Ran Shan
Professor Joseph Rezek
EN 220 Historical Imagination
16/12/2015
Ghosts are Haunting: Reading Morrison’s
Beloved
in Related to Historical Contexts
Ghosts are often simply scary characters in horror stories. However, haunted elements
have existed in the world of literature since ancient times and have functioned as historical or
personal memories that try to achieve certain goals by manipulating the people in the present.
Toni Morrison’s
Beloved
uses a haunted element as a cue to reveal the collective history of
slavery in United States. The novel starts from a very personal and detailed angle to depict what
the cruelty of slavery has done to the African American people. Suffering inspires great
historical masterpieces and imaginations. Morrison is inspired by American slavery and creates a
haunted character, Beloved, who haunts the broken family and consumes her mother’s love and
life. Although Beloved is not a traditional ghost, she demands to be remembered by people in the
present or to accomplish unfinished business like every other conventional ghost. In Morrison’s
novel, Beloved enslaves Sethe, who cannot obtain psychological/spiritual freedom by herself,
and, by being unconventional, the novel reminds younger generations that people in the future
should always remember the hardships in history and its importance.
The traditional utility of ghosts in literature helps readers to know the similarities and
differences of Beloved in comparison to different works in various periods. If the readers stop
thinking about
Beloved
for a moment and turn to ancient times, they will notice the majority of
ghosts functioning as media to show the past in the present and understand what has been
Shan 2
haunting people since ancient Greece. One of the most famous literary works that contains a
ghost is the greek tragedy
Hecuba,
written by the great tragedian, Euripides.
Hecuba
presents a ...
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