Glimpses of self-alienation in Tony Morris novel ‘Beloved’

Abstract

Tony Morrison’s novel ‘Beloved’ may be counted as a revolutionary novel- as a unique addition to the genre – fictional and the typical slave narrative structure. It is a fair document of the dehumanizing effects of slavery that leave the protagonist Sethe stuck in the past and unable to escape the “continuing apocalypse of racism”. ‘Beloved’ is one of a very few examples of literature that is written in a maternal voice. This novel speaks to the unspeakable, and somewhat incommunicable, rawness of trauma. ‘Beloved’ speaks to the pervasiveness of psychological trauma. Here Toni Morrison tackles life’s darkest elements through the story of an escaped slave based around the murder of her innocent infant. The twisted mother-daughter relationships of ‘Beloved’ showcase the fracturing effect of slavery upon the human mind. Morrison radically presents this phenomenon by granting the psychological effects of slavery a physical embodiment, resurrecting a figure to adopt the secondary selves of the living. This paper explores the crisis of slave life of American in particular and all over the world.