Beloved notes (1st edition)

In Toni Morrison's **"Beloved,"** female characters navigate the trauma of slavery and its impact on their identities. The novel follows Sethe, a former slave, as she struggles to rebuild her sense of self and reclaim her agency, highlighting the deep, lasting effects of slavery on personal and collective identity.

Toni Morrison’s fiction is preoccupied with the persistence of the past. Indeed, in Beloved (1987) and Jazz (1992) the past continually resurfaces in the present. In Beloved, for example, Sethe is haunted by her past in the form of her departed daughter. Whereas in Jazz, the past is tragically repeated in the lives of Joe and Violet Trace. In both texts, Morrison’s characters must confront their past in order to move on. Accordingly, their experiences demonstrate Morrison’s ‘concern to b...

In Toni Morrison's **"Beloved,"** female characters navigate the trauma of slavery and its impact on their identities. The novel follows Sethe, a former slave, as she struggles to rebuild her sense of self and reclaim her agency, highlighting the deep, lasting effects of slavery on personal and collective identity.