A Morrison Connection to Current Times

An Infinite Lens

I have had a continuing battle with Beloved. My lens changes as more historical context, point of views, and situations are revealed. It is often an ambiguous text, and I struggle to decrypt the dubious messages and symbols. As I read farther in the novel, the detailed facts and passages of the literature emerge as parts of current events, and present global feelings (frustration and outcry in Baltimore is the most notable). I find that the confusing, disturbing, and changing elements of this historically-based piece of African American literature that was written within the last century provides insight for prevailing and future moments. 

In Beloved, the overarching theme of identity (what it is, is it possible to lose it, why do we have it, are external forces enough to break the inside of a person, etc.) in the setting of American slavery and post-slavery is evident in Sethe, Paul D, Denver, and Baby Sugg's characters. The inherent history in Morrison, as an African American woman, was the trigger of this novel (NPR). Beloved holds extensive references to Black culture and history, as well as insight to the societal imbalance and awry structures found in modern times. All main characters are African American, and therefore have the same inherent bloodline of pain as Morrison. Morrison has each character struggle with finding their own identity, almost foreshadowing the controversial racial inequality we find now-a-days (a following of the 300 slave years and 100 Jim Crow years); we have a communal lack of acknowledgment that something deeper is wrong, and now we have to understand how the root of the multiple strong reactions is a subset of systemic inequality. Morrison stresses the stain of slavery on one's soul and identity. 

For instance..."They were trespassers when they stepped off Sweet Home. They were no longer Sweet Home Men" (148). The confusion seems to follow both Sethe and Paul D to Ohio. They no longer have the Sweet Home name to belong to, and are blind to the world outside of slavery, settling a lack of self-assured identity as a result of a reoccurring denial of human rights / self-worth.