Beloved Reviews

• "That woman is crazy, [but] ain't we all?"

  
  By A319KYEIAZ3SON on 2005-12-30
  In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of 1988, Toni Morrison frees herself from the bonds of traditional narrative and establishes an independent style, just as her characters have freed themselves from the horrors of slavery and escaped from Kentucky to Ohio. Revealing the story of Sethe and her family as they survive the brutality of the farm, only to encounter torments even more punishing than whippings after they escape, Morrison presents scenes in a seemingly random order, each scene revealing some aspect of life for Sethe, her boys, her dead baby Beloved, and the new baby Denver, both in the past and in the present. Moving back and forth, around, and inside out through Sethe's recollections, she gradually reveals Sethe's story to the reader, its horror increasing as the reader makes the connections which turn disconnected scenes into a powerful and harrowing chronology.
  
  As the novel opens, Sethe and Denver have lived in #124, a house in Ohio, for eighteen years, refusing to socialize and enjoying no company. When Paul D. Garner, one of the Sweet Home men and a friend of her long-missing husband, arrives on her doorstep and moves in, Sethe slowly reveals her long-buried nightmares, and the two share their stories of the events leading up to their escape. Most haunting to Sethe is the death of her young daughter Beloved, shortly after the escape from the farm, though the reader does not know for many pages the shocking manner of her death. When a ghostly figure who calls herself Beloved arrives at #124, shortly after Paul D., Morrison creates mystery and a heart-stoppingly tense atmosphere when Beloved moves in. As Beloved gradually takes over the household and seems to demand and then possess Sethe's soul, the sorrow which has burdened Sethe seems close to breaking her.
  
  The sadism of some slave-owners, the devices used to torture, and the desperate measures some slaves took to protect themselves and their loved ones come fully alive here, the horrors growing as the reader gradually discovers the real source of Sethe's torment. By forcing the reader to make the connections, instead of spelling out details in a traditional narrative, Morrison strengthens the impact of the novel and its brutal revelations. Symbols of water, rain, snow, and ice connect the disparate scenes, and the use of shadows and the ghostly character of Beloved keep the reader on tenterhooks until the action is eventually resolved. A powerful, atmospheric, and shocking novel, Beloved is also a searing indictment of slavery and the damage it has done to the fabric of life, damage that cannot be repaired until it is fully recognized through novels such as this. n Mary Whipple
  
  
  

• I only read it because I had to

  
  By A1YK47ZUFDBQ8Q on 2006-04-26
  I hated this book. I didn't like the style it was written in at all. I understand why she used a ghost in the story but it doesn't work for me. I felt she was too heavy-handed with the symbolism and it made it hard to empathize with any characters. It wasn't that I didn't understand the "complexity" of the novel, I just found it annoying to read. If I hadn't been reading it for an English paper I would have set it down and not picked it up again. I'm glad I enjoy reading because overrated books like this could turn a person off for a very long time. It wasn't as boring as The Book of Ruth, but if I were going to recommend any of Morrison's books, I'd say stick with The Bluest Eye or Song of Solomon.
  
  

• Dull and obvious, contrived and dull

  
  By A1YBS0UE2RD1GD on 2006-06-19
  I read this twice--once because I had to read it and once because I had to teach it. Both times I was stupefied by its thick, plodding, contrived plot and bizarrely drawn characters. I do not understand why on earth this book has received the altitudinous praise it has received. I would not choose to teach it again and I would not recommend it. Maybe something else by Morrison (who I feel is an "okay" writer, but certainly not an American great) would do.
  Apparently, some people gush and gaa-gaa over this tome. Had I been the editor in charge or yea-ing or nay-ing it, there would not have been any reviews on it today.e
  
  

• Awful

  
  By A2ZIV53U4G7UJD on 2006-06-10
  Forced and contrived. Even worse in the fact that the parts not involing a perverted-ghost-baby-women are pretty good and intresting, the ghost-baby-women who is supposed ti represent slavery (?) is just over the top. Not a single person in class liked this. Shows how far american lit still needs to go.
  
  

• This book is trash

  
  By A1G76AMZDKYFU8 on 2006-03-31
  I read this in college. Awful and literally disgusting to read. The impact of slavery still resonates with us today, by bringing a ghost into the story it makes it fantasy and I found it impossible to take this book seriously. Toni Morrison is the most overrated author in America, it's only because of Oprah (the most overrated "personality" in America") that she is popular.
  
  
• Greatest American Book In 25 Years - Give Me A Break . . .
  By AVMDQMYPVZGT6 on 2006-07-24
  The hype and hyperbole over Morrison is a perfect example of literary snobbism. This book is incomprehensible, therefore, that small group that either understands it [or pretends to] struts and preens and deem themselves to be the arbiters of taste for American literature. "Beloved" is overdone, overused, overwritten, overhyped and is turning a generation of college students into book haters by stuffing this down their throats in English class. If you need me, I'll be reading books with a plotline and a point.
  
  
• I'd give it ten stars if I could.
  By AL704UZ5S13IQ on 2006-06-13
  This is a book about slavery. Not about what slavery looks like, but what it feels like. That Madame Morrison (her royal highness!) was able to convey the emotional horror and dread and grief of slavery is truly one of the great accomplishments in literature and culture of the 20th century.
  
  I am descended from slaves. Never felt any shame about it; indeed, I was proud to have the strongest people in the world as my ancestors. (Come on, they HAD to be.) However, I never considered the dark side of their strength until I read Beloved. What profound sacrifices they made on a spiritual level. This is a profoundly spiritual book, and it hurt to read it. I was nearly mute with sadness and amazement after I read it. I could not even articulate what happened to me.
  
  We are not taught about slavery. I realized that this book taught me more about slavery than any history class could have. I became a DIFFERENT PERSON, and underwent a profound, life-changing transformation that resonates to this day. Something that I had known about, read about, heard about became real to me. I think literature is a form of magic. It has an inexplicable and sublime power to change the world. This powerful book made me into someone else, a person who could be proud to be a descendant of slaves, and also feel the deepest sadness about the plight of my ancestors.
  
  This country was built on slavery. All of our benefits and graces can be traced to 400 years of free labor. I am amazed at the price my forebears paid to build this country's greatness. I am angry when people want to deny their slave heritage. This country is mine, every stone, every monument, every blade of grass. I have a complete right to it.
  
  We still suffer the effects of slavery. Every child in the United States should read this book, especially African American children. All the history lessons in the world won't match the impact of this transcendant masterpiece. Perhaps it can teach them how slavery hurt us.
  
  I have a slave name, and I am overwhelmed with pride.
  
  
• Nobel Prize?.....Maybe Not
  By A1GENNJ8D1T6VS on 2006-02-06
  Beloved is an American slavery novel based on the struggles faced by an ex-slave and her acquaintances and relatives. With the opening of the novel, diction and tone are used strongly to accurately portray the feelings and opinions of the people from this time-period. " Them the feet you runnin' on? My Jesus my." (Morrison 32), is an excellent example of Morison's use of diction in order to portray Southern African American people and the way they behaved and conversed with each other. In this instance the main character of the novel is in the process of escaping the previous enslavement of a plantation, all the while getting closer and closer to giving birth to her daughter. This instance also relates to the theme in that it shows an experience that would rob the heart and round the personhood. In the end, this experience ends up robbing the main character, Sethe, of her passion, motivation and drive, all of which are characteristics figuratively found in a person's heart. The diction of the novel helps to expose the true sentiments and struggles of ex-slaves.
  After reading Beloved I have concluded that it isn't all its cracked up to be. The book received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, which I honestly don't really agree with. The characters in the book weren't well developed, although their emotions and reactions were seemingly exaggerated most of the time. I was unable to become engaged in the novel and found it hard to read. It is possible that I am too young, and I don't fully understand the influence this novel has had on others. I have talked to a friend who read another Toni Morrison novel, and she had the same complaints as I. She mentioned the over exaggerated characters and the lack of interest she had. Throughout the novel, Beloved, Toni Morrison blends diction and a linear repetitive pattern in order to reinforce the reoccurring theme of the pros and cons of a previous life of discrimination, confinement, and mistreatment. These literary terms also help to portray the idea that a previous life of imprisonment can harbor the soul, rob the heart, yet round the personhood.
  
  
  
  
• Horrible
  By AH51DWN12C28Y on 2006-03-15
  I can't believe someone would actually want to read about some the grotesque & obscene gestures going on throughout the book. I found it not only confusing with the way the author jumped around form event to event, but down right salacious in content & depressing as well. In my opinion reading is suppose to be either an adventure that takes you out of the ordinary life, or informative. This was just down right excess jibber jabber. It was overboard & weird!
  No thank you... I will not read another book by this author again anytime soon!
  
  
• Oh my
  By A2K20TF6QAMUIC on 2007-02-27
  When it came to my A' Level year, we had a choice of texts.. this, or Ian Mckewan's A child in time, unamimously the class voted for McKewan over the objections of our 'right on teacher' (who would inform us that she stayed in gay hotels just so we'd know how liberal she was)
  
  This is a mess of a book, but because it's about slavery and nobody is allowed to knock books about slavery, it gets all these plaudits. It's a terrible read. It plods along and switching tenses and times so often, you'd think you were tripping.
  
  I consider myself fairly intelligent, I'm not a genius, but I pick up things relatively quickly, however, our teacher had to tell us the point of this book as no-one in my A Level class got it. Perhaps it was the turgid, moronic dialogue. Or the masses of memory.. (that was badly handled and written to the point that it became incomprehensible)
  
  If you wish to read a book about the civil rights struggle, read Maya Angelou, but leave this tripe on the shelf and ignore all these people who only say it's good because they want to appear smart.
  
  
• How to ruin a story
  By A3KJHDPAXK9QK3 on 2007-04-11
  Lauding the authors "innovative" style is awarding the "craft" and not the value of the story. The author purposely shrouds and renders disjointed and confused a simple and straightforward story that had much value in its own right. The characters lose their humanity and become unreal and unbelievable. This is a shame because they should have been believable. It makes no sense to take such a story and destroy it and make it painful to read and inaccessible to most people. She may have won the Nobel prize but whereas Richard Wright will be read for centuries, this book will fade into obscurity. It is a study on how to ruin a good story when the author can't make it stand on its own merits. The introduction by the author is conceited and self-serving. Antonia Frazier's biography of Cromwell is more accessible.
  
  
• a powerful book......
  By ADS5APY1NKTL4 on 2007-05-26
  BELOVED was one of many pieces of required literature assigned to me, in a university course, where we intensively studied broken treaties and equally broken people in global society. Numerous scholars, critics and professors often make this well-known and well-respected novel, by award winning writer Toni Morrison, when the topic of slavery depicted in modern literature is front and center. There is a good reason for that. BELOVED takes a haunting and heartbreaking look at the life of Sethe, an abused, emotionally maimed African-American slave whose own child, Beloved, was taken from her in such a heartless way. This ghost from Sethe's past continues to haunt her in everything she does. It isn't until she has a chance encounter with Paul, also a slave, that all of her demons are truly exorcised from her memory.
  
  I would agree that BELOVED is an important piece of literature worth reading, purely because it so acutely depicts the devastation and human cruelty that takes place in spades in the business of slavery and slave trade. Sethe is an example of many women who were truly broken down by their experiences as human beasts of burden. Slaves (African-American men, women and children alike) were reduced to machines (if not less than that) at the hands of evil and violent slave masters. The effects of brutal beatings, rapes and horrid living conditions ravaged an entire population of people whose predecessors have not forgotten the ancestral scars laid on their heads, backs, and memories (through story and continued sorrow). Why then do I only give BELOVED three stars and not five? For starters, there are passages in the book that could have been more compelling. Yes, I know that many Morrison fans will argue with me on this point to the grave. I don't blame you. I just feel that there were episodes in the story that I felt a tremendous disconnect from as a reader. I wanted so much to feel more engaged and connected. Instead, Morrison maintained a heavy-handed distance between her characters and the audience. It was painfully orchestrated, and I found that quite disappointing, since I believe that slavery is something we, as American people, must acknowledge and come to understand in a sensitive way, in order to recognize the historical damage we did a great population of people in this country. We must thank Toni Morrison, just the same, for her efforts to bring this painful part of our history to the foreground of our minds through this novel.
  
  
• Powerful, beautiful
  By A2S2UHLXQLQTCH on 2006-05-23
  I read the reviews of those who gave this book one star and rated it horrible etc. If you read a book because you're Supposed to, forced to, you're bound to come to it sullenly and find it bad. This book is not for the superficial or the shallow-minded. It's for people who care about the world and people and life, our past and how it affects our present, our future.
  
  To take a highly sensitive issue like slavery and tackle it in a novel is a huge task and Morrison has done it with so much sensitivity and care. Simple words, complex emotion, ane excellent work. Worthy of great respect.
  
  
• Haunting but Overdone.
  By A2PXLRZJ1Z6CIG on 2005-06-02
  The book along with the movie is one of the most haunting and sad stories I've read in a long time. I've since heard on NPR that the story is based on a true story which gives it an even more haunting appeal. My only gripe with this book has been mentioned before by other reviewers. Morrison is such an excellent writer that at times it actually gets in the way of the simple horror of this story. Her description of things become TOO eloquent at times and lead me out of the trance of doom and sorry that she originally wants the reader to feel. Sometimes a simple sentence is more effective and powerful than a paragraph which is the case with this book.
  For example,
  Sethe's straight forward dialog in the book always left me breathless while the flowery descriptions in between the dialogs seemed to be out of place, especially for a supernatural period novel about slavery.
  
  With that said, the story alone holds the book together and keeps you glued to the pages, especially towards the end.
  
  
  
• Only read for AP English
  By AK0CTPXI6TN2J on 2006-07-07
  First off I did not like the style it was writen in. It jumped from one thing to another at times and it took a while to realize what she was talking about now. I went into this book believing that it would be a story completely about slavery and what they went through. It ended up being a fantasy type book with slavery thrown into it. The symbolism of the baby ghost did not help me with the whole story. I would have liked it to be more about the slavery aspect than the fantasy with the ghost thrown into the mix. I only read this for my AP English class and I had to force myself through it or else I would not have been able to finish it.
  
  
• Simply Unreadable
  By A34B2SYZN5Y8FO on 2006-09-11
  This book is the Emperor's New Clothes of literature. Critics fall all over themselves to praise it for fear of not seeming sufficiently erudite. I think Morrison is secretly laughing at all of them.
  
  
• Let's just say I wouldn't read it again...
  By AN3NYKNLJT0A on 2006-02-18
  I had to read this novel for a college English course. I was looking forward to it, but with three stars, you can tell I was a little disappointed. I didn't expect this historical slave novel to incorporate ghosts and the paranormal. It shocked me actually to realize, "yes, there is a main character in this story who is a GHOST." I expected more from the story as a whole. I'm glad I got the chance to read it but I wouldn't read it again (unless I have to).
  
  
• Complex and Affecting
  By AHRSJY6AIIMEV on 2006-05-07
  I was surprised to see so many negative reviews of Beloved, Toni Morrison's best known book. Although the book was disturbing, it helped give me a better idea of the true horror of what slavery was really like.
  
  Morrison foccuses around Sethe, a former slave living with a terrible secret. When a young girl named Beloved appears mysteriously at her house, 124, Sethe must examine what really happened all those years ago -- and the causes, mainly slavery, that led to tragedy.
  
  Beloved includes sex, murder, violence, images of slavery, and many other aspects that are disturbing and depressing. However, I did not feel like Morrison was using description just to shock; her point, that slavery continues to affect people long after it was abolished, is certainly true.
  
  Morrison's writing is almost flawless, her literary techniques mind-blowing without being overdone, and her point complex and layered. I only have one warning: don't read Beloved before bed, because it was so good that I got nightmeares.
  
  
• A brief comment
  By A1MJMYLRTZ76ZX on 2006-06-06
  This story of a black family and their trials and tribulations, and their mistreatment at the hands of slave owners, reminded me of Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous Uncle Tom's Cabin, which I read decades ago. Morrison's book is an equally great novel about the evils of slavery. In reading the reviews here, I notice that Morrison's writing is described as rich, or flawless, or that it strikes just the right note for portraying the tragedies of Seth and her family. For me the beauty of the prose contrasts starkly with the events Morrison describes. The characters are very believable and are developed in great depth. I can see why this book was voted the best novel of the past 25 years by critics. It's a great novel on many levels, and I think it deserves the acclaim it's received by critics and readers alike.
  
  
• Couldn't NOT put it down
  By A1SJ5E8ME9RCD9 on 2007-12-07
  Awkward, boring, poorly written, nearly incomprehensible.
  I admit I did not get to page 75 - so maybe I shouldn't even write a review. But even getting to the point that I did, took extreme perseverance.
  I know the critics all fawn over this work - but honestly, I hated it - or the part that I did read. Every other sentence it seemed, had an awkward phrase - things like: "Pleasantly troubled..." and "a snowy look".
  What could these weird phrases mean?
  I know what an icy look is - but a snowy look?
  I've been troubled - I'm troubled right now - but it isn't pleasant.
  Two phrases from memory - but the book is innundated with writing like this.
  Didn't work for me at all.
  Don't bother with Beloved.
  
  
• The Beloved tin can
  By A2L6XABCF71CEZ on 2005-01-05
  Beloved was written by Toni Morrison a world renowned author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Morrison has an uncanny ability to bring her characters to life. You may feel as if you know a character because their emotions, actions, and responses to events are similar to the people around us everyday. Sethe, a hard working mother, portrays mothers today with a strong love for her children. The children she loves so much are Denver and Beloved, with Beloved being the spirit of her dead baby. Sethe and Denver live in 124, a house in rural Ohio. At the start of the book "124 was spiteful", but then it became loud and in the ending it was quiet. When "124 was spiteful" Sethe and Denver lived alone in the house, except for the presence of Beloved who was Sethe's dead baby. Beloved comes back and makes life difficult for the family. In the end she mysteriously leaves and Sethe along with Denver feel as if Beloved hadn't actually been there. Beloved is a very difficult book to read, time changes, symbols and dialogue make comprehending a not so easy task.
  Time changes occur throughout the book and at times you may not know what is going on because it is so abrupt. The first time change you see is in chapter one when Sethe is talking to Denver about the spirit. It then jumps to when Sethe was having a man engrave the name of her baby on the headstone which was a past memory. From chapter 14 to 15 there was a major time change. It starts with Beloved crying to Denver, then goes to Baby Suggs taking care of Sethe's beat up body when she came to 124 with newborn Denver. The gap between those two events was about 18 years. Time changes make it confusing as to when the events actually happened, because some time shifts are short and in the middle of an event going on in the story.
  Symbols contribute greatly to the difficulty of the reading, because not knowing what they mean can lead you to different conclusions about an event. When you hear "tin can" you think of a metal can not a persons heart. The old rusted tin can referred to Paul D's heart and how he thought it would never be opened to reveal his past memories and inner feelings. Another symbol was "men without skin", you can imagine just what it says, a man without any skin. It is actually Morrison's choice of words to say, white men. "Men without skin" comes about because Beloved thinks African-Americans are people with skin and the whites were people without skin due to their color.
  Dialogue like "men without skin" makes comprehending the story even harder than it already is. "Rememory", and "thought picture" are words Morrison uses to mean simple things. "Rememory" is Sethe's word for remembering the past and "thought picture" is the image Sethe has of certain past events or maybe even dreams. The word choice in Morrison's work is crucial to the tone of the story, but it also brings confusion.
  Time changes, symbols, and dialogue all contribute to the difficulty of reading Beloved. It is hard to understand if you don't know the meaning of the symbols and get lost in a multitude of time changes. Morrison definitely has a unique style of writing which brings out the life in the story. If anybody else wrote the story it wouldn't have the same effect Morrison has on her readers. Would I recommend this book to people? Well if you are the type of person who gets frustrated easily with a play on words, and you don't catch on to symbols, this book is not for you. If you are the type of person who enjoys reading a story with twists, and a much deeper meaning, this book is definitely for you. Overall Beloved is an interesting story with twists and turns which could take you on an unforgettable journey.
  
  
• Not worth finishing...
  By AT95CJ3Q0R01Z on 2007-03-01
  I was very disappointed with Morrison's "Beloved". Granted, there were several creative lyrical phrases scattered among the disjointed paragraphs and strange plot lines, but the work as a whole wasn't worth finishing. Read an online summary if you want to, but find something better that isn't a waste of your valuable reading time. It is disturbing when a book is praised falsely. Don't be fooled by the hype.
  
  
• Affirmative Action Masterpiece
  By A2JXAQ92WYPAAR on 2008-06-16
  Here is the problem. Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou are praised to the skies no matter what they do. Their business is selling misery and they have made fortunes. They live in palaces, enjoy their wealth, and sell commentary on poverty, suffering, and injustice. All the power to them. Are they writers? Maya sells gifts cards, picture books, and recordings; hers is the real industry. Toni has got that academic cult status, buying property from Princeton to Bear Mountain, and making you believe she is tapped into the voices of oppression. "Beloved" is marvelous; it should be made into a musical, a Las Vegas show, a movie, a TV serial, a required text in every school in America. It should be set to music, choreographed, and then filmed underwater. Finally, it should be read by Maya Angelou, sold as a Christmas CD, with packaged soul food, and vintage photographs of field hands bent over in the sun. It should be made into a theme park.
  
  
• Confusion
  By A29YQ5HF22UHXS on 2005-12-21
  Toni Morrison's masterpiece, Beloved, was a story like no other. This story takes place in rustic Ohio, a short time after the Civil War, so the tension between blacks and whites is still very fierce. You are introduced to Sethe, an escaped slave, who has a haunting past, a past that won't let her forget, even though she tries so hard to not remember. Denver, her daughter, is her only comfort until an old friend from Sweet Home, Paul D, appears. Even the presence of these two people in her life won't keep her haunting past at bay. Sethe committed the unforgivable; she killed her own daughter to keep her out of slavery. Now the dead daughter, Beloved, is back; not in the form of an unseen presence, but as a physical being. The chaos her attendance would bring, would greatly change the lives of those close to Sethe.
  
  I found this story to be very confusing. Toni Morrison would never tell you straight up what she meant, but rather dropped hints and left you to draw your own conclusions. There is no doubt she is a very skilled writer for her use of allusions and symbols are greatly admired. At the beginning of chapter 16 she makes an allusion to the four horsemen from Revelations. Why she chose to make a reference to them at this point was ambiguous. A symbol of Morrison's that had a lot of meaning was the "tin can" of Paul D. This symbolized his heart, which he felt could never be opened again to feelings. Simple words like "teeth" or "a hot thing" could have multiple meanings, and it was up to you to determine what each really meant. It's her style to let the reader experience the story from the Sethe's point of view which leads to much confusion. If you had no prior knowledge of what happened to Beloved, you wouldn't understand why her returning as a ghost was so significant in the beginning. It wasn't only the fact she waited to reveal things until a later time in the story, it was also her means of telling the story. As the reader you aren't constantly moving forward to the future happenings, but you're exposed to memories of the past. The line between reality and a memory was very blurred, causing the reader to have to look back to gain a better understanding. As for a recommendation on whether or not to read this story it depends on what kind of person you are. If you are like me, and have an analytical mind, you will have a hard time enjoying this story. I like things to be black or white; everything presented straight forward, and no questions about it. This meant I didn't catch many of the symbols or allusions the first time around. I had to reread pieces before it started to make any sense. Once I recognized the symbols or allusions I was unsure of what they stood for. I couldn't be definite about their significance to the story, and this left me questioning many things. I don't recommend this story to anyone who likes things to be uncomplicated. Regardless of whether you think you might enjoy the story, the message behind it makes it worth the effort.
  
  
  
• Be loved
  By A19RI9XSPQLJ3Q on 2005-12-22
  "I24 was spiteful." More like confusing! Ms. Morrison truly has the gift of confusion and she uses it to full advantage in her novel, Beloved. The story centers around Sethe, an escaped slave who lives an outcast's life in her deceased mother-in-law's house (the aforementioned I24). Her two companions in the beginning are Denver (her 18-year old daughter) and the "spiteful" ghost of her murdered "crawling-already" baby. Paul D., a fellow ex-slave from the "wonderful" Sweet Home plantation shows up, forces Sethe to remember her ugly past, and chases the ghost out. Everything seems peachy until Beloved, an unlined young woman with a thirst for stories, shows up. She hungers for Sethe's attention and despises Paul D. Denver finds something to care for and call her own in Beloved. The tentative happiness ends when Paul D. finds out about Sethe's dark secret which has kept so many away from I24.
  This book is full of symbols. The dominant symbol is water, which can represent rebirth, baptism, and cleansing. Beloved speaks of looking through the water at Sethe on multiple occasions and Beloved "came from the river". Beloved can be a symbol because she represents Sethe's unwelcome memories. Beloved makes it easier for Sethe to speak of her past and face it. Beloved also speaks in her chapter of turtles (protection or shields), men without skin (whites), teeth (which can have many meanings, the darkest of which is the teeth of a saw), and the "hot thing" which could be anything from love to blood. This is one of the good aspects of this novel. You have to grow up and realize that the author won't spoon-feed the entire story to you. It forces you to think outside of the box and question every single sentence and character. After all, if the event/person/thing didn't have any significance would Ms. Morrison include her/him/it in her novel?
  I enjoyed this book on a simple level. Beloved has a very entertaining storyline, especially with its supernatural layer. However, once I tried to figure out what was going on between the lines and what every word could mean, it became more confusing. I'm the type of person who has to know I'm right. I'm not comfortable guessing something and being content with my assumption. It helps to read this book with another person so that you can bounce your ideas off of each other and draw from your own experiences and beliefs to shape your interpretation of the novel. I would definitely recommend this book to any person who is willing to have both their brains and beliefs scrambled and who can also deal with graphic language and situations.
  
  
  
• Beautiful work
  By A1RQMG95ZPST7A on 2007-12-01
  I'm not surprised by the extreme fluctuations in the reviews on this book. Frankly, this is the sort of work people will like or loathe with very little ambivalence. Morrison uses a strange style in telling the story of a woman who tries to kill her children rather than see them be returned to slavery, yet it works.
  
  The past and the present are jumbled together for Sethe, who does succeed in cutting the throat of her baby daughter before the slavecatchers can stop her. The same is true for the other characters in the story. They've been in chain gangs, raped, seen all of their children sold away. These people can't stop reliving the horrors they've seen. The fluid, sometimes confusing jumps between past and present underscore this: the words read like the jumbled thoughts of humans who have suffered severe trauma in a time when post-traumatic stress disorder wasn't acknowledged and therapists didn't exist.
  
  Confusing to read? Sometimes, I'll admit. But in light of the story, it make sense.
  
  This is not your typical ghost story. Sethe's baby daughter does indeed haunt her house, and violently so. Her young sons are so terrified that they flee and never return, and Sethe's dwindling family lives in isolation since the house's reputation pretty much stops all visitors. But unlike most ghost stories, this is one in which the ghost takes physical form. Beloved returns from death as a young flesh-and-blood woman, but this only increases the chaos she wrecks on her family. Even Beloved's memories are recorded here, but they're not all Beloved's. One hears a story told by an anonymous girl who survives a voyage across the Atlantic in the hold of a slave ship.
  
  In this sense, Beloved's rage isn't just that of a daughter murdered by a mother trying to protect her in the only way she knew, but the rage and despair of millions of black people who suffered and died under slavery. This is the story of Sethe and her family's healing. In all these ways, this isn't just a ghost story, but a tale of an exorcism, of tbe purging of a bad memory.
  
  The people are fantastically-rendered. I'm not sure where some people get that the characters are "just supposed to represent something". These feel and act like real people. Morrison describes the heart of Sethe's lover, Paul D, as kept in a tin box that's been rusted shut - the only way he's managed not to crack after surviving a chain gang and traveling homeless the last twenty years. Denver is a young woman too afraid to leave her house. So isolated is she that she's happy to have a ghost to play with, even if it is a ghost.
  
  White people are viewed with a detached mistrust for obvious reasons. Seen through the eyes of the novel's black characters, whites are unknoweable, bland, perhaps not real people. This is an interesting switch from old literature (written by whites) in which blacks were the ones viewed as otherworldly and strange. It all depends on who's the witness, after all.
  
  No one is perfect and, with the exception of the sadist Schoolteacher, no one is purely bad. The white couple who bring Baby Suggs out of slavery are very kind indeed, and certainly more evolved than many white folk of the time period. Yet in their home they have a statue of a black boy, his mouth open to receive coins, a sign affixed around his neck with the words "At yo service", revealing that even good, kind people still need to deal with their racism. Slavecatchers are able to catch Sethe unawares because none of her neighbors warn her of the white men's advance. They are jealous and spiteful of her family's prosperity, and so in her hour of need, they abandon her.
  
  A friend told me this book gave her nightmares, and I understand why: the violence and cruelty is breath-taking. At the plantation ironically-named Sweet Home, boys are hanged from trees, pregnant women are raped and men are burned alive for trying to flee. It is from here that Sethe and Paul D escape, but the horrors of the place live in their memory and affect everything they do, even after two decades. The master, known only as Schoolteacher for the way he "teaches" those who need behavior modification, is a monster reminiscent of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. The murder of Sethe's daughter is appalling, but given the circumstances, understood. Death is the only way Sethe can save her children from Hell.
  
  Although the core of the book focuses on a mother and her murdererd daughter, the story is that of a people, really. Sethe and Beloved are only tiny fragments in a bigger story, that of the abduction and torture of a race. Slavery was the most antifamily institution ever invented, where the break-up of the family was not an act of terror but just another bit of public policy.
  
  With a tale of such great magnitude, a writer could easily lose track of what she were doing or never even get it off the ground. Morrison is up to the task and succeeds wonderfully.
  
  
• Just b/c it's about slavery doesn't mean it's a great book!
  By A160ZFE22Z8EZV on 2008-09-05
  This is a book about a woman who killed one of her children to keep them from being a slave. (Why did she kill that particular child and not the others?) Later the child comes back, fully living in adult form because of how much they loved each other, or something like that. Get out of here. That's so ridiculous I can't even suspend my disbelief. The mother and the revived ghost-daughter end up being co-dependent and obsessed with each other, and some other drama ensues. The grammar is purposely very poor and some of the chapters were done entirely in poems with a lot of symbolism that didn't really fit into the story, and seemed to be there just because of how it sounded.
  
  There were some good parts to the book, like some of the characters and the talking about the past, but I really think this book is highly overrated, and I'm someone who loves to read; classics, modern books, junk books, you name it. I'm going to be very controversial and say that whatever judges decide books are "great" have a bias: if a black person writes about slavery, the book is automatically considered a classic, just because of the subject matter. (And maybe it's like this with other historic horrors too.) Well I'm sorry, but I still think a book needs to be well-written, regardless of the subject matter. To Kill A Mockingbird was an excellent book about racism, and Amy Tan writes a lot of great books about the lives of Chinese immigrants. These books are about heavy subjects, but the writers actually took the effort and told a real story with a strong plot. I'm sure there are also great books about slavery and that I will find them, but this a mediocre book that just happens to be about slavery.
  
  
  
• Corrupted Love
  By A1GG5VMM4X7DGJ on 2005-12-21
  What mother, in her right state of mind, would kill her daughter in order to prevent her from having to face the hardships and cruelties of slavery? Are there actually women who would do such a thing? The 20th century novel BELOVED, written by Toni Morrison, tells exactly how one emotionally unstable mother did just that. The only question left to ask is, "How could she do it?".
  Sethe's reasons for putting a saw to her daughter's neck introduce one of the main themes of this story-a mother's love. Morrison emphasizes Sethe's reasons for killing her daughter to be an act of love. But how much love is too much? When does a mother's love get too thick? The conversation between Sethe and Paul D about love barely justifies what Sethe did, but it is still difficult to agree with Sethe's thoughtless actions. Sethe's love is what you call "corrupted" love! Each person is entitled to live his/her own life, and should not be stripped of that right. Love is all a person needs-but to be loved is one thing; to be overloved is another. And too much love is obviously deadly.
  In answer to the question, "How could she do it?" one must be satisfied with the simple answer of, "She loved her". There is no other explanation. Whether it was moral or right is up to you to decide. If Morrison's theme is one you would take pleasure in reading about, dive in and start reading! But, if you are troubled by Sethe's motives and actions, set the book down, and never open its covers.
  
  
  
• Sounds like Faulkner
  By A2BZFE9DMK7C34 on 2005-12-27
  When coming across Morrison's novel "Beloved," the reader encounters a similar narration to that of Faulkner in "The Sound of the Fury. Morrison's choice of a circular structure makes her characters more memorable as they lead fragmented lives. Like Faulkner, Morrison utilizes the technique referred to as stream of conciousness which often confuse the reader. However, I found this technique effective and more captivating than a straighforward read. With Morrison I had to piece together the fragmented information to arrive to a conclusion.
  While Morison's structure kept me interested, her narration of the consequences of slavery remained effective. Morrison utilized imagery throughout the novel to form an image of the horror of slavery. For example, Morrison compares Sethe's wounds to a chokecherry tree. Rather than simply stating the oozing wounds on Sethe's back in a straighforward manner the author uses this powerful imagery to form a vivid picture of that disturbing event in the reader's mind.
  Furthermore, the reader encounters the issue of racism when the schoolteacher refers to slaves as animals. The schoolteacher considers slaves creatures to be handled similar to dogs and cattle. Slaves were told they were subhuman and were traded as commodities whose worth could be expressed in dollars.
  Morrison utilizes other techniques and literary devices througout the novel. Her narrative unlike other works is not the typical slavery book.
  
  
• The American Holocaust
  By A2TFG9059TWQY3 on 2006-07-11
  This novel is dedicated to the millions of African slaves who died because of slavery or during the Atlantic crossing. The dedication alone caused controversy because it jars with the accepted historial versions of slavery. However, American history books are known to contain much inaccurate information, and are also known to omit extremely important information that they should contain--largely for political reasons.
  
  In Beloved, Morrison explores the emotional and psychic cost of slavery on former slaves and particularly on the first generation of free-born African Americans. It is a ghost story. The ghost of a slain child returns to haunt her murderer, her own mother, and her sister. In one passage, the "re-fleshed" ghost describes how she pulled herself together from the flesh in the swamp--the bits of flesh of other African Americans who have been murdered and tossed in the water. She is brought back by her mother's desire for her, and is sustained by that desire.
  
  The novel can be read as the story of how people become ghosts, and yet it is more than that. It is about coming to terms with an ineffably terrible past, and about surviving. It is about the power of communities to overcome holocausts and the sadistic cruelty of the oppressor. It is about how people go on after witnessing the annihilation of their loved ones.
  
  

• The Great Gatsby
• Invisible Man
• Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Song of Solomon
• The Things They Carried