Beloved summary

It’s 1873. Slavery has been illegal in the United States for just 8 years. Sethe is a former female slave living in Cincinnati, Ohio with her daughter Denver. Her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, lived with them until she passed away. Before her death, Sethe’s two sons Howard and Buglar ran away, likely due to the malevolent ghost haunting their home at 124 Bluestone Road. Denver is fond of the ghost, believing it to be her deceased sister.

On the day the novel begins, Paul D, a man Sethe knew from their time as enslaved people at the Sweet Home plantation in Kentucky, pays Sethe a visit. His presence brings back painful memories long buried in Sethe's mind. The narrative alternates between the present day in Cincinnati and flashbacks of events at Sweet Home nearly two decades earlier.

Through fragmented flashbacks, Sethe's history as an enslaved woman slowly emerges. She was born in the South to an African mother she never knew and separated from her siblings at an early age. When she was 13, Sethe was sold to the Garners, the comparatively benevolent owners of the Sweet Home plantation. The enslaved men there lusted after the young Sethe but never touched her. She married another enslaved man named Halle, who’d purchased his mother Baby Suggs's freedom. Sethe and Halle had two sons – Howard and Buglar – and an unnamed daughter. When Sethe escaped Sweet Home, she was pregnant with her fourth child, Denver.

After the passing of the kind Mr. Garner, his sadistic brother-in-law known only as “Schoolteacher” took over operations at Sweet Home, making conditions unbearable. Schoolteacher's nephews beat and raped Sethe, stealing her breastmilk. Her husband Halle watched in horror but was unable to intervene. The enslaved people, including Sethe and Halle, planned their escape.

ANALYSIS

From the outset of the novel, Morrison makes the themes that she wants to explore clear for readers. This isn’t just a novel about slavery, it’s about the psychological consequences of enslavement which, as the book makes clear, linger for a lifetime – even once it has been legally abolished. To communicate this, Morrison chooses to have two main storylines throughout Beloved – one in the present day at 124 Bluestone Road, and one which she recreates through flashbacks, which tells the story of Sethe’s experience of slavery.