coming to visit; “ For twelve years, long before grandma baby died, there had been no visitors of any sort and certainly no friends.”This shows she hadn't had a man since Halle, because nobody has visited the house for twelve years.This explains that when she is reunited with this attention and love, nonetheless desire, she is compelled to act on these feelings of being wanted.

Sethe also creates an internal conflicts by remembering her former husband, subconsciously comparing Paul D to Halle. This quote, and the previous pages,  shows us her love for Halle, especially the way she is romanticizing the whole memory in the cornfield. We can see this in the wording she uses in the passage, looking back at the memory, she tells how she is clutching cornsilk hair, using the word silk when referring to the corn. While her experience with Paul D, was briefly described, followed by a long flashback from Sweet home including the episode in the cornfield.

Sethe and Paul D's Id, Ego, and Superego

Are any characters or concepts in the text symbolized by the id, ego, or superego?

The following is a passage from the novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison:

“Not quite in a hurry, but losing no time, Sethe and Paul D climbed the white stairs. Overwhelmed as much by the downright luck of finding her house and her in it as by the certainty of giving her his sex, Paul D dropped twenty-five years from his recent memory. A stair step before him was Baby Suggs' replacement, the new girl they dreamed of at night and fucked cows for at dawn while waiting for her to choose. Merely kissing the wrought iron on her back had shook the house, had made it necessary for him to beat it to pieces. Now he would do more...

There were two rooms and she took him into one of them, hoping he wouldn't mind the fact that she was not prepared; that though she could remember desire, she had forgotten how it worked . . .

It was over before they could get their clothes off. Half-dressed and short of breath, they lay side by side resentful of one another and the skylight above them. His dreaming of her had been too long and too long ago. Her deprivation had been not having any dreams of her own at all. Now they were sorry and too shy to make talk. Sethe lay on her back, her head turned from him”(24-25).

Psychoanalytical Interpretation:

The idea of the id, ego, and superego of the human psyche is one of Freud’s most famous theories. These three systems are parts of our conscious and subconscious mind (not physical sections of brain) that play a huge role in every-day actions and decision making. The id is the unconscious, primitive, impulsive, instinct-driven part of the brain. Biological compulsions, such as aggression, sexual desire, and hunger are all subconscious feelings related to the id. The ego is the aspect of the brain that revolves around reason and compromise in order to avoid negative consequences of the id’s actions. The last section, the superego, revolves around learned morals and ethics, especially regarding sex or aggression. The superego controls the id’s desires in order to fit into what society deems normal. The superego is also divided into two sections: the conscience, or creator of guilt when the id gets its way, and the ideal self, a standard that we may feel guilt over if not upheld. In the passage above, Sethe and Paul D’s id, ego, and superego truly stand out.

Paul D’s sexual desire for Sethe is a clear symbol of the brain’s id. The passage even goes as far as to say that because of Paul D’s extreme inherent desire for Sethe, he forgets the past 25 years of time spent apart from her: “Overwhelmed. . . by the certainty of giving her his sex, Paul D dropped twenty-five years from his recent memory”. Paul D’s sexual desire for Sethe is primitive, unrealistic, and fantasy oriented because “his dreaming of her had been too long” and because Sethe was “the new girl they dreamed of at night and fucked cows for at dawn” in their past life together on the plantation. These characters’ biological desire for sex that has grown over time is a perfect  example of Freudian theories involving the id regarding sex. Furthermore, the id can be seen in the subtle references to aggression that the author creates. When the author writes that Paul D “shook the house” and “beat it to pieces”, the instinct of aggression represented by the id is evident. By using words with clear connotations of belligerence and hostility such as “beat”, the author conveys to the reader what Freud would consider the id’s aggression.

Many actions that take place in this passage demonstrate the power of the superego. Derived from the conscience and the ideal self, the superego is represented through Sethe and Paul D’s feelings of guilt and shame for having sex. Sethe grew up on a plantation where she was seen as the sexual prize for the many men who desired her. It is likely that her ideal self or standard she strives to meet is one that has been overly sexualized by her past life; She most likely wants to be a desirable and passionate woman. Sethe obviously does not live up to these high expectations for herself making her feel guilty: “she had forgotten how [desire] worked”. When the author says that Sethe and Paul D “lay side by side resentful of one another” too “sorry and too shy to talk” the presence of the conscious, guilty part of the superego is evident. When the author uses words like “sorry” and “shy” with connotations of shame, it's evident that the superego section of the brain is being used.

Due to the fact that this passage is rich with emotions ranging from desire to aggression to guilt, it is a perfect literary example to demonstrate the power of the id, ego, and superego. Freud’s ideas, while only theories, seem to perfectly represent the feelings and actions displayed in this passage through words with strong connotations and symbols.

What's up with Beloved's Sweet Tooth?: Critical Lens Close Reading

The following passage is from pages 66 and 67 of the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison:

...From that moment and through everything that followed, sugar could always be counted on to please her. It was as though sweet things were what she was born for. Honey as well as the wax it came in, sugar sandwiches, the sludgy molasses gone hard and brutal in the can, lemonade, taffy and any type of dessert Sethe brought home from the restaurant. She gnawed a cane stick to flax and kept the strings in her mouth long after the syrup had been sucked away. Denver laughed, Sethe smiled and Paul D said it made him sick to his stomach. [...] 

         "You just gonna feed her? From now on?" Paul D, feeling ungenerous, and surprised by it, heard the irritability in his voice. 

         "Denver likes her. She's no real trouble. I thought we'd wait till her breath was better. She still sounds a little lumbar to me." (66-67)

The psychoanalytical lens looks at a text through the examination of subconscious desires, the personality forms of the id, ego, and superego, and other Freudian psychoanalytical theories. By using this lens, the reader can develop a sense of the potential reasons and motivations behind characters' actions and thoughts.

According to Freudian theory, humans possess three distinct forms of personality. These are the id, ego, and superego. Each describe and give reason to our actions, thoughts, and general behavior. In the novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison, we see certain characters conveyed as symbols of the three factors of personality. Beloved, Sethe’s dead baby who mysteriously appears in the physical form at their house one evening, represents the id. The id, being the instinctual and impulsive form of personality, drives our wants, desires, and bodily needs. It is the only one of the three personality forms that we are born with, and it remains a driving factor and motivator of our behavior throughout the stages of life. Morrison portrays Beloved and her desires and effects on the people around her as a symbol of the the id through various literary techniques such as connotation and symbolism as well as characterization.

Morrison uses Beloved’s desires to clearly illustrate her connection and symbolization of the id. When she appears in front Sethe’s house the night of the carnival, Sethe, Denver, and Paul D decide to take Beloved in and care for her. They quickly realize that she has a strong craving for sugar.  Morrison uses the sugar and “sweet things” which Beloved craves to symbolize our desires and impulses which the id acts on. The id’s actions revolve around what is known as the pleasure principle, which is the motivating psychic force which draws us to desire immediate gratification. As sugar often provides us with an immediate gratification, Morrison utilizes Beloved’s craving for sugar to further convey her character as a symbol of the id.  In the text, Morrison describes how she seems to be “born for” sweet things, which expresses the innate instinctually of the id. In addition to this, being Sethe’s dead baby, Beloved possesses an unrestrained childlike impulsiveness in her desires and actions. This characterization creates a clear representation of the instinctual cravings and impulses of the id. Morrison also uses the saccharine and somewhat destructive connotation of the “hard and brutal” “sludgy molasses” when describing the “sweet things” which Beloved desires to illustrate how the id often leads us to crave things which can be immoral or malignant in their nature. By doing so, Morrison portrays Beloved and her wants or desires as somewhat poisonous. This characterization of Beloved also reflects how she appeared in the novel at a time when Sethe, Paul D, and Denver were just beginning to feel like a family, and disrupted the newfound peace and harmony between them.

In addition to her desires, Beloved’s effect on the people around her also demonstrate her connection to the id. For example, after he, Sethe, and Denver take in and begin caring for Beloved, Paul D develops a certain “irritability” and lack of generosity towards Beloved; this hostile attitude towards her illustrates how giving in the the id’s desires can cause others around us to feel aggravated and negative towards us and our selfish behavior. In contrast, the attentive care which Denver and Sethe give to Beloved express how tempting it can be to obey the cravings of the id. Sethe tells Paul D that Beloved is “no real trouble”, even though she has, and continues to do so later on in the novel, caused significant disruption within the family. The way Morrison characterizes Beloved in different ways through the eyes of both Paul D and Sethe, as well as Denver, illustrates how the id can cause us to act on impulses which may exasperate or bother others around us, yet it still causes us to feel strongly inclined to give in to its cravings and desires.

Ultimately, Morrison uses various literary techniques such as connotation, symbolism, and characterization to portray Beloved as a symbol of the id. Beloved’s strong cravings for sugar as well as the way characters such as Paul D and Sethe perceive her and develop certain attitudes towards her, represent characteristics of the id and how it drives impulsiveness and instinctual behavior.

Close Reading Blog Post: Beloved in the Minds of Others

"He could feel both Sethe and Denver pulling in, hold their stomach muscles, sending out sticky spiderwebs to touch one another. He decided to force it anyway.

‘I asked you who brought you here?’

‘I walked here,’ she said. ‘A long, long, long, long way. Nobody bring me. Nobody help me.’

‘You had new shoes. If you walked so long why don’t your shoes show it?’

‘Paul D, stop picking on her’" (77)

Toni Morrison writes this in the beginning of chapter 7. In which we first see Paul D idolize Beloved because of her physical appearance, something about Beloved really stood out to Paul D - he even describes her as “shining”. However, as Paul D continues to debrief his own internal conflict his ego takes action when Paul D begins to question this newly arrived lady who identifies herself as Beloved. This name is in particularly pondering to the reader because we Sethe herself has a baby that died whose name was also Beloved. Not only that but Beloved was described by Morrison to have risen from a nearby river and walk towards 124 - hinting at the idea of resurrection. Whether she is a physical character and is who she claims to be, or possibly a demon or ghost of baby Beloved in a physical body. Paul D and Sethe seems to have very different perspectives to first meeting Beloved. For instance, on chapter we can see as Morrison writes “Paul D wondered at the newness of her shoes” (63). Paul D’s ego takes into effect here, which is described by Saul McLeod in his article Id, Ego and Superego to be , "concerned with devising a realistic strategy to obtain pleasure". As a result since Paul D has previously been growing suspicious of Beloved he questions to her about her shoes to force an answer that would suit Paul D’s ego. For instance Paul D expects for her to admit that she just rose from the water and isn’t who she says she is, this is what Paul D’s ego wants. However Beloved simply replies that “I [Beloved] walked here” (77), which was not what Paul D wanted to hear. On the other hand, after Paul D asks about Beloved’s shoes we see how Sethe quickly reacts to try and defend her and Paul D and consequently becomes frustrated in response by saying “If you walked so far why don’t your shoes show it” (77).  

This interaction, however, triggers the id of Sethe who goes onto react to the consistent questioning of Paul. Sethe instinctively reacts to try and protect Beloved, because like any mother she wouldn’t want her baby being hurt or put in a uncomfortable situation, such as the scene being described on page 77. So Sethe’s id quickly reacts to tell her Paul D to stop harassing Beloved about her shoes. Additionally, we see how Sethe more noticeably is depicted during this trialogue because of her id. For instance, she is described to be “pulling in, hold their stomach muscles” as Paul D is about to question Beloved almost as if sensing something bad is happening or if she is about to get punched and she is instinctively feeling bad without having any rationale much like a baby. This is also particularly surprising because we see how early on, she is remind and almost flattered by knowing Beloved’s name quickly correlating her with Sethe’s own dead daughter. This shows a lot as to why Sethe possibly decides to defend Beloved. She unconsciously wants to be a better mom or be the mom she could not have been. Sethe might be more inclined to be more caring towards Beloved as she might feel that she needs to become a better person. She tries to do this by trying to help Beloved as much as she possibly could. Ideally, while Sethe throughout the most part suffers internally from memories of her baby Beloved, this new Beloved helps her heal these thoughts and give her almost a second chance to help her almost redeem herself from her mistakes.

Why I Chose This Lens

 Throughout the story Beloved I decided to look at how Toni Morrison would portray the life of Sethe through the usage of the psychoanalytical lens. What was particularly interesting to me about this lens was that it would give me an opportunity to look at how Sethe would be emotionally affected by the death of her baby. Last, year having read the Great Gatsby I was really able to look and understand how Gatsby was emotionally altered by his broken relationship with Daisy and was able to look at the psychology behind Fitzgerald's book. However, I didn’t really recognize the fact that I was doing this while using the psychoanalytical lens. This time around, I really want to get to understand why a charter might be emotionally effected by a certain event or be able to explain it in more precise detail. While, I did have the second option to look at the historical and biographical lens - I found that there might be a bigger influence in the character's personality and personal traits based on past experience rather than actual time and historical events. Personally, I also believe that this certain topic, especially the notion of slavery is greatly covered by the psychoanalytical lens. It would allow me to explore how slavery affects someone's personality, or reasoning behind certain actions.

From this project, I hope to get a better understanding of how to not only look at text through a psychoanalytic lens but look and understand the actions of others and the real world and how they are influenced by emotional and the characteristical aspects of someone's personality.

Why i chose this lens

I chose psychoanalytical lens, because I think it interesting to focus on characters conflicts with themselves, on oppose to focus on conflicts between characters. It is interesting to look at how characters make choices, consciousness and subconsciousness. In previous projects in psychology-classes I have used the freudian model to make characterizations in short stories and movies, but also how culture and norms affect the superego of real humans. I am interested in psychology is because I think it is interesting how culture and environment influences humans, how they think but also how they act.  

I also considered the historical and biographical lense, because I think it is two bigs factors in the shaping of a book, what the author's life experiences are, and what was going on in the time the story was written. I think it is interesting how research and background of the author and the time period, can make a big difference in understanding a book, and revealing the meaning behind it, and why that meaning is what chosen.

After this project i'm hoping to be better at reading a book through a certain lens, and be better at analysing complex books. Besides that i hope to better at psychoanalysing characters, and understand characters choice and thought better.

Why I chose this lens:

I would really enjoy reading this book through a psychoanalytic lens because I am fascinated by interpreting humans actions and behaviors, looking at internal conflict, as well as the subconscious mind. Last year for my expedition class I was in Psychology and really enjoyed it. We learned a lot about the id, ego, and superego, and explored many of Freud’s theories and ideas. In class we did a project where we took a character from a popular book or movie (I chose Harry Potter) and did an analysis on them involving the id, ego, and superego as well as analysis on other aspects of the character. This project seems like it ties in pretty closely to analyzing beloved from a psychoanalytical point of view.  I would like to look at the hidden desires or fears of the subconscious and the irrational desires of the id. Other things that I might look at through a psychoanalytical lens would be dreams and their interpretations as well as the characters’ internal monologues. All of these things can provide a huge insight on the character’s motivations and can propel the story towards a deeper meaning.

Behind a Beloved Mind: Why I Chose This Lens

I mainly chose this lens is because of my expeditions course in psychology last year which really sparked my interest in human behavior, thought, and motivation. I find the Freudian theories and ideas of the id, ego, and superego to be very intriguing, and while these theories are generally not accepted as valid or scientific theories of psychology, they pose some interesting claims about humanity. While the other lenses interest me as well, this lens is the most fascinating to me because it looks deeper into people’s actions and thoughts to understand subconscious motivations or desires. In my psychology class, we did a project in which we analyzed a fictional character from a movie or book and explained how the id, ego, and superego played a role in their thoughts and actions. 
Another lens I considered was the postmodern lens. This lens interested me because it looks at the text in a more philosophical manner and examines multiple truths expressed by the text. While this lens seems very intriguing to me, I felt that I did not have a sufficient understanding of it to be entirely comfortable with using in my analysis of the book. I am hoping to obtain a stronger ability to deeply and effectively analyze a challenging text from doing this project.