Dehuminization

It's clear that in Beloved, Toni Morrison loves to write in a way that has a very real surface meaning that also requires a harder, more in depth look to be interpreted. On page 88 she does so when she writes the conversation between Denver and Beloved. Denver initially asks Beloved why she is called that, and then Beloved answers many more of Denver's questions in a ways that leave a lot for the reader to interpret. She talks about being in a dark place, a small place, no room to move, being hot, and not having a lot of air to breathe. In class, people interpreted this as coffin, death, and hell. I interpreted it to be a slave ship. I thought it was a slave ship because the description lead me to believe that. However, if you look at what everyone one said, they all have a common theme. A coffin and hell both symbolize not being alive and no longer being human. A slave ship is in the same line because it was such a dehumanizing act. So whichever place you thought Beloved was, Morrison was trying to paint the picture of not being human anymore. That's what she does. She tells a story that has an important meaning initially, but you have to do additional digging if you really want to know what her meaning is.