LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 23:11 November 2023
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Toni Morrison’s Novel Beloved – A Character Analysis

Khangembam Bharati Devi


Courtesy: www.amazon.com

Abstract

In 1987, Tony Morrison stunned the world with her fifth novel, Beloved. The novel was based on a newspaper clipping that Morrison read in The Black Book and it brought fame, recognition, and heaps of awards. Dedicated to ‘Sixty Millions and More’, Beloved exposed the inhumanities of the American slavery system and its psychological, race, class, and gender impacts on the African Americans. A slave mother killed her daughter, deciding it to be the best sending on for her daughter rather than sending her back to slavery. The book was a best seller and was considered Morrison’s masterpiece.

Keywords: Tony Morrison, Beloved, Slave, Slavery, African American.

1. Introduction

Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved is composed of flashbacks, memories, and nightmares. It can be included in historical fiction, gothic horror story, and bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel) types of novels. In Beloved, Morrison shows her mastery over going deep down to the complex psyches of numerous characters who endure the horrific burden of slavery’s folded and unforgivable sins. The story is based on a real-life situation of a black slave woman, Margaret Garner, who escaped from Kentucky plantation, killed her own daughter to emancipate from the terrible bondage of slavery. In Morrison’s view slavery denied black slave mothers the right to feel maternal love. They were not destined to be entitled to motherhood. These women were not mothers but breeders. The black women were brought to America to breed slaves and to attend to the personal needs of slave holders, to care for their families and to work in their fields.

Toni Morrison depicts many characters in her novel Beloved (1987). The main characters are Baby Suggs (Sethe’s mother-in-law), Sethe Suggs, Beloved, Denver Suggs, Paul D., School Teacher, Halle Suggs (Sethe’s Husband), Buglar and Howard (Sethe’s sons). In addition to these characters, there are also some minor characters who took important roles in the making of the novel. The characters of Mr. and Mrs. Garner, Amy Denver, Stamp Paid (Joshua), Sixo, Patsy, Paul & Garner, Ella, Edward Bodwin help to construct the plot and the theme of the novel. Morrison shows the problems of society in her novels. Through these characters she shows the painful life of the black slave community and how they endured life under the tyranny and subhuman condition of slavery. These characteristics suggest that importance lies not only in what is said, but also in how it is said.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Khangembam Bharati Devi
Assistant Professor
Ng. Mani College, Khurai Chairenthong
Imphal, Manipur 795005, India
khangembam.bharati@gmail.com
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