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Conflicts In Toni Morrison's Beloved

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Beloved: It Was Not a Story to Pass on Morrison brings to light secrets in her novels -- public and collective secrets -- as she exposes to public view sensitive race matters (Bouson 358). However her matters in the book do not simply reflect only that of race, but also tensions between the social classes. By her own admission, “Morrison draws on the elements of lore...gossip...magic...[and] sentiment to voice those experiences silenced by traditional and prominent historical accounts” (Sandy 37). Toni Morrison’s concern for racial tension between social classes and her focus on malicious intent in Beloved seems to have made this novel an American classic; but more importantly, the reality and language of the book shows that there …show more content…

The effects of slavery impact each of the slaves’ lives in many ways, mainly their vision of self, which causes the division between the races to have tension. The central characters face the horrifying task of knowing or understanding themselves as human subjects in a society that “rejects the human status or identity of any black individual,” and for some characters this would permanently stunt the growth of the character in the novel (Cosca 9). When the slaves are freed and are able to become their own people, that is when tension between the races becomes more prominent because the white people still see themselves above the African Americans. The main character Sethe, is constantly feeling alienated from everyone, and she says her children are her only happiness. As a result of their alienation and separation, the characters end up depressed and constantly tired. Stamp Paid says “I been tired all my days, bone-tired, but now it 's in the marrow” (Morrison 98). This relates to the racial tension between the classes because a lot of these slaves are tired due to the fact that they are being overworked. The slaves then feel angry and have an unwillingness to continue on with their lives

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