Jillian Terlonge Beloved Essay
Eng 201 March 1st 2009
In the novel, Beloved, each of the characters plays an important role in the plot. Among the characters there are Sethe, Beloved, Denver, Paul D and Baby Suggs. Each character is embodied with a certain unique characteristic. Sethe is a strong woman who had endured much, yet remained brave throughout her life. Denver, originally shy and weak, builds confidence and experiences a transformation. Baby Suggs serves a spiritual mentor, who ultimately passed on her guidance and courage to Denver.
Sethe was the protagonist in this novel. She used to be, in her past, a slave in Kentucky, where she was repeatedly raped and abused. It is on the plantation where she worked on that she met Halle, her now deceased husband. Sethe attempted to ran away from her master with her four children, and was eventually caught. Desiring nothing more than to keep her children out of slavery, or anything close to what she had endured, Sethe made the decision to murder one of her children. This act, in Sethe’s mind, was one of love and protection for her baby. After killing Beloved, her third child, she is stopped by a friend who has rushed in as she is swinging the infant by her heels to smash her head. After some time in jail for murder Sethe returns to a home haunted for years by the child's ghost and after an exorcism attempt the child appears in the flesh as the teenager she would've been, focused on making her mother pay for having taken her life. Sethe continued to live with these haunting memories that were a part of her everyday life. She explained to Denver, “ The past will always be there waiting for you.” Beloved’s arrival confirmed Sethe’s theory. Sethe’s fear of the past is what allowed her to disregard the evidence that Beloved, who was found cold and wet on the doorstep of 124, was indeed her dead daughter
in front of her. Without knowing who she is Sethe takes the girl in, but once she...