Beloved as a Slave Narrative Essay

Slave narratives are inherently painful readings. The reliving of the authors time in slavery often preceded by a piece by a white man giving authenticity to the tail of escape, also of religious redemption. Beloved adheres to the traditional slave narrative in some aspects, and in some aspects it strays the complete opposite way.

One of the first things we as readers are presented with in Beloved is the theme of pain. 124 was spiteful, filled with baby venom. This pain and sadness is constant throughout the novel. By focusing on the grief of a slave, Morrison conveys right away that slavery brought such pain and sadness to African Americans. Later on in the novel Sethe reveals her experiences as a slave through a series of flashbacks, including her lashings and beatings, which are described in graphic detail much like in the traditional slave narratives. This pain and grief is only heightened throughout Beloved as Morrison attempts to keep these things in the readers mind throughout the novel.

One theme throughout Beloved that is very common throughout the genre of slave narratives in the loss of identity by dehumanization, one scene in particular stands out; when Sethe walks into the classroom where a lesson taught by Schoolteacher on her animal-characteristics. This sort of dehumanization leads to self loathing which not only has immediate effects, but long lasting effects as well. The use of animal characteristics is not unique to Beloved, as in one of the more famous slave narratives Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas shows us that comparisons to animals were not uncommon. Edward Covey is described as a snake by Frederick Douglas throughout the novel, however Frederick also compares himself to an animal at certain points throughout the novel, which a prime example of the lasting effects of the dehumanization that the slave owners had upon the slaves.

A traditional theme in slave narratives is the fear of returning to slavey. In my opinion that is seen all throughout the narrative by Frederick Douglas, and not as prominent as one would think throughout Beloved. Not including the part about Sethe killing her child, the thought of returning to slavery isnt really brought up too much throughout the novel, its leaning heavily towards remembrance as Beloved enters the story, and it includes a mild religious undertone as Sethe believes Beloved to be the spirit of her slain child. The religious undertone is unlike the original slave narratives as in many of the original including The Middle Passage and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas there is not an influential religious tone throughout the stories, however this can also be attributed to the fact that a good portion of Beloved is a fictional tale.

Community as a whole plays a large role throughout Beloved. During her twenty eight day period of freedom, Sethe begins to integrate with the Cincinnati community, and Paul D and his group escape their Georgia prison by working together. In Paul Ds case the sense of community is demonstrated quite literally as they are chained together and during a recollection Paul recalls if ones lost, alls lost. The community plays a role in death of Sethes child, as they failed to alert her of Schoolteachers coming, this effects Baby Suggs tremendously as she is unable to recover and feels it a slight against her. Those events show the effects of a disjointed community, however when they come together the effects are positive as Beloved is exorcised and secures Sethe and its own relief from its past offences. The whole theme of community is typical of slave narratives, however the way Morrison has the community theme mixed with that of redemption takes it into a whole different area, which again goes back to apparent fictionalization of the story.

Beloved shares many traits with traditional slave narratives, however it clearly defines itself as a fictional piece. Placing Beloved into one genre would be doing nothing short of a disservice to the novel which can hold its own amongst the traditional slave narratives of old.