Beloved is a novel
in which the past is inextricably intertwined with the present and the future. Some
say in metaphorically that “your past may come back to haunt you,” but in
Beloved this metaphor is brought into physical terms. When an escaped slave
named Sethe must murder her infant daughter to keep her from the clutches of slavery,
that baby comes back with a vengeance: “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s
venom” (1). These intriguingly confusing opening lines depict the physical phantasm
of the tale. However, there is yet another ghost: the memory of slavery. Slavery’s
lingering effects can be seen in how each occupant of the town is said to be
broken in some way. Sethe’s experiences, however horrible, are the norm there.
For Sethe, that
past acts like an anchor, weighing her down so she is stuck in stagnation. For
her one act of love for her children and defiance toward slavery, the community
ostracizes her. While the others in that community too have experienced the
horrors of slavery, they shun Sethe for killing her daughter to keep that child
from what Sethe believed to be a worse fate than death. She is stuck in this
miserable situation with no one but her daughter and the ghost of her baby,
almost reminiscent of Sweet Home, in which at least they were all together.
When Paul D, who
represents the future, appears in front of Sethe, she is shocked. Soon she is
happy, for she is with someone who has experienced what she has, so they have
an understanding without Sethe needing to explain anything. Paul D believes
that he Sethe, and Denver can start anew and become a family. But Denver does
not not want this, as she is as stuck in the past as Sethe is.
Eventually, Denver
accepts Paul D, and thus metaphorically accepts that there may be a future for
her and her family. She is even to become the “project” of a rich white family.
However, looking to the further here, although rose tinted, is speckled with
problematic holes. That white family, while said to be a progressive one, has a
coin bank reminiscent of the one we see in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Therefore, everything is not as perfect as it seems.
