The Loss of Self in the Book Beloved by Toni Morrison

There are many stories of slaves and the lives that they live. Read any story of slavery and one is sure to find oppression, abuse, segregation and pain. Beloved, by Toni Morrison, delves farther into the minds of those affected by the cruel world of slavery and shows a person left with no identity of their own. Slaves are treated as merchandise and are bought and sold for to the highest bidder. A freed slave, while physically free, is never mentally freed from the horrors they have lived. The main character in Beloved, Sethe, was a slave on Mr. Garner's Sweet Home Plantation approximately twenty years before the start of the story. The story takes place through memories and stories going back and forth between these times and places.

Sethe is left with little self-worth and no sense of who she is. Dehumanization appears to be a common side-effect of the torments of slavery and it is apparent, throughout the book, that she has created her identity in the form of mothering. She lives through and for her children and they are the only identity that she encompasses. After Beloved leaves Sethe she tells Paul D that "She was my best thing.." (262) Paul D. thinks carefully about Sethe and then responds, "You your best thing, Sethe." (273)

After escaping from the plantation, schoolteacher shows up to try to bring Sethe and her children back into slavery. In an act of desperation, Sethe decides she would rather kill her children than see them forced into a life of slavery. She manages to kill only the third child and throughout the book this child haunts the family and anyone who enters 124 Bluestone Rd. Misunderstanding the sermon, Sethe has the name "Beloved" engraved on the stone after hearing the preacher say "Dearly Beloved".