Rating: 
Summary: The Book Review of Beloved
Review: Beloved, an intriguing novel by Toni Morrison is not your ordinary "slave story." Morrison portrays the story of ex-slave Sethe and her struggle to come to terms with her past in a unique style. Readers are drawn into Sethe's life as she tries to overcome the guilt of killing one of her babies as well as deal with her past so she can have a sense of healing thus allowing her to move on to her future. Although, Morrison's inconsistency of time periods and character point of view may be a bit confusing, her complex characters and stunning use of symbolism within her plot somehow acts as a magnetic force drawing the reader into the story. Morrison sets the story with Sethe beginning to move on with her life by ignoring her past. Beloved, the daughter she killed, then unexpectedly arrives in the flesh forcing Sethe to reveal things she wanted to forget. Beloved untangles Sethe's web of secret feelings and experiences. Thus not only allowing Sethe to heal but also giving Denver the opportunity to hear stories she was always denied of knowing about and allowing her to grow with the knowledge of the pain her mother went through. Morrison creates this theory by writing, "Denver spoke, Beloved listened, and the two did the best they could to create what really happened, how it really was, something only Sethe knew..." As the reader becomes more aware of Sethe's secrets, Morrison uses flashbacks to make bigger impressions. Impressions to give readers an idea of how unbelievably unfair slaves were treated. Such experiences as Sethe's milk being stolen could not be left with a simple one-sentence description. Morrison cleverly uses a conversation between Sethe and Paul D. to show the reader just how cruel white men were to slaves. "They beat you and you was pregnant? And they took my milk!" Morrison intertwines into her plot an incredible use of symbolism. It seems as though almost event could symbolize something if you really think with an open mind. A simple thing like Sethe's home made wedding dress mean more than it seems. One may think it is just pieces of scrap material pieced together, but in actuality it represents Sethe's life. Each piece of material is a part of Sethe's life and the back of the dress being hard to find is Sethe's past as it is also hard to deal with and causes great struggle in her life. Morrison's symbolism allows critical readers to take one step further to totally understand where Sethe is coming from. One factor that causes readers to be discouraged to continue the book is that as Morrison flashbacks to different time periods the reader has the tendency to become confused. Along with the time periods the character point of view also sporadically changes. Readers are forced to pay close attention to detail to figure out where they are in the story. This is a factor that causes readers to be discouraged to continue the book. Whether the response by a reader is good or bad, the reader is curious as to what the conclusion to the story will be or at least intrigued as to why Morrison would use certain events or dialogue. Morrison delivers this engrossing story in such a way that it leaves a lasting impression on readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Beloved Book Review
Review: Ghosts, slavery, murder, and a woman battling her past. Toni Morrison ties all of these elements together into the mosaic called Beloved. Morrison's work flourishes with literary techniques that bring the story to life, but occasionally throw the reader into a spiraling confusion because of its occasional anachronisms and chronological imbalances. The intertwining story gets under your skin and tempts you to ponder thoughts and issues Morrison illustrates through factors such as symbolism or her own personal style. Brilliantly written, Morrison unveils the life of Sethe, a woman haunted by her past of slavery, hardship, and murder. Ohio, plagued by post-civil war corruption and graft, is where Sethe tries to raise the remainder of her family in 124, a structure haunted by the ghost of her child. The child whose throat she slit in order to prevent her from enduring the same torture of slavery, the child for whom she exchanged ten minutes of sex to give a decent title on her grave stone, the child who comes back to poison and corrode Sethe's own being and destroy her hope. Symbolism erupts in constant allusions to Sethe's enslaving past and her memories of the trials she endured. Just the simple task of describing Sethe's wedding dress becomes a maze of symbolism to the difficulties of the past. Sethe, determined to have a different dress on her wedding day, searches for scraps of fabric which could be borrowed to creatively construct a dress that only would have to be taken apart and later returned. "Now the back was a problem...I couldn't find a thing that wouldn't be missed right away" but finally a piece of mosquito net used as a jelly strainer was sufficiently allotted for the task. This refers to Sethe's life and her struggle for escape from the monotonous torture of slavery. Her bits and pieces of experiences and tragedies were not even her own but merely lent to her, forcing her to suffer and learn about hardship. Her past, a time of monotonous torture which she tries with her utmost might to cover up, puts all her efforts to no avail as she cannot hide a past which will always be visible despite her attempts to disguise it. Another evident symbol is Paul D's tobacco tin, which he uses as a prison for harboring his own past. He does not want to remember the hardships of the slavery he endured so he keeps all of his memories locked away in his tobacco tin, rusted shut, forbidden to be opened. He "never worried about his little tobacco tin anymore. It was rusted shut." However, it is in the weak moment of Beloved's seduction that his guard is let down and he gives in. When he calls her name, he doesn't hear "the whisper that the flakes of rust made...as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave he didn't know it." He couldn't prevent his past from resurfacing, and because of his carelessness in such a needy time of strength, his past was brought to his attention, forcing him to realize his mistake. Yet another aspect highlighted in the book is Morrison's personal interference in the plot of the story. Upon reading certain selections it can be assumed that the author may incorporate some sense of bitterness toward whites because of the savage acts used against the descendants of slaves. The mere fact that Baby Suggs, in her days nearest death, would lie in her bed and contemplate color, is just one fact that may (or may not) depict Morrison's bitterness toward whites. "Winter in Ohio was especially rough if you had an appetite for color." A winter's white snow was not sufficient for satisfying Baby Suggs's craving for color. And an even clearer example is in Sethe's reminiscence of Baby Suggs's words: "There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks." Still, these could be exaggerations or coincidences, two of many throughout the novel, but each reader has the freedom to his own judgment. After reading this work of implausible conviction, a deep impression sets in on its readers. An impression so strong, our focus on certain issues such as slavery and freedom, living and letting go, may be dramatically altered.
Rating: 
Summary: The book was interesting
Review: The book "Beloved," written by Toni Morrison, is a difficult but fascinating book. It takes place in 1873 in Ohio. The two main characters are Sethe and Beloved. Sethe is a black run away slave who escaped from her home in Sweet Home, a place where she was a slave, to live with her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, and reunite with her family. Beloved was Sethe's oldest daughter of four children, two boys (Buglar and Howard) and two girls (Beloved and Denver). When Beloved was a baby she was killed and now haunts the house that Sethe and her family live in. Sethe says that Beloved's spirit is not an evil spirit but a sad one. An incident that happened in the book, which exemplifies why I enjoyed the book is sort of disturbing but shows, in a strange way, how much Sethe loved her children. Sethe and Baby Suggs were working in the yard one morning when the schoolteacher, the one who used to own Sethe, showed up to take her and her children back to Sweet Home. Sethe saw him coming from down the road so she quickly grabbed her children and ran into the shed as she started to kill them. She knocked the two boys unconscious, killed Beloved by slitting her throat and almost killed Denver but was stopped before she could. Sethe did this because she wanted her children to be free. Sweet Home was a terrible place and she didn't want her children to live or die there so instead she tried to kill them. I recommend this book to people who want a challenge and have a lot of patience. It took some time having to read pages over at least twice to understand what was going on. Overall I thought it was a pretty good book. If you understand what is going on then it is a very touching book.
Rating: 
Summary: Beloved: You People are Sheep
Review: Frankly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Beloved was one of the dullest, most unimaginative books I have ever had the misfortune of reading. OK, life in the South is rough. The black experience is a deeply spiritual thing. Richard Wright said that 40 years ago, as did Zora Neale Hurston. And they said it a lot better than Tony Morrison. Morrison is an overrated author whose success is as much due to Oprah's poor opinions as her own talent.
Rating:
Summary: A well-written puzzle
Review: I just finished Beloved and have a very vague idea about what it was all about. I must say I think Toni Morrison is an excellent writer. The detail, and description in her writing is amazing-but she failed to create a clear storyline. A lot of it was almost gibberish to me-especially when Beloved is speaking. With such wonderful, dimensional characters-the novel could have been a masterpiece. Though I love challenging works and like to interpret literature, I found this to be a frustrating puzzle and almost impossible to decipher!
Rating: 
Summary: One of the few books I read over & over again
Review: When I first read 'Beloved,' I found it complex & uninvolving, yet through careful reading & attention to Morrison's beautiful style, the rewards of this story are immense. A contemporary classic which sheds personal light on a horrible part of American history.
Rating:
Summary: Beloved - A Worthwhile Read
Review: Tony Morrison's Beloved isn't a quick read. It isn't a book one canpick up and put down sporadically, once you're in, you're in. The tale begins with the history of 124, a small house inhabited by Baby Suggs and her daughter-in-law, Sethe and her children. Sethe and her children made the perilous journey to freedom, which lasted a glorious twenty-eight days before the bounty hunters come to reclaim them. That's when the real story begins.... It takes you on the journey of Paul D., the only man strong enough to love and accept Sethe with all of her history. The reader is introduced to the joy and strength of Baby Suggs and the devotion of Denver, the surviving daughter. This is a story of the human heart, sometimes joyful, mostly painful, and well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: This is a tantalizing masterpiece.
Review: Reading BELOVED is comparable to savoring every morsel of a sumptuous feast. Morrison's superb manipulation of language, delicate touch with emotions, and sustained appeal to imagination combine with her erudite intellect to tempt the reader into tasting each nuance presented. The best book about Slavery ever written, but not for those readers who are into "quickie" gratification. This is a captivating novel that leaves the reader with intriguing memories and the notion of returning to the writer for more. BELOVED is both satisfing and elusive simultaneously.
Rating:
Summary: Rich characters;Difficult story line
Review: I was really disappointed after I was through with Toni Morrison's nationally acclaimed book, Beloved. I was constantly struggling to understand why Morrison would chose such a theme. A child is killed by her strong willed, proud mother because this mother realized how horrible her people were being treated by white Americans ( she is African American, post Civil War), and she doesn't want another child of hers to endure such hardships. This ghost "comes to life" after haunting the house for many years and drives the mother to an unreachable point of insanity caused by her self-reflection and guilt. The hardships the main character goes through helps to build her character, but other points of the novel didn't make sense. I was really discomforted by the fact that the " ghost" was able to do that much harm and receive so much love. Also,the whole novel was very abstract in that it contained different point of views, and posssibly parallel"worlds". I was not expecting an easy read, but what I got wasn't per say dificult; it just didn't have any focus . Don't waste your time with this "great work" from a contemporary author.
Rating:
Summary: I fail to see what everyone finds so great about this book.
Review: I am a fan of Orson Scott Card, who believes that if a writer has something to present, he should present it and quit hinting and beating around the bush. And I agree. But the entire time I read <i>Beloved,</i> I felt as if there were a plethora of ideas that Toni Morrison wanted to get across, but she just WOULDN'T DO IT. And it drove me crazy. The story itself is actually very short, but it is told upwards of six times in flashback, each time with minutely more detail, which I guess would be fine had I been able to CARE about the story anymore by the time I got to the point where it was all explained. Basically this is a boring meaningless story about a woman who kills her daughter, but really ISN'T about a woman who kills her daughter say many critics; I think they're making it up. If it were possible to give this book ZERO stars I would do so.
|
