Identity In Beloved Essay

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In Toni Morrison’s novel “Beloved”, the pursuit of self-affirmation by the black individual is closely tied to a community process. This element of community is distinctly fragmented after the wake of Slavery due in part to the difficulties that freed slaves faced while rebuilding communities. With slavery era traditions, values, and beliefs defining the social construct of the freed slave community, the interaction between the individual and his/her community allows a somewhat constrained sense of self exploration and identity. In “Beloved”, Morrison explores this community process and cross examines the effects of slavery and its aftermath on the development of identity and self-affirmation of the main inhabitants of 124. Set in the years …show more content…
This action of infanticide, while a despairing act of passion, was an act of violence which promptly resulted in the social rejection of Sethe by the freed slave community. It can be seen that Sethe’s murder of her daughter was the primary reason for her alienation from the community. When Ella the white abolitionist is talking to Stamp Paid regarding her friendship with Sethe, she states: “I ain’t got no friends take a handsaw to their own children.” (221). However, the ramifications of Sethe’s infanticide also affect Denver and Baby Suggs as well, both of whom withdraw from the community in solitude. The failure of the neighbors and towns people to protect and care for the general well-being of Baby Suggs as well as Sethe’s two boys presents a picture of the tension between the house and the community. This tension is remarkable due in part that the community of freed slaves have all come together to live after their escape from the atrocities of slavery. However, ambiguities are present in the institution of slavery and require one to venture beyond the preconceived notions of slave bonding and

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