Trauma in Morrison’s Beloved
Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a Pulitzer award winning novel that is inspired by real and documented historical accounts. The book is inspired by the life and experiences of a fugitive slave, Margaret Garner who chose to murder one of her children instead of returning her to slavery. On close reading of Beloved, a reader may question why an African American author would choose to focus her writing on the extreme violence that occurred in a Black family instead of focusing on the oppression and aggression they were subjected to by their white counterparts. While the author uses the novel to unveil the experiences the African Americans went through while they lived in the bondage of slavery, the author communicates a
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While as informed by the author Beloved has no good intentions but only to cause Sethe pain, Seth can’t because she is blinded by her aim to make it up “to her daughter.” Blinded by her love for her daughter, Sethe continually shares information about her past with Beloved which ultimately serves as a catalyst for the materialization of unpleasant memories she had lived to suppress. While Denver, Sethe’s child relates well with Beloved under the impression that she is creating a bond with her, she is oblivious to the fact that beloved is using that opportunity to make her mother suffer and destroy her. Through highlighting the experiences of these characters at this point, Morrison sets out to use the trauma theory to show the implications of trauma and the actions people result to to go through their experiences. In this case, the author shows guilt as an outcome of trauma and how Sethe blinded by her guilt gets exploited and even at some time her pain get intentionally added. Informed by the insights of the trauma theory, the author shows the far-reaching implications of trauma where in the case of the characters, they become reckless and oblivious even in situations where other people seek to abuse and cause them harm (Kreyling