Beloved

Rating:
Summary: Read it twice to understand...
Review: Beloved, by Tony Morrison, is a mesmerizing novel which draws the reader in using unconventional methods to tell a powerful story about blacks in America. Morrison tells the story of Sethe, a black former slave who now lives alone in a haunted house with her estranged daughter Denver. The story progresses in the form of various flashbacks from different points of view. The reader starts off the novel in a state of complete confusion, as the story takes off leaving you in the dust, wondering what's going on. This ingenious way of writing the novel makes the reader feel gratified as they read on and begin to discover the tragic story of Sethe's life. The characters in Beloved stand out and become real as the story goes on. You sympathize with Denver, Sethe's daughter, who has never had a real childhood or anything happy in her life. There is Stamp Paid, an old former slave himself who rescued many slaves including Sethe. Sethe herself, an escaped slave who slit her baby's throat so the white master couldn't have her. Finally, Beloved, a strange girl who appears as her baby come back to life. The reader gets no central lesson out of the story. Morrison was not trying to teach a lesson when she wrote Beloved. She simply was telling the story of the thousands of black slaves and what they went through. The result is a story which touches the reader inside. While there is not a lot of blood and gore, the book speaks of the horrors of slavery quietly but very powerfully. Imagine a black man watching as a group of white men rape his pregnant wife. Think of a black man being burned alive by his master as punishment for trying to escape. And finally, there is nothing more conceivably horrible than the slaughtering of your own child. It makes you ask yourself, "What could be so horrible that you would actually saw off your own baby's head because of it?" To me, that was the whole point of the story, to make the reader realize the complete and utter devastation slavery was on blacks. The story also portrayed the strength and courage of the women slaves, who had to be put through so many hardships, especially being raped by their white masters. Morrison wrote the story to touch all those who read it. The broken-up plot which perplexes the reader also makes him willing to come back for more. Beloved is a story that should be read again, if not to discover something new, then simply to understand it!

Rating:
Summary: Beloved
Review: Toni Morrison's Beloved is a powerful novel that portrays a mother's personal experiences with slavery and her questionable love for her child. As Sethe takes us back to her past, we learn about her unconceivable choice to slaughter her baby girl. Sethe wanted to spare her child the burden of slavery, but can her dead daughter accept that? Sethe is forced to deal with Beloved, as she comes back to haunt her mother, until Paul D chases her away. However, Beloved refuses to be separated from Sethe and comes back to her in the form of a young lady. Beloved definitely encompasses the burden of slavery in a controversial way. One might say that he/she can understand why Sethe slaughtered her child and tried to kill her other children, but I absolutely can't understand her actions. What kind of mother could actually slaughter her own child with a hand axe? That is such a gruesome death. Furthermore, I would never be able to understand how a mother could carry her child for nine months, bring in into the world, and be the very one to kill it. Sethe's psychological problems would be the only way that I could justify her actions. I'm not a black person, so I would never be able to understand the effects of slavery from a personal perspective, but you don't need to be black to know that no one deserves to be slaughtered. I somewhat understand how much the black slaves suffered, and I definitely understand why Sethe didn't want her children to go through the things that she experienced. However, if Sethe really wanted to protect her children she had another option. If Sethe was in her right state of mind, she could have simply self-inflicted a miscarriage. Despite my refusal to accept the reason why Sethe killed her child, her choice of action definitely challenges my thoughts. Her choice of action makes me wonder about the depth of slavery. Killing a child in order to protect it reflects the unimaginable hardships and separations that black families experienced. Novels and history books can capture your personal emotions, but someone's experience with slavery will always remain personal. Those of us who have never been slaves will never be able to fully understand what they went through because we've never "been in their shoes."

Rating:
Summary: Beloved
Review: In a whirlwind of broken thoughts and memories, Toni Morrison is able to leave Beloved's reader desperate for more. Morrison uses unconventional methods to attract and capture the reader's attention. By telling Sethe's story in scattered fragments, the reader is forced to read on to keep from being left in the dark. Beloved is an example of what a fugitive slave would do to prevent her biggest fear from coming true. Morrison sets up this fear with extensive background knowledge. Morrison takes generic occurrences often stereotyped with slavery and transforms them into unimaginable horror. At some points, it is almost understandable why Sethe felt she had no other choice but to spare her children from slavery. Morrison's Beloved challenges the reader's beliefs as far as the supernatural is concerned. In the very beginning, the characters force the reader to accept ghosts and angry spirits as every day incidents. It comes as no surprise to the reader when Beloved's true character and whereabouts are revealed. Morrison's unique style makes Beloved the incredible novel it is. Her artistic flare and talent make Beloved stand out against a mass of boring detail.

Rating:
Summary: Beloved a great big puzzle
Review: Beloved was a challenging book for me to read. It's not something I would have read for fun, but in my case I had to read it for my A.P. English class. As I read the first couple of pages I already wanted to put the book down; the book did not catch me as most books do. I forced myself to read more, but as I got further into the book I found myself getting frustrated and confused. Morrison style and diction were some of the things I found myself having trouble with. Morrison would talk about one thing then jump back and forth between her ideas and subjects. I would have to keep flipping back and forth between pages just to try to understand the book. I hated doing that I rather read a book that flows smoothly from one subject to another. Morrison diction was very confusing, for example the poem she included; I couldn't understand what she was trying to say and why she even included it. Beloved is a book for a more matured reader and a reader who has patience. I as a reader was not interested in the book nor satisfied. I do give credit to Morrison on the way she got her point across. She wrote Beloved in a way that the reader could feel and experience what the characters in the book were feeling and experiencing. I myself noticed that while reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Prepare to be "puzzled"
Review: Toni Morrison's 1988 Pulitzer Prize winner, Beloved, completely caught me off guard. I finally understood why everyone was telling me it was a difficult book to read. Beloved was about a fight between a woman and her past memories. Morrison wrote this novel like a puzzle. Throughout the story, she would give bits and pieces of information to the reader and would leave it up to him to put those pieces in place. This style is at the same time the most frustrating, and the most rewarding part of the story. I constantly found myself flipping back and forth through the pages trying to make sense of what Morrison was trying to tell me. I was never involved with this style of writing before so this made me stress and get frustrated a lot. But, when the pieces finally started to come together, I felt proud that I was able to do so. It is hard to judge Morrison's book. Judging it would have to depend on an individual's opinion. If I had to choose, I would likely not read another book by her again. Don't get me wrong, Beloved was a fantastic book. I just don't like to have to constantly keep flipping back and forth because it starts to get annoying. One positive of Morrison's style is she was able to keep the reader in the book and always have him asking himself questions. The content of the book was excellent. Morrison described her characters well. I really got to know and understand the characters. Morrison's descriptions of her scenes really painted pictures in my mind. The story itself about how Sethe, the main character, killed her baby girl to protect her from the hardships of slavery was shocking. How can someone kill their own child in order to protect them from the undetermined future? Was Sethe a murderer or a hero? This and other bad memories of slavery plague Sethe everyday. The quality of Beloved is based more on the reader's opinion then anything else. If you love being critical with books and love to read "in between the lines," this book is definitely for you. This novel is filled with mind twisting scenarios. But, if you would rather have everything spoon-fed to you, I would warn you to stay as far away from this book as you possibly can. To enjoy Beloved you must have a critical eye and you have to be prepared to do a lot of thinking.

Rating:
Summary: LOST...
Review: Toni Morrison's fifth novel Beloved is awarded with the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. This book was a confusing book to read and very hard to follow. With her own mesmerizing style, she confuses the reader as well as the characters in the story. So when the characters in the story seems to be confused, Morrison wants you as the reader to feel the same way as the character is feeling in the story. From the start of the story Morrison throws out a lot of information within the very first paragraph. She gets most of the information out there and leaves you to fiddle with it and put it in your own understanding. While reading the book I found myself going back and forth to figure out what kind of sense Morrison was making. Half the time Morrison had the characters jumping back to past memories and suddenly awaken to the present where the conversation would pick up where it left off. This was one of the most confusing things about the book in which I found. It is up to you as an individual reader to critique this book. If I gave my honest opinion on Beloved, I would have to say that this book is well worth reading. Morrison gives you bits and pieces of information throughout the story and leaves you to fill it. With this the reader can use his/her own imagination and thoughts to fill in the missing bits and pieces. This is one of the styles Morrison uses throughout the book that entices the reader to go on. Although this was a good book that Morrison wrote, I would probably not read another book like this again because of the confusing style. Morrison brought her characters to life throughout the story. She used vivid imagery and went into extensive detail in the story. With this kind of imagery, this is what held me on to reading. The story is about a woman name Sethe and how she kills her infant daughter rather than putting her through the hardships of being a slave. Living with a conscious of killing her daughter, Sethe is bothered by it and tries to let go. Her daughter comes back to haunt Sethe in a form only to be known as Beloved.

Rating:
Summary: Well Written, but Unnecessarily Confusing
Review: When I first heard that we would have to read Beloved for our AP English class, I had no clue as to what to expect. I had never read any of Toni Morrison's works, and I was totally unprepared for her unorthodox writing style. Overall, I found the book to be very vague and wide open to interpretation. The plot itself is very powerful and emotional, but I personally feel that the style of delivery Morrison chose lessened its impact. There are two sections of fragmented memories and poetry(?) in particular that I must admit left me more confused than moved. I also feel that the ghost/incarnation of Beloved is totally unnecessary. The addition of supernatural events and beings detracts from the whole of the story, making it less credible, causing readers to take it less seriously. It took me a while to familiarize myself with Morrison's style, but after a few chapters, it wasn't too hard to piece together the literal meanings. The overall theme of Beloved, however, still escapes me. I can see many possibilities, but I feel that there is no clear indication of Morrison's intentions to make a statement about any one thing in particular. Don't get me wrong, the book is written quite skillfully. It's just that I personally don't care for Morrison's style, or some of the choices she made in writing Beloved.

Rating:
Summary: -= Hard to Absorb =-
Review: This is a book intended for the adept reader who makes it his duty to picture every image, catch every symbol, and are willing to take the time to put together pieces of a story in able to comprehend it's meaning. I am not one of those readers. The first time I picked up this book, the only thought in my mind was, "Whaa?" Reading the first few pages already made me confused and very bored. All I saw was a woman talking about her past and how horrible it was. This woman, Sethe, killed her own child so that the child would not live the life that her mother did, and now that child is haunting her. Halfway through the book I was even more lost, and more bored. A good reader would look back in the book at every page finding an explanation for what was happening, but not I. In the end, things are cleared up, somewhat, but things still leave me hanging. It took some discussion amongst my teacher and peers to actually understand the book. I do applaud Morrison's unique style and her decision to write a book that would cut into your mind and frustrate your senses, but it took too long to answer any questions that were on my mind. I understand that to the professional readers, this is a book of treasures and worth while, but to the average reader like me, I could do without.

Rating:
Summary: A Rich Tapestry
Review: Toni Morrrison's writing style in her beautiful novel Beloved is reminiscent of poetry. The writing is concentrated; each word has purpose and conveys meaning to the reader. She doesn't concern herself so much with writing conventions as with telling the story. A book of this style is incredible because you read some sections and are left only with a feeling that is hard to articulate. Reading this novel was for me a highly emotional experience. Beloved, with its rich tapestry of images and emotions, left an indelible impression on my soul. Using unforgettable characters, Toni Morrison illustrates the balance that we must achieve with the past in a story dealing with the aftermath of slavery. Sethe, the protagonist, is haunted by the past, by slavery and the death of her oldest daughter, only referred to as Beloved. She swings between pushing the past away and being totally consumed by her previous actions. Morrison weaves the story together in a way that draws you into the life and experiences of Sethe. When I think of strong women, the image of Sethe will be conjured up in my mind. She is a symbol of sorrow and suffering but also of love.

Rating:
Summary: This One Ended Up In The Trash, Where It Belong-ed
Review: After that God-awful movie, what on earth would possess anyone to pick up this book - no pun intended. Aren't you supposed to enjoy reading? Not if you waste your time on this!