Stereotyping Beloved

The reason I like Beloved is because there are no stereotypes involved. All the characters are complex, contradictory and all the interactions are tense, longing and real.

For instance, from the beginning it is clear that Denver is lonely. She has no friends, spends all her time in 124, and is jealous of Paul D for attracting the attention of her mother. However, she is simultaneously afraid of her mother, her only companion, and really longs for her father.

Furthermore, it is clear that Sethe is strong willed and independent. She runs away from Sweet Home and gives birth on the road with only the help of Amy, a white girl. But she is also overcome with memories that threaten her sanity. She is a loving mother but she is also a murderer.

The community that Sethe, her children, and Baby Suggs live in is one of unity and tight bonds. Stamp Paid says that he never has to knock at most doors before he goes on in. But it is also one of jealousy and hurt: when they see how well-off Sethe's family is they don't warn them about the four white people coming to kidnap.

I think that this book helps to reveal the many nuances in people and in life. I think that if you passionately hate a group of people, be they a minority, a political group, a religion, then you are mistaken or misinformed. People are not simple enough to be characterized as evil or good. Binaries like these are social constructs that create dangerous simplifications. They get rid of the reason to try to understand people individually. They get rid of any need for critical thought or analysis. They make it easy to hate. When we recognize that people are difficult to comprehend we open up a place for them to be the one defining and not the defined.