Toni Morrison s Beloved Moral Ambiguity - 1108 Words

Moral Ambiguity in Beloved Toni Morrison’s classic novel, Beloved, can be briefly summarized as a story with woman who is living in both the horrible aftermath of slavery, as well as her action of murdering her baby child in an attempt to save her from slavery. This story is based on the true story of Margaret Garner, who killed her own child and attempted to kill her other children instead of willfully letting them all return to lives of slavery. While slavery is today clearly classified as wrong by the vast majority of civilized society, as is infanticide, the event that takes place in this book is not as black and white. These instances of a grayer side of morality represent a sort of moral ambiguity that runs rampant throughout the entire novel. The example that is of paramount importance is when Sethe, the protagonist of the story, murders her child in order to save the child from a life of slavery. While at first glance, this act may seem wrong to modern readers, there is actually some evidence th at, when thought about, justifies Sethe’s actions. Sethe lives in the shadow of her act of infanticide throughout the entire length of the book. This is because its legacy pervades itself throughout the entire novel, showing events leading up, and ways the future has been affected. The novel begins as such: â€Å"124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom. (Page 1)† This baby refers to Beloved, who became a ghostly presence in Sethe’s house and continuously terrorizes the houseShow MoreRelatedTwo Contrasting Views of Slavery in Literature: Beloved and American Negro Slavery2068 Words   |  9 PagesIn this essay, I will be examining the works of two authors on the topic of slavery in America: Ulrich B. Phillips American Negro Slavery (1918) and Toni Morrison Beloved (1987). One writes as a Southerner and a historian who is defending southern slaveholders and draws upon contemporary racial theory to justify the system as beneficial to African Americans. The other writes as an African-American woman who is looking to write women into history and in doing so, add a female voice to the pastRead MoreAnalysis Of `` Beloved `` By Toni Morrison2353 Words   |  10 PagesAs a contemporary novel, Beloved also resembles the work of historical fiction. Morrison s work accentuates popular black culture, as well as art, music and literature. In addition, Morrison is known for the juxtaposition of her novels and combination of bliss and agony as well as amusement and tears. These combinations can be compared with those of the blues and jazz music. In addition to this sense of culture that Morrison adds to her works, the legacy of black female writers play a key role inRead MoreBrief Survey of American Literature3339 Words   |  14 PagesTranscendentalism As the leader of this movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson interpreted transcendentalism as â€Å"whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought,† and as â€Å"idealism as it appears in 1842.† He believed that the transcendental law was the â€Å"moral law† through which man discovered the nature of God as a living spirit. Three Sources It was a system of thought that originated from three sources. First, American Unitarianism. It represented a thoughtful revolt against orthodox Puritanism. Unitarianism