Resumo de Beloved - Toni Morrison

Bodies hang from trees, women are raped, men are whipped and beaten. In Beloved, Toni Morrison readdresses the 'unspeakable things unspoken' which took place during the years of African-American slavery in the southern states of America.
This is the story of a woman who killed her own child and of the child who returned in human form to haunt her mother, her sister, her mother's lover and the greater community. Beloved is a story of a mother's love, a haunted house, a solitary sister and a lovers' union.
The tragedy begins 18 years in the past with Sethe, a slave who escaped from 'Sweet Home' and gained her freedom. She is spooked when Schoolteacher turns up with a Sheriff and a slave catcher to return her to her life of bondage. They find Sethe attempting to kill her young daughter, Denver and the body of the as yet unnamed baby. Sethe is a woman of such character that she would see her baby killed by her own hand rather than watch her be returned to the world of slavery which she had endured. She buries her child under a tombstone which simply reads 'Beloved'.
Morrison creates tangible characters by revealing events through the eyes of the main characters, shifting through time and streams of consciousness. Paul D's character is forged by his past at 'Sweet Home' and a history of trial until he achieves his independence. He is sold by his master as a common material possession. Although he manages to escape from his new owner, he is captured, imprisoned and forced to endure work in the mines while chained to a line of other slaves. Morrison's characters in Beloved are marked by a past which they will always have to live with. This is a recurrent theme in the novel which is evoked with recurring metaphors such as the metal box in which Paul D. carries his heart.
The haunting effect achieved through Morrison's style of writing mirrors the actual events of the novel. The house is alive with the spirit of the baby ghost who bides her time until emerging from the river in human form. Sethe takes Beloved into her Home in total innocence of her real identity and the havoc she will wreck in their lives. Beloved is a ghost with a voracious appetite and a mission of her own. She tells Denver that she has come back for Sethe and returns a mother's love with an insatiable appetite that will literally bleed her mother dry. As Sethe is reduced to skeletal proportions Beloved gets bloated. When the going gets rough, with Sethe unemployed and Beloved pregnant, Denver emerges into the greater community to find first food and then a job. In an emotional ending, the town's women exorcise the pregnant Beloved on their approach to the haunted home of 124 holding hands and singing songs.
Beloved is a lyrical and poetical novel which reverberates with the rhythms of African-American speech. Yet, the issues which Morrison raises speak at all levels regardless of race, colour or history. You will not only be reluctant to have to put this book down but once you've read it, it will always haunt you.

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