Dearly Beloved

Toni Morrison's "Beloved" was an insightful look through the eyes of someone undergoing extreme amounts of stress and desperation. More particularly it shows us the lengths that slaves were willing to go to to protect their children after being exposed to the extreme amounts of abuse they undertook. I find it interesting what desperate people will do in extenuating circumstances. In Sethe's case it was murdering her child to keep it from enduring the hardships that accompanied slavery. Psychologically what must have been going through her head to murder her child especially in such a gruesome way is mind boggling. I find it unimaginable in any state to cause physical harm to a loved one. However I have not been abused all my life and then chased like an animal through the Kentucky and Ohio countryside so it is truly impossible to say what I would do in those circumstances. Morrison's own hardships that she went through dealing with discrimination undoubtedly added a lot to her characters emotions when being treated like a lesser animal compared to white America. Although some people have not cared for the book because of its raw and disturbing depictions of the human psyche I appreciate it for not being sugarcoated. Real life is not rainbows and gumdrops and in order to understand our fellowman we need to be hit with how they really act and think no matter how gruesome. Morrison's "Beloved" is nothing short of gruesome in parts and not so hard hitting in others much like real life.