Beloved; an escape from reality, do not exceed 10mg...

In the second part of Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, the true identity of Beloved is fully realized by both of the main characters in the story, Sethe and Denver. Throughout this section, Beloved serves as a further separation of the two women from the surrounding community, with each of the characters becoming more fully focused on the need; the possession of Beloved. With the departure of Paul D, the character within the novel that had more fully integrated these two women into the surrounding society, these women become drawn into Beloved’s world, a world where reality is fleeting, replaced with the mystery and incredulous occurrences that are linked to Beloved.
Throughout the Second section of Morrison’s novel, Sethe, for the first time realizes that Beloved is her daughter, claiming ownership with “she my daughter. She mine. See. She come back to me of her own free will” (236). However, what has distracted Sethe from the realization has been her emotional connection to Paul D, a very tangible, flesh-and-blood figure who is tied to Sethe through a shared past. “I would have known right off, but Paul D distraced me” (239), is Sethe’s rationalization of why she did not recongnize her “daughter”, which foreshadows a separation of Sethe’s attachment with the present reality, because she will now live her whole life centered upon loving Beloved, revealed by the lines “I’ll tend her as no mother ever tended a child” (236), also revealing Sethe’s reversion to her rememory. Through this chapter, it is evident that Beloved is the catalyst that will send Sethe back into her past, by the cataloging of the events in her past, from “after they stole it” (236), in reference to her milk, to Beloved’s “Pinkish headstone” (237).
Beloved serving as a wedge that will drive Denver and Sethe apart, Denver also feels an overwhelming possession towards Beloved. The opening of the proceeding chapter from Sethe’s possession of Beloved are Denver’s words “Beloved is my sister” (242), and the closing words of “She’s mine, Beloved. She’s mine” (247). With the exact same words echoed by Denver and Sethe, the conflict of ownership is introduced, and the future relationship of mother and daughter is also introduced. As Sethe discovers that she can, in a sense, start her life over, with the forgiveness from Beloved, it is foreshadowed that she will start off her ‘new’ life without the realization of Denver as her daughter, denying the past eighteen years of Dever’s life. The theme of denying existence, perhaps the death of Denver is brought to realization by Denver’s language, connotative of death, such as “She cut my head off every night” (243), and “I want to go to sleep, but I know if I do I won’t wake up”(244).
Through the second part of the novel, Morrison develops the divide that Beloved will cause in the future of these characters, both from each other and from the reality of present life and the surrounding community. Morrison develops Beloved to have the same effect as a drug, a substance that causes a person to become obsessive and additicted, to loose grasp with reality, and to turn to the drug to solve every problem the character encounters within everyday life.