Beloved Final Blog Entry

Terry Enriquez
T/ Th 1

Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved which is an extraordinary piece of writing that excels on the real concepts of slavery addition to its main focus of sacrifice throughout the story. Beloved, the daughter of Sethe, represents the past and the slave’s horrible experiences from slavery. Beloved being the one to confront Sethe and her former slave friend Paul D of their past experience with slavery. For them having to deal with their past means remembering the horrible events such as physical and emotional abuse. Moreover, this meaning that the reincarnation of Beloved did more bad than good into to Beloved and Paul D’s life.

In the essay, “Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural in Beloved” by Pamela E. Barnett, Barnett goes over the concept of rape and sexual violence in the novel. More specifically the sexual violence Paul D dealt with such as in when he was a slave. Because Beloved portrays the past, when she reincarnates and comes back to Sethe, she end up haunting Paul D and Sethe by making them remember their past. Paul D had gone to house 124 with the intention of living with Sethe and wanting to forget the past. Although this is very hard because Beloved comes to haunt them both about their past. Pamela E. Barnett had specifically named Beloved as a “succubus”, which is a female form demon in which has sexual intercourse with men in their sleep. Furthermore, the purpose of the succubus in the novel is to portray the sexual abuse slaves had emotionally experienced and along with that the mistreatment of the African Americans’ reproduction.

Paul D later in the novel experienced sexual abuse from Beloved or in a sense, a form of rape. To explain, Paul D was in bed one night and Beloved had forced him out of Sethe’s bed. Beloved made him meet him in the cold house and she had forced him to have sex with her. Paul D had tried to resist having sex with her but eventually was to caught up on the situation and later found himself in a situation he tried avoiding. As Beloved has sex with Paul D, she forces him to re-live the sexual abuse he experienced as a slave. Furthermore, Barnett describes Beloved to “drain victims of fluid in an attack with sexual resonances” thus leading them [Paul D] to re-live their horrible past as she metaphorically kills them by haunting them.