Beloved

Beloved

Book report on the novel Beloved, written by Toni Morrison.

PLOT

1)

A general connection that each of three characters has with plot is that Beloved is Sethe's third child, murdered at the age of one and a ghost in 124 for the next twenty years. She is reborn in that twentieth year, but though 21 years old in appearance, her mind is of a child. Although, Beloved both seeks Sethe's affections as well as revenge for a murder she cannot understand. In the novel, she serves both as a character as well as a symbol for the past and the sixty-million slaves killed in the Middle Passage.

Sethe is the central figure of the novel. She was once a slave in Kentucky, but fled with her four children to Cincinnati. A month after her escape, she was discovered and, in an effort to keep her children out of slavery, Sethe murdered one of them. The main action of the story revolves around the return of the murdered child, twenty years later, and addresses themes such as justice, morality, and slavery.

Denver is Sethe's youngest child, a 19 or 20-year old girl marked by her immaturity. Because of the loathing the townspeople have for her mother, Denver has been isolated for most of her life, and consequently is often lonely. She is highly dependent upon Sethe, but also fears her because of the murder long ago. Like Sethe, Denver has no future. Throughout the novel, she begins to discover what it means to be self-sufficient and also what it means to be a colored woman in a country where many men and women despise her.

2) A problem or an obstacle that confronted one of the characters was when Beloved is upset at Sethe's choice to sleep with Paul D. The problem is solved when Sethe finally discovers who Beloved is when, one night by the fire, Beloved started to hum a song that Sethe had made up long ago. Nobody knows that song but him and his children. Sethe takes Beloved's return as a sign that she has been forgiven and freed from the past.

4) The main turning point of the story is when they are up in Denver's room, Denver reveals to Beloved that she knows Beloved was the ghost of 124, and asks why she came back alive. Beloved replies that she came for Sethe, that Sethe is the one she need. Also wanted stories about Sethe, she asks about Denver's birth, and Denver continues the tale.

5)

The plot as a whole is not true to life. People coming back alive from the dead is so fictional. It is partly true to life. This is because sometimes some people live through unbelievable accidents and live to tell about it. I consider mostly of the happenings improbable.

7) I don't consider the ending very satisfying because Beloved was naked on the