Beloved by Toni Morrison Book Analysis Essay

I believe the most important idea that Morrison is exploring is Denver’s thorough understanding of the emotionally complex decision that Sethe took and a realization of the duties she must undertake to save her family, specifically Sethe, from being consumed with the guilt of the past.  Morrison develops this idea through shifts in perspective and provoking images such as the descriptions of slavery and the scene of Sethe killing Beloved.  Before this passage, Sethe and Beloved were getting along well and did as many mother-daughter activities as possible, but soon, Beloved became demanding and drained the life and energy out of Sethe due to the anger built up in her.  Consequently, Sethe became so focused on meeting all of Beloved’s demands that she even appears “small” next to Beloved who has a “belly protruding like a watermelon”.  The reversal of the mother-daughter dynamic demonstrates not only a contrast in physical appearance if Beloved is truly pregnant, but it also illustrates how Beloved is an embodiment of all the guilt of Sethe's past which is disallowing her to move forward into the future.  This excerpt explores Denver’s awareness of the state of 124 and the relations between her mother and sister by beginning through her perspective.  Denver “thought she understood the connection between her mother and Beloved” but realized there will never be an end to the switch of roles of Beloved and Sethe and she will be tasked with handling this issue.  We can see the shift in Denver’s views from the previous chapters since she was always wary of Sethe repeating her actions of killing Beloved but soon realized how Beloved might end up being the one killing Sethe instead.  Denver’s character growth is especially highlighted in this passage of the book when she grasps the conditions of slavery and what it took to “drag the teeth of that saw under the little chin; to feel the baby blood pump like oil in her hands; to hold her face so her head would stay on; to squeeze her so she could absorb, still, the death spasms that shot through that adored body”.  The simile of Beloved’s blood pumping like oil is a repeated image throughout the book that holds a chilling feel every time one reads it due to the gruesome image that it evokes in us.  The descriptive verbs/phrases such as “drag the teeth”, “squeeze”, “absorb”, “death spasms that shot” also retell the scene of Sethe killing Beloved in a way that not only allows us to visualize the killing and death of Beloved but also feel it.  
Morrison’s second shift in perspective occurs after the retelling of Beloved’s death and transitions from Denver’s perspective to a more broad outlook of slavery during that time.  The shift in perspective begins Morrison states, “That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind” where we are viewing the acts of slavemasters and the torment from servitude, where they strip you of your identity and "dirty" you.  Morrison then goes to explain only some of the many horrors and inexplicable conditions of slavery through images and descriptions of a “feetless torso hanging in the tree with a sign on it was her husband or Paul A” or “bubbling-hot girls in the colored-school fire set by patriots” or “a gang of whites invaded her daughter’s private parts, soiled her daughter’s thighs”, using a girl as a subject of these real scenarios.  Morrison does this to explain all the reasons Sethe had to kill Beloved so Beloved wouldn’t be the subject of these torments because it was something Sethe could not let her experience after undergoing slavery herself.  This is also one of the few times that Morrison justifies Sethe’s actions by hearing a perspective other than Sethe herself, exemplifying the magnitude of the hardships of slavery.  Morrison then returns to Denver’s perspective to parallel the readers’ understanding of the complex emotions, images, and realizations that she also undergoes through the progression of the text.  In the end, Morrison quickly shifts to Beloved’s perspective to establish the quick actions Denver must undertake before Beloved’s two-year-old mindset of frustration and anger controls Sethe completely.