Summary of Beloved and Class
In our class, A&S 100: Beloved and The Golden Triangle, we have read, analyzed and discussed the novel "Beloved" and have picked a topic relative to the story and the time period. The novel Beloved takes place in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1873. This is the story of how Sethe works to try to overcome the traumas in her life but is unsuccessful. The story begins with scenes of Sethe’s two sons, Howard and Buglar, run away from home because of an apparent ghost in the house. This ghost is never named but it seemed to be implied that it was Sethe’s infant daughter who was murdered by Sethe to keep from being captured by slave catchers. The baby’s gravestone was engraved Beloved, so that is what the ghost is referred to as. After the boys flee, it flashes forward eight years when Paul D arrives on Sethe’s doorstep. Paul D is a man who, 20 years prior, Sethe used to be enslaved with on the plantation Sweet Home owned by the Garners. He comes with the intentions to have a future with Sethe and Denver, Sethe’s other daughter. When Paul D arrives, you start to see Sethe’s memories of her torturous past.
The ghost in the house makes it well known that she does not want Paul D interfering with the relationship she has with Sethe, so it does everything it can to drive off Paul D, but instead, Paul D ends up driving it out of the house prior to him moving in. Though the ghost could not scare off Paul D, he is pushed away by a woman who is believed to be embodied by the spirit of Beloved. After this woman manipulates her way into Sethe and Denver’s life, and sexually forces herself onto Paul D, he moves out because he finds out about Sethe’s “rough choice”—the decision she made to kill her infant daughter. Denver soon escapes the house because she is worried about her mother wasting away due to her obsession with Beloved. Denver enlists the help of a former schoolteacher, Lady Jones, Ella and other people of the community to help Sethe escape the unhealthy living conditions and to eventually exorcise Beloved from all of their lives. Beloved disappears and Paul D comes back to live with Sethe and watches her die.
The ghost in the house makes it well known that she does not want Paul D interfering with the relationship she has with Sethe, so it does everything it can to drive off Paul D, but instead, Paul D ends up driving it out of the house prior to him moving in. Though the ghost could not scare off Paul D, he is pushed away by a woman who is believed to be embodied by the spirit of Beloved. After this woman manipulates her way into Sethe and Denver’s life, and sexually forces herself onto Paul D, he moves out because he finds out about Sethe’s “rough choice”—the decision she made to kill her infant daughter. Denver soon escapes the house because she is worried about her mother wasting away due to her obsession with Beloved. Denver enlists the help of a former schoolteacher, Lady Jones, Ella and other people of the community to help Sethe escape the unhealthy living conditions and to eventually exorcise Beloved from all of their lives. Beloved disappears and Paul D comes back to live with Sethe and watches her die.
Summary of Topic
There were many different options to picking a related topic to the novel Beloved, but one that really stuck out to us was inequality of opportunity between colored men and women. This topic was, and still is, relevant to the time period as well. In “Beloved”, Toni Morrison demonstrates a few differences between the jobs that men and women had in the Golden Triangle in the 1800s. The Golden Triangle is a group of three cities that "Beloved" is involved in and takes place in composed of Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky. For example, after Sethe escaped Sweet Home she became a cook for the Sawyer’s, Paul D worked in the stocks, which was more like a prison, Denver’s brothers who ran away told her they were going to war, and Baby Suggs was a preacher. In “Beloved”, it seems as though men typically had manual labor jobs and women tended to work in the house. This is a gender role stereotype that women aren’t capable of being leaders in the work force, so they work around the house and men are supposed to provide for their families because they are “stronger” than women. Toni Morrison illustrates multiple examples of gender inequality through the characters in the novel “Beloved”. We are analyzing inequalities in the work force through differences in job opportunities between black men and women, and the alternatives for youth in the Golden Triangle in the late 1800s