Beloved by Toni Morrison Historical Fiction Story of
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Historical Fiction • Story of Margaret Garner, a slave • Newspaper clipping in 1851 • Garner, with her four children, “escaped from Kentucky to a small neighborhood outside of Cincinnati, Ohio • Facing capture and a return to slavery • Kills one of her children and attempts to do the same to two more
Morrison’s Research on Garner • Described as a • She was adamant calm, quiet, and about her children self-possessed not living under woman in prison the system “from which she tried to • Apparently, Garner rescue them. ” expressed no remorse for her • What does such a actions. decision mean? What are the implications?
Theme of “Motherly love” • Nature of motherly love • Garner’s love for her children • Value of life • Justice • “Preferred to see them dead than to have them sullied or hurt by slavery”
Recollection of Slavery • Impact of slavery on American society. A system of oppression. Superior/Inferior Syndrome • Impact on enslaved Africans – outlook for the immediate future and beyond • Abolitionists - Who were they?
Setting • Set in a house outside Cincinnati • House is called “ 124” • Flashbacks to a slave plantation in Kentucky named Sweet Home • Mid 1800 s • Discuss flashbacks as a literary device • Pay attention to Morrison’s description and use of specific details
Key Players • Beloved – the ghost/person of the murdered child • Sethe – the mother (the protagonist) • Paul D – a former slave who knew Sethe when they were together at Sweet Home (the Garner plantation) • Denver – one of Sethe’s three other children who was not killed
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