Slavery In Toni Morrison's Beloved

Beloved a powerful novel that represents the awful history behind slavery, and exposes the damaging effects it had on the individuals that witnessed it. The novel, set in the Post-Civil war in Ohio is that of a sad victory story. “124” the powerful place in which the ex-slaves express extreme emotions of what happened in the past. Kristin Boudreau states that “when Toni Morrison’s Beloved opens with a house “full of baby’s venom, it announces the prominent pain in the lives of these ex-slaves” (447). African Americans had to regroup and put their slavery demons at bay, experiencing their own personal traumas. Therefore, what ways do Morrison explore the psychological impact of slavery? What are the trials and tribulations that each character faces in the story? In the novel, Toni Morrison expresses the

In Beloved memories do not allow the ex slaves to forget anything. Sethe and Paul D both have the same coping mechanisms when it comes to dealing with the emotional trauma left on them by slavery. Sethe hangs on to her close attachment with her daughter Denver, since her emotional fatigue came with the loss of her children. In his eyes the rooster is better than him, stronger. He reflects on how an animal that could not even hatch on its own could become something greater than himself. He has been degraded so low that he considers this rooster to be a “king”. Slavery has reduced him to something that is weaker than an animal. Paul D is no longer allowed go or do what he pleases. He has been completely striped of his free will. Paul D says, “Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasn’t allowed to be and stay what I was.”(86) Paul D has truly lost the abilities that define him as human. Not only can he not do and say what he wants, but he can no longer be what he is. He uses the word was, implying that he has already become something