ipl-logo

Milk In Toni Morrison's Beloved

514 Words3 Pages

Toni Morrison presents her novel Beloved, chronicling a woman 's struggle in a post-slavery America. The novel contains several literary devices in order to properly convey its meaning and themes. Throughout the novel, symbolism is used heavily to imply certain themes and motifs. In Morrison 's Beloved, the symbol of milk is utilized in the novel in order to represent motherhood, shame, and nurturing, revealing the deprivation of identity and the dehumanization of slaves that slavery caused.

At the beginning of the novel Morrison presents milk as a symbol for motherhood. As Sethe describes the happenings of Denver 's birth and her necessity to feed her child, Sethe 's connection to breast milk is evident. "All I knew was I had to get my milk to my baby girl. Nobody was going to nurse her like me (Morrison 10)". Morrison connects Sethe 's …show more content…

Throughout Beloved, milk becomes to symbolize the general sense of nurturing. When Sethe, Denver and Beloved got back to 124 from their cold trip to the woods," Sethe warmed a pan of milk and stirred cane syrup and vanilla into it. Wrapped in quilts and blankets before the cooking stove, they drank, wiped their noses, and drank again (Morrison 97)." The milk comforts the women after being out in the cold. Morrison uses milk in this instance to represent healing and nourishment, feeding the three women with a substance previously deprived of them. In this scene Sethe reclaims the nourishment she was and human generosity she was denied as a slave and reclaims her identity as mother while preparing milk for the two young women she wishes to care for.

The symbol of milk is prominent throughout Morrison 's novel. The milk 's symbolism allows insight into the overall themes Morrison is trying to project. Whether it be through its symbolism of motherhood, shame, or nourishment, milk throughout the narrative reveals the ways in which African Americans were stripped of their personal identities as well as their identity as

Show More
Related

  • Macon Dead In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

    294 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel, Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison develops the character Macon Dead, who acquired the nickname of Milkman. The actions of others can influence a life and the course of life for a person that has no real idea or firmness in decision making of their own. Milkman gets his nickname because he was breastfed by his mother at an oddly old age, and a man sees that through a window and begins laughing. While the name is is quite literal to the actual situation that made his acquire it such as being breast fed. Throughout the novel Milkman grows up rather advantaged and sheltered.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Harvey Milk

    310 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although nothing will bring their father and husband back they were given a large amount of money. Milk was symbol for all homosexuals because he openly lived a gay life. After his death, many people paraded through the Civic Center Plaza in his honor.

    Read More

  • Milkman In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

    1418 Words  | 6 Pages

    In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, an African American man named Macon Dead III, also known as Milkman, struggles to find the truth behind his name and background. Milkman and his broken family live on the Southside of Michigan. His mother, Ruth Foster, suffers from the lack of intimacy with her husband and uses her son as a coping mechanism. His father, Macon Dead Jr., is a materialistic man who does not want to endure the same fate as his father, Macon Dead Sr.(who had been murdered for his land, Lincoln’s Heaven.) Neither of the parents give his two sisters, Magdalena and First Corinthians, attention, leading them to envy Milkman for being the center of their world.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Pilate's Motif Of Names

    245 Words  | 1 Pages

    Toni Morrison uses Pilate’s motif of names to represent the importance of heritage to Milkman. Beginning with her own name, Pilate embraced the name her father gave her despite the connotations it carried. She appreciated how thoughtfully he chose it to the point of wearing it in her ear. Before travelling to Virginia, Milkman’s name bore no significance to him. He didn’t know the history of his family, and he didn’t go by his given name.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Water In Beloved

    639 Words  | 3 Pages

    Beloved Word Essay: Water Motherhood is a major theme of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, as multiple characters often lament the futile extent to which they can be mothers. In Chapter 5 Beloved, the reader is introduced to two new motherhood dynamics, both relating to the mysterious Beloved. Wherever motherhood is mentioned, water imagery—with its established connections to birth, healing, and life—used as well. Because it factors into Beloved’s symbolic “birth” and nurturing, water is an important image that relates to giving and sustaining life and motherhood in Beloved.

    Read More

  • Use Of Imagery In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

    344 Words  | 2 Pages

    Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon beings in a very peculiar manner. The vivid imagery glistens in the novel’s first chapter and has the reader scratching his head wondering what exactly the novel can truly be about. However, the first few conflicts arise in the first chapter instantly hooking to the audience to continue reading the words of Morrison. For example, when Ruth continues to breastfeed her four-year-old child, it serves as a slightly humorous and creepy conflict to catch the reader’s attention. After I finished reading the part about Ruth breastfeeding her four-year-old son, my eyebrows cringed and I became grossed out.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Milkman In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

    968 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although at the beginning of the novel we see Milkman’s lack of interest in life and the important things like culture, his strong love for materialism, mostly inherited from his father, and his lack of consideration for women shown in the way he treats them in the novel. Towards the end

    Read More

  • Misogyny In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

    1268 Words  | 6 Pages

    In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, young Macon Dead the 3rd, also known as Milkman, is continuously “flying” away from his problems. With his father, Macon Dead Jr., being a man of money and greed and his mother Ruth Foster Dead being a subdued and quiet woman of a higher class, Milkman has a clear advantage than most people of color. His father and his self never truly felt connected to each other which brought conflict, and it was perceived that he didn’t respect women. At a young age his small actions were early stages of him disrespecting women, especially to his mother and sisters. As the book progresses he finds himself in the flights of people around him, and even his own.

    Read More

  • Sacrifice In Toni Morrison's In Beloved

    1238 Words  | 5 Pages

    Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in the year 1993. Beloved was in 1987 and is her fifth novel and also one of her most acclaimed work. In Beloved the author explores the bond of a mother and her child, presenting depictions of the supernatural where the reader witnesses a dead infant return to life. Sethe is a mother who has encountered frightful events. One of the cruelest is described as

    Read More

  • Milkman's Name In Song Of Solomon, By Toni Morrison

    319 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, Milkman’s name is significant because he has served as the beginning of many of the conflicts that occur throughout the novel, such as between his father and mother to some extent, and the longer he lives the longer these conflicts are “nurtured.” The name Milkman references the fact that at the beginning of life people are cared for by the milk from their mothers, helping them develop into strong, healthy human being. Much in this same way, Milkman is the creator of many of the book’s internal conflicts between characters, such as between himself and Hagar, his mother and father, and even his mother and Hagar. Macon, Milkman’s father, detested the thought of having a third child and tried to force Ruth,

    Read More

  • Identity In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

    914 Words  | 4 Pages

    Most of the writings on this novel deal with Milkman’s journey to know the history of his community. Critic like A. Leslie Harris considers that Milkman can be compared to the classic mythic heroes. He sees in Milkman heroism like the mythic figures who are powerful and courageous (316). The novel even has been considered a bildungsroman for the male protagonist Milkman’s growing up from an ignorant boy to an aware person of his racial heritage. Cynthia A. Davis in the article “Self, Society, and Myth in Toni Morrison's Fiction” praising Milkman writes that Milkman completes his heroic mission as his life follows the pattern of the classic hero.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Names In Toni Morrison's Beloved

    1233 Words  | 5 Pages

    The character Beloved is an anomaly in the story, and is the whole crux of the plot of the story as well. Her name, or lack thereof, is allegorical and the most defining character trait that she has throughout the whole book. As a character, she is a mysterious entity who latches onto Sethe and her family who feeds off their attention, and reveals little to nothing about who she is. Besides these traits, her name leaves most readers to believe that this character is the ghost of Sethe’s unnamed baby that she murdered; as we know the baby’s headstone has the word “Beloved” written on it due to Sethe misinterpreting what the pastor said

    Read More

  • The Role Of Feminism In Toni Morrison's Beloved

    2515 Words  | 11 Pages

    She was influenced by the ideologies of women’s liberation movements and she speaks as a Black woman in a world that still undervalues the voice of the Black woman. Her novels especially lend themselves to feminist readings because of the ways in which they challenge the cultural norms of gender, slavery, race, and class. In addition to that, Morrison novels discuss the experiences of the oppressed black minorities in isolated communities. The dominant white culture disables the development of healthy African-American women self image and also she pictures the harsh conditions of black women, without separating them from the oppressed situation of the whole minority. In fact, slavery is an ancient and heinous institution which had adverse effects on the sufferers at both the physical as well as psychological levels.

    Read More

  • Sethe Bond In Beloved

    1516 Words  | 7 Pages

    Sethe’s love for Beloved maintains her loyalty to her daughter and proves her strength. In a conversation between Sethe and her daughter, Denver, they consider the existence of Beloved in their home, 124. “‘For a baby she throws a powerful spell,’ said Denver. ‘No more powerful than the way I loved her,’ Sethe answered and there it was again. The welcoming cool of unchiseled headstones; the one she selected to lean against on tiptoe, her knees wide open as any grave.

    Read More

  • Beloved By Toni Morrison

    422 Words  | 2 Pages

    Toni Morrison implies that women are caretakers, regardless of the personal relation. Earlier in the novel, we learned that Sethe’s maternal bond with her daughter was broken when her milk was stolen. However, she still showed more charismatic qualities towards Denver than she did towards herself. This selflessness was inherited to Denver in chapter four, when a strange woman showed up, distressed and feverish. Denver learned the importance of patience and became, “a model of compassion” (Morrison 54).

    Read More

More about Milk In Toni Morrison's Beloved

Open Document