Beloved
by Toni Morrison
by Toni Morrison
This novel is unique in the context of my open question because the most influential, active and entirely present character of Beloved doesn't actually exist. Beloved exists, effectively, in the minds of the rest of the characters. This conjures a string of questions about not only the mental stability of Sethe, Denver and Paul D, but mostly about the originality of a mind that creates characters out of itself.
On one hand, the character that is being created is effectively nonexistent, so must be the most original of all thoughts. But that just doesn't seem to really be the case here. Beloved is the girl formed by the painful memories from Sethe's past and the confusion of the Denver's precarious situation. She never has the chance to be a true individual because she never was a true individual. Beloved is a spirit embodying angst in the lives of her living family; Beloved is a spirit in the body of the girl she never got to become.
Simply becuase something is false doesnt mean that it is original. In fact, and this seems to be the case with Beloved, she is more real than anyone else in the novel because she is made of all the unseen secrets of the other lives. She revels what is kept trapped inside. She may be false, she may even be a figment of imagination, but Beloved is not original. Beloved is true.
On one hand, the character that is being created is effectively nonexistent, so must be the most original of all thoughts. But that just doesn't seem to really be the case here. Beloved is the girl formed by the painful memories from Sethe's past and the confusion of the Denver's precarious situation. She never has the chance to be a true individual because she never was a true individual. Beloved is a spirit embodying angst in the lives of her living family; Beloved is a spirit in the body of the girl she never got to become.
Simply becuase something is false doesnt mean that it is original. In fact, and this seems to be the case with Beloved, she is more real than anyone else in the novel because she is made of all the unseen secrets of the other lives. She revels what is kept trapped inside. She may be false, she may even be a figment of imagination, but Beloved is not original. Beloved is true.
