Self Realization in the Novel Beloved

Toni Morison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved centers on the powers of memory and the history behind those memories. The characters of the novel are former slaves for whom the past is a shackle that tethers them to their own personal slavery in their free lives. Each character seeks to find what remains of their true self once the veil of slavery is peeled away. The novel shows how the internalization of oppression can distort human relationships and subvert the self. The time frame of the novel is a juxtaposition of past and present, which reinforces the idea that the past is indeed alive and thriving inside of each character and must be reconciled before they can look towards a future. The characters cannot begin to make sense of who they are until they reconcile who they have been and the roles that...