Monday, November 16, 2015

Ethical Ambiguity in Beloved

Right from the start in Beloved, I did not feel a strong attachment to any of the characters, nor did I particularly like any of them. I think that there is a very natural tendency not to like any of the characters particularly after the end of part 1 due to the lack of ethical strength in any of the characters. Throughout most of the book Sethe is our strong female protagonist, and someone whom you immediately want to like, however at the end of Part 1 she murders her baby, and severely injures most of her children leaving doubt in the reader. Beloved of course seems like the friendly long lost sister to Denver, but ends up choking her mother and in my opinion raping Paul. Paul D condemns Sethe for ,in her eyes, an act of love in killing or trying to kill her children, implying that she is a beast (you have two legs not four). Denver seems to be the strong survivor, resilient, and lonely, but she does not confirm Paul's suspicions about Beloved or the morally ambiguous things Beloved is doing, additionally she is completely immature at the age of 18, and blames her mother for everything in her life. Although readers tend to like books where the protagonist and their surrounding minor characters have strong moral ideals, I think that Toni Morrison is definitely challenging us here to read with a different eye.

No comments:

Post a Comment