Beloved + Sun Also Rises
...of the past. The story takes place at a haunted house known as 124 in post-slavery Ohio during the 1870s. It follows a family of newly freed slaves as they struggle to make new lives for themselves and tend to the scars of slavery. Sethe is the mother of Denver, Howard, Buglar and the deceased child known as Beloved, who at the beginning of the book, is haunting house 124. The major complication of this story arises when Beloved comes back to life as a physical child. Beloved is the symbol of pain and suffering caused by slavery. In this novel it is the community that must find a way to put aside this suffering from slavery. Beloved is the physical embodiment of the ghosts of slavery, She is a warning against over dwelling on the past, and she is that which inspires growth and change.
Beloved is a symbol of slavery. However, this is not immediately apparent When she first enters the story it is uncertain who she is. She emerges as a fully dressed woman coming out of a stream. When Sethe meets Beloved for the first time, she has an irrepressible need to urinate. This urination reminds Sethe of when she gave birth to Denver: "Right in front of the door she had to lift her skirts, and the water she voided was endless. Like a horse, she thought, but as it went on and on she thought, No, more like flooding the boat when Denver was born." It is at this point that the astute reader realizes that Beloved is most likely Sethe's deceased child that has come back to life. Beloved is the same age the baby would have been had it lived, and she has the same name that is inscribed on the baby's tombstone. Sethe is in a way rebirthing her child back into existence. Symbolically, she is birthing the old memories of slavery back to life. We see this when Beloved recounts memories from a previous generation of slaves: "She was getting ready to smile...
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