Beloved; Escape from your rememory

Through Toni Morrison’s work Beloved, the characters are gradually revealed, through the same stories told with more and more detail as the book progresses. With the introduction of the character Beloved, the histories and the individual stories of each character become more developed, Beloved serving as a tool for each character to learn more about themselves. As Beloved enters the narrative, the two main characters, Sele and Denver know themselves and each other in a greater way, with Beloved’s questions a device in which the characters are forced to delve within the rememory of their lives; the stories that will always be a part of them. Interestingly enough, as Beloved enters the lives of these two women, Morrison develops the dislike of Paul D for Beloved, because, he feels that she has taken his role as comforter and strength to these women. Furthermore, Beloved, instead of enriching the life of Paul D serves as a symbol of brokenness for the future of his newly formed ‘family’.
Beloved, though her desire for knowledge is a character who the two women feel comfortable with, Sele admitting “Even with Paul D…whom she could talk with…the hurt was always there-“ “But, as she began telling about the earrings, she found herself wanting to, liking it…in any case it was an unexpected pleasure” (69). This quote introduces the separation of degrees of closeness of Beloved to Sele and Sele to Paul D, indicating that Sele, a formerly uprooted character has found a stability in her life that cannot be offered by Paul D, who is a symbol of stability within 124. Paul D’s own words after his image of the cohesive family of the carnival, “And on the way home…the shadows of three people still held hands”(59), expresses that that future has been ‘destroyed’ by Beloved with the words “And damn! a water drinking woman fell sick, got took in, healed, and hadn’t moved a peg since”(79). This development of Paul D’s consciousness places Beloved in a position allowing her to be the cause of his separation from the two women. By this phrase, he develops a cause and effect between Beloved and a foreshadowing of the coming events, a further separation from the women of the household, also foreshadowed by his earlier dissatisfaction after sex with Sele, a moment he had been lusting for for twenty-five years.
Through the novel, Morrison also develops Beloved to be the key to a stronger relationship between mother and daughter. “Now, watching Beloved’s alert and hungry face..Denver began to see what she was saying and not just to hear it” (91), in response to the story of Denver’s birth, opens a new revelation of Denver’s character to the reader, indicating a paradigm towards her mother’s experiences. Beloved allows Denver to enter into the memory of her mother’s past, allowing her to feel the emotions and complete situations of “this nineteen year old slave girl…tired, scared maybe, and maybe even lost” (91). Through the character Beloved, Morrison introduces the aspect of internal change within the lives of these characters Beloved serving as a catalyst for change. Allowing Sele to confront her memories, and Denver, a very shy and isolated young woman to experience life free from loneliness are the changes Beloved brings on to this family. “Nothing was out there that this sister-girl did not provide in abundance: a racing heart, dreaminess, society, danger, beauty” (90). Beloved, for Denver, as well as Sele, is everything the two women could wish for, a new beginning in life that does not carry the emotional load of memories and rememories.