Identity in Beloved

American slavery dehumanized and erased the identities of its victims. Toni Morrison elaborates on this effect of slavery in her signature novel, Beloved. In the story, each of the primary characters struggles with their identities.

Sethe has only a very limited memory of her past before arriving at Sweet Home. Before Beloved’s appearance, the novel does not reveal anything about her childhood. What she does eventually remember is painful and shocking to her. The structure of slavery keeps her away from her mother- Sethe is raised by a disabled slave woman while her mother works in the field. Slavery’s violence steals her mother from her forever when she is hanged. In this way, the matrilineal descent is disrupted and Sethe’s self-identity is damaged because she blocks out the painful memories of her childhood. She similarly represses her memories of punishment and rape at Sweet Home until Paul D, a living reminder of Sweet Home, reappears in her life.

Denver struggles to conceive of herself in her loneliness. She grows up without the benefit of a significant social context, which is particularly difficult for a young person, as a result of the community casting out Sethe. Her primary contacts are Baby Suggs, who unfortunately passes away when Denver is still very young, and her mother. Denver enjoys hearing the story of her birth, which includes Amy Denver, the woman for whom Denver is named. Denver has a sense of personal history, having always been free, that her formerly enslaved mother does not have. However, the damage done to her mother by slavery continues to harm Denver as well. Sethe has been irrevocably altered by her experiences, and she passes on the fear of memory to her daughter.

Beloved calls herself by the name on her tombstone, and states that she has no last name. Her lack of last name signifies the way slaves were either not given a last name or given the name of the family that owns them, as is the case for Paul D. Garner. When Beloved first comes to 124, she says that she has no memories, much like an infant. As the novel continues, a few of her memories do come up. It is unclear if Beloved is purposely hiding her memories from the family or if they come to her as she tells them. Beloved loves to hear about Sethe’s past, as if soaking in her family’s history, the same way that Denver listens to the story of her birth.