First, the dictionary definition of a ghost is, “an apparition of a dead person that is believed to appear or become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image,". Ghosts attract fear in the plots of novels and or films. A lot of people read a book or watch movies for the sake of the ghost aspect. The spooky realisation that something can come back after death, we are not alone and something could be haunting a place makes the story appealing. More so, like in the novel Beloved Toni Morrison uses the ghost aspect of the novel to drive the plot. It makes the story more unique and different from an ordinary story about history.
The term "ghost story" can refer to any kind of scary story. The dictionary definition of a ghost story is, "the ghost story has been developed from a short story format, within a genre of fiction. It is a form of supernatural fiction and specifically of weird fiction, and is often a horror story,".
In the novel, Toni Morrison uses the ghost aspect of the novel to drive the plot, when Sethe creates Beloved. This ''ghost'' to her becomes the opportunity to help Sethe’s conscience. Toni Morrison alternates point of views by telling stories from Sethe's past, to telling stories in the present. Morrison brings in Beloved, who shows Sethe and Paul D's past at "Sweet Home" as slaves, and the present. The character of Beloved allows Morrison to explain the experiences and characteristics of the characters.
As an avid ghost lover, I personally feel more attracted to a novel or film when the haunted ghost aspect is added, but beloved is not a "spooky" ghost story someone might tell at summer camp. Morrison's writing examines the destructive legacy of slavery as it demonstrates the life of a black woman named Sethe, there just so happens to be ghosts.
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