Accosting the Past: A Perusal of Toni Morrison’s Beloved

Abstract

Toni Morrison’s Beloved investigates the harrowing life of enslavement and its persistent influence on every individuals and the African American community. She was conferred with several accolades for her contribution to black literature. The objective of this present work is to analyse how Morrison tackles the past and the traumatic experiences encountered by African Americans with painful memories that cannot be effaced from history. It has to be relived in the present and must be confronted before actual healing transpires. It examines the main protagonist, Sethe’s repressed past, which has to be confronted before actual recovery takes place. By presenting the tragic past of enslavement in her in Beloved, she helps avid readers to explore the African American cultural world, which has been neglected for a long time by the conventional literature. The present study is qualitative and in an embedded form. The methodology of this study employs a close textual reading and interpretation of Toni Morrison’s Beloved by using the ethical theories of Kantian Deontology and Utilitarianism perspectives. Ethical theories of Kantianism and Utilitarianism are applied to this study to evaluate the moral quandary brought up in the literary text. These two ethical theories are employed in understanding Toni Morrison’s Beloved for examining the fictitious characters and moral issues presented in the novel. The result of the present investigation reveals the importance on addressing the dark history; nevertheless, excruciating, it is an important step towards individual and collective healing..