Kerisha Goode
Morrison Synth 1.2
1 May 2017

Throughout Toni Morrison’s collective literary work readers will notice an ongoing theme. Her mission, to reveal the hideous truths about slavery and its true legacy, is shaped in works like Beloved and Site of Memory. Fresh insight on this theme is also provided in interviews conducted with Morrison as well as scholarly articles.
I first noticed Morrison shedding light in Beloved on the character Sethe. This novel serves as a representative of a larger world view. Sethe, a born slave that escapes to Ohio to be free, only to find herself free from slavery but not personally free. “Sethe had twenty-eight days – the travel of one whole moon- of unslaved life” (Beloved, 111). This time Sethe had in between her transition to Ohio I saw as a period of self identifying by claiming ownership over her self. “Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another” (Beloved, 112). Sethe’s legacy lives on through her children, in reference to Beloved. Making the decision to kill her own child so that slavery wouldn’t get ahold of her was the ultimate sacrifice. It was because of slavery Sethe choose to end a part of her own legacy. Yet, throughout the novel we see the consistent struggle to hold into legacy. Once Beloved dies, Sethe tries to get a headstone for her. “Ten minutes for seven letters” (Beloved, 5). Sethe again sacrificing her own body for a headstone for her dead child. The headstone engraved, Dearly Beloved, serves a legacy for the child and a reminder of her mothers love. “For a used to be slave women to love anything that much was dangerous” (Beloved, 54). That didn’t stop Sethe, she believed in her heart that none of that meant anything and she would protect her children at all cost. Denver’s relationship to Sethe is also worth looking at. “Denver hated the stories her mother told that did not concern herself, which is why Amy was all she ever asked about” (Beloved, 74). When Denver did ask her mother about her past, she explained to her that she can never go there and if she did “it’s going to always be there waiting for you” (Beloved, 44).“If it’s still there, waiting , that must mean that nothing ever dies. Sethe looked right in Denver’s face. “Nothing ever does,” she said” (Beloved, 44). This goes back to Sethe escaping slavery in search for protection and freedom for her and her child. Also, if nothing ever dies that means it’s a legacy that lives on forever.
What Morrison illustrates in Beloved, she also discusses in the her essay Site of Memory. She points out that in order to get a feeling across in words is to recreate the time by allowing the reader to feel emotions that she intended. Although these words sometimes may not be enough, meaning its better felt than understood. Morrison says that writers of slave narratives have the struggle of trying “not to offend the reader by being to angry, or by showing too much outrage, or by calling the reader names” (Beloved, 87). This ambition to grapple with slavery for Morrison as she says is more than telling their story the correct way but its also not allowing emotional pressure on the audience.
In a 1989 interview with Bonnie Angelo, Morrison expresses that with Beloved she was reluctant in writing about slavery. Trying to tell the story of the 200 million slaves who died is majority of the battle because its something that black people don’t want to remember, white people, nor do her characters like Sethe. This book was about the anonymous people called slaves. “What they do to keep on, how they make a life, what they’re willing to risk, however long it lasts in order to relate to one another- that was incredible to me.”(257). This discussion of a historical narrative of ancestral perseverance allows us, the audience, to approach her work with a better understanding.
The discussion on how Morrison tackles slavery and its legacy continues in scholarly articles. Some often take more of a historical approach like Katrine Dalsgård, while others like Sarah Appleton Aguiar takes a literary one. Sarah Appleton Aguiar, author of “Passing on Death: Stealing Life”, points us to the internal and external struggles that both Morrison and the characters deal with. Aguiar closely analyzes many of the characters from Paradise and how they are refugees to life. She also suggests that the Convent, being a place of paradise for many of these women, is where they come to “live” because they’re already dead. This goes back to when Morrison says, “there are nine, over twice the number of women they are obliged to stampede” (Paradise, 3). However, we only know of five women that are residents of the convent. Those women are: Gigi, Mavis, Pallas, Consolata, and Seneca. “The One All-Black Town Worth the Pain: American Exceptionalism” by Katrine Dalsgård takes a different approach to Morrison’s work by looking primarily at Paradise. Dalsgård compares African American exceptionalism to American exceptionalism within a historical context. She points us to seeing the historical narrative that is present within all of Morrison’s work. For example in Paradise each all black community prior to Ruby have failed. The creation of these communities is a subsequent chain of events from the aftermath of slavery and segregation. In Beloved, when Sethe escapes from slavery and is forced to start a new life, everything she encounters in between that is a representation of the daily struggle of African American slaves and the things considered worth the pain.
Reflecting back on Toni Morrison’s writing the raider gains greater understanding regarding the ugly truths about slavery and it’s legacy. Through the eyes and actions of her fictional characters, their dialogue, as well as the authors own words in interviews and other academic articles, we find support for her insight.
Work Cited

Aguiar, Sarah Appleton. “‘Passing on’ Death: Stealing Life in Toni Morrison’s ‘Paradise.’” African American Review, vol. 38, no. 3, 2004, pp. 513–519., www.jstor.org/stable/1512451.
Angelo, Bonnie. “The Pain of Being Black: An Interview with Toni Morrison.” Conversations with Toni Morrison. By Toni Morrison and Danille Taylor-Guthrie. Jackson, MS: U of Mississippi, n.d. 255-61. Print.
Dalsgård, Katrine. “The One All-Black Town Worth the Pain: (African) American Exceptionalism, Historical Narration, and the Critique of Nationhood in Toni Morrison’s Paradise.” African American Review, vol. 35, no. 2, 2001, pp. 233–248., www.jstor.org/stable/2903255.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print.
Morrison, Toni. Paradise. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1998. Print.