Throughout Beloved by Toni Morrison, the motif of haunting is used to illustrate the repercussions and lasting effects of slavery. Even though when the novel begins Sethe has been living as a free person in Ohio for about eighteen years, the remains of her life as a slave still haunt her; not just in the form of her dead baby’s ghost. When Paul D first arrives at 124 Bluestone Road, the house where Sethe and Denver live, along with Baby Suggs before she dies, Sethe tells him about her escape from Sweet home - the place where she was kept as a slave, saying “I got a tree on my back and a haint in my house” (Morrison, 18), as a way to illustrate some parts of her escape and time at Sweet Home that still remain with her. Tree on her back is formed …show more content…
Shortly after Paul D scares the ghost in 124, Sethe prays. Denver sees her in the middle of the floor praying with a small white dress beside her, one arm of the dress around Sethe in a comforting way. When Denver asks her what she prays for, Sethe explains that she was not praying for anything, but talking. She says that “[some] things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory… If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place-the picture of it-stays… Someday you be walking down the road and you hear something or see something going on… but no. It’s when you bump into a rememory that belongs to somebody else” (Morrison, 43). Sethe’s “rememories” are events from the past and present that never truly end. The events that Sethe has experienced are like the burned down house she describes; it’s burned and gone, but where it was and the memory of it is always there as a constant. They are memories that haunt her all the time. She isn’t the only one who has remomories. Other people have them as well and they’re so overpowering that Sethe believes the ability to bump into other people’s and even see them exists. Sethe also expresses her desire to protect Denver from collisions with rememories due to the fact that they are painful and palpable. These memories are another exhibit of the haunting motif throughout the novel. The rememories are hauntings that come directly from slavery and are implanted in her mind. Sethe is unable to …show more content…
Beloved becomes more and more possessive and abusive as the story progresses, beginning by saying “I am Beloved and [Sethe] is mine” (Morrison, 248). Beloved again shows her possessiveness of Sethe and even refers to herself as a “rememory” (Morrison, 254). She can be seen as one of Sethe’s more tangible rememories. Paul D even “bumps” into the rememory - he’s almost aware of it - saying, “[Beloved] reminds me of something. Something, look like, I’m supposed to remember” (Morrison, 276). Slowly, Beloved gains more and more control over Sethe. Whenever Beloved wanted something, “Beloved didn’t move; said, ‘Do it,’ and Sethe complied. She took the best of everything… Beloved Slammed things… broke a windowpane” (Morrison, 285). Beloved’s haunting becomes increasingly violent, and whenever she is with Sethe, their toxic relationship is clearly present. She represents the past coming to haunt the present, and although she can be seen as violent and angry, she gives the characters the ability to grow. She helps Paul D open up his heart, she helps Sethe tell stories about her past that she was never able to - even though she holds Sethe hostage in the past at the same time - and she forces Denver to end her time not speaking to community members and