Toni Morrison\u2019s novels consistently raise critical moral questions via their intricate plots, complex character development, and the use of narrative devices such as flashback and\/or limited perspectives. Beloved, <\/i>in particular, deals with the moral binary of good versus evil, or otherwise \u2018right\u2019 and \u2018wrong,\u2019 by complicating the way readers consider the extent of the role of \u2018evil\u2019 and also what may be deemed as \u2018good.\u2019 The main force of evil in the novel is the institution of slavery, and Beloved <\/i>actively works to unpack the intricacies of this \u2018evil\u2019 by considering how it shapes the way we understand \u2018goodness\u2019 relative to its oppositionary force.<\/p>\n
Beloved<\/i> responds to the personal and interpersonal traumas created by the institution of slavery by highlighting how these traumas manifest in the characters\u2019 lives, and drawing specific attention to relevant historic detail. On the most basic, fundamental level, one might reduce such a novel to an anti-slavery text with the main argument that \u201cslavery is bad\u201d; this kind of text typically sets up a binary that suggests slave-owners are guilty while enslaved people are innocent. But Morrison does not give this to us straight\u2014in fact, she hardly gives us the opportunity to even think we\u2019re off the hook so easily.<\/p>\n
The book is loaded with examples of slavery and racism\u2019s pervasiveness. For example, the detailing of Paul D\u2019s horrific experience with the iron bit exposes the cruel, torturous elements of slavery: \u201cHe wants me to ask him about what it was like for him\u2014about how offended the tongue is, held down by iron, how the need to spit is so deep you cry for it. She already knew about it, had seen it time after time in the place before Sweet Home. Men, boys, little girls, women. The wildness that shot up into the eye the moment the lips were yanked back,\u201d (71). Decades later, Paul D continues to face the repercussions of having had the iron bit forced upon him. There is no ambiguity here; the iron bit is a clear, representative symbol of the evil of slavery.<\/p>\n
Sethe\u2019s description in the above quote reveals another binary that Beloved <\/i>addresses within the institution of slavery\u2014\u201cthe place before Sweet Home\u201d versus Sweet Home itself. The novel hardly describes the place before Sweet Home except for in passing\u2014in brief memories of traumas that the characters experienced. Yet, by grounding most of the novel\u2019s story in Sweet Home, <\/i>Morrison further complicates and criticizes the notion of a more \u201cbenevolent\u201d form of slavery. Sethe\u2019s understanding of Sweet Home is informed by her past experience: \u201cThe Garners, it seemed to her, ran a special kind of slavery, treating them like paid labor, listening to what they said, teaching what they wanted known. And he didn\u2019t stud his boys. Never brought them to her cabin with directions to \u2018lay down with her,\u2019\u201d (140). The \u2018goodness\u2019 of Sweet Home\u2014here indicated not by a moral judgment but merely by the word \u2018special\u2019\u2014is defined by Garners\u2019 treatment of her being better than her previous situation i.e. not being subjected to sexual abuse or extensive degrading. Other points in the narrative storyline continue to challenge the notion of a \u2018good\u2019 kind of slavery, as when Sister Brodwin says: \u201cWe don\u2019t hold with slavery, even Garner\u2019s kind,\u201d (145).<\/p>\n
While Sweet Home might be considered \u201cgood\u201d relative to the place before it, it is also specifically Sethe\u2019s trauma associated with Schoolteacher that drives her to kill her own daughter. Sethe is the novel\u2019s \u201cheroine\u201d and thus we are made to empathize with her, but yet, this does not mean that she is free from moral judgment based on her actions. Morrison complicates the binary which suggests Sethe\u2019s \u201cgoodness\u201d by depicting a complex character who is deeply impacted by the role of the \u2018evil\u2019 (slavery) in her life: a character who cannot be easily dismissed as either \u2018good\u2019 or \u2018bad\u2019 specifically because <\/i>we understand the wider moral injustice of slavery when we consider the moral injustice of her act as a mother.<\/p>\n
Beloved <\/i>calls for a complex understanding of morality, rather than considering it something that could be so easily clear-cut. Both sides of judgment\u2014both \u2018good\u2019 and \u2018evil\u2019 are informed by the contexts in which that very moral judgment is made.<\/p>\n
Morrison, Toni.\u00a0Beloved.\u00a0<\/em>Plume: 1988.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Toni Morrison\u2019s novels consistently raise critical moral questions via their intricate plots, complex character development, and the use of narrative devices such as flashback and\/or limited perspectives. Beloved, in particular, deals with the moral binary of good versus evil, or otherwise \u2018right\u2019 and \u2018wrong,\u2019 by complicating the way readers consider the extent of the role … Continue reading Good Versus Evil: Morality in Beloved<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3612,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145910,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-blog-posts","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}