Body Language in Beloved

I think that beloved relies almost as much on tactile imagery and body language as much as on oral storytelling. This is especially evident in the chapter from page 101 to 124, which features physical communication to advance the plot, describe characters, and reveal meaning.

In the flashback to Baby Suggs’ sermon, Sethe describes her religious practices as mostly physical. She encourages her flock to dance, cry, and love their bodies. “Here, … in this place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass,” tells Baby Suggs to her followers, stressing the importance of physical expression (103). Missing her love and support, Sethe primarily refers to physical manifestations of Baby Suggs’ affection, like “the fingers or the voice” (101). She goes so far as to say that she knew the “the touch of those fingers better than … her own” (115).

When Sethe goes to reflect on Baby Suggs’ preaching stone, the supernatural forces don’t talk to her; they communicate physically, leaving very tangible bruises on Sethe’s neck. Sethe’s familiarity with Baby Suggs’ touch that later allows her to identify the mysterious attacker as the baby ghost rather than her.  She even comes close to recognizing the ghost’s touch in that of Beloved, whose elaborately described kiss and physical behavior of a “two-year-old” also link her to the ghost (117).

Tactile imagery becomes a crucial device that Morrison uses not only in this scene, but also throughout the novel. I wonder, however, if the language of the body in Beloved  is secondary to oral expression, or an equally important means of communication that functions inseparably from it.