Trauma In Beloved
Beloved, a novel written by Tony Morrison and published in 1987, follows the story of a family of fromer slaves who live in a house haunted by a spirit named Beloved. The story was inspired by the life of Margaret Garner. Garner was a slave in kentucky that escaped from slavery and fled to Ohio in the mid 1800’s. There, she was caught by slave catchers and, in an attempt to save her young children from the horrors of life as a slave, ended up trying to kill them. Beloved provides a nuanced depiction of the trauma that families affected by slavery experience through each of the characters we meet throughout the novel.
The trauma that each character in Beloved experiences is, in some way or another, a result of their lives as slaves. However, despite their trauma stemming from the same experience, each of the characters has experienced that trauma differently. This is why although Paul D and Sethe both have trauma from their lives as slaves, they experience and process it differently.
Sethe suffers from trauma from her life as a slave as well as from generational trauma. Her generational trauma is a result of her hearing about and witnessing her mothers life as a slave, having seen her mothers hung dead body. Sethe also has trauma from her time at Sweet Home, where she is sexually assaulted by white men. The trauma that Sethe experiences affects the way she views life and treats others, which is why she has a sort of emotional detachment from Denver and struggles with her memory of the past.
Paul D’s trauma stems from his time in Sweet Home as well, where he was forced to watch men get murdered and assualted, was starved, and chained to others. The effect of trauma on Paul D can be seen in his treatment of others through his inability to form deep emotional connections and anxiety.
Although each character in Beloved deals with and experiences trauma differently, they overcome it in similar ways. For Paul D and Sethe, the ghost of Beloved helps heal both of their trauma. Beloved forces Paul D to confront his past and become vulnerable again, opening him up to his feelings. And for Sethe, Beloved forces her to come to terms with what happened in her past and live in the present.
Denver, as the child born literally on the road to freedom, might seem like the exception to this argument: she has never lived in slavery, and yet she's clearly traumatized, and her "recovery" and development of a functional self is one of the main narrative threads of part 3. But a moment's reflection reminds us that of course Denver has been traumatized by slavery--Sethe's actions in the woodshed are inconceivable without the context of slavery and the Fugitive Law. In symbolic terms, it's through Denver that the novel is able to explore the lasting, ongoing reverberations of slavery's trauma, as she's never been to Sweet Home (and Sethe assiduously protects her from any real knowledge of the place), but she's among the most affected by its traumas.
ReplyDeleteNice post Andrea. I think another layer to this is generational trauma (I think that's what it's called) and how Sethe's trauma affects Denver as well. Denver was never in slavery, yet she is still affected by it, which is such a terrible premise which I think Morison covers well. Great job.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post Andrea! You did a great job explaining the different characters and the specific trauma that they are each affected by. Even though it all stems from many of the same places, they all react and are affected differently. I also totally agree that Beloved helped all of them in healing and confronting their past traumas. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a terrific post Andrea! I think you identified one of the most important themes of the novel: trauma is different for everyone. I thought the examples of Sethe and Paul D was especially interesting. The both of them experienced immense trauma from a broadly similar and shared experience and at the same place, yet they have very different memories or trauma from it. They cope in their own ways as well, but, as you say in the post, Beloved helps the both of them to heal. Great job!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Andrea! It's great how you identified how the trauma is different for everyone and how everyone copes with their trauma in a different way. For Paul and Sethe, it seems that they've buried their trauma so deep down that the only way to address their past is by utilizing Beloved, a physical manifestation of Sethe's past that serves to help them with their journey. Really interesting post!
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