The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison can only be described as a difficult read. It is not only the difficulty of the timeline and the word choices but the subject matter. Throughout the novel the discussions of the brutality of slavery make the readers stomach turns and skin crawl. However it is not only the vivid horrid nature of the actions described but the fact that the titular character Beloved uses the power of Sethe’s past against her.
Beloved uses her past as a tool to hold Sethe in a state of everlasting pain. She does not use discussions of the past as a tool to empower her to move beyond the past but as a dark shadow from which one can never escape. This is not dissimilar from the experience of many Americans. We are forced to remember the horrors of our ancestors without being able to heal. Because we are forced to look back we never have the ability to move forward much like Sethe.
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