Summary:
Set in the 19th century United States, Beloved
follows a formerly enslaved woman named Sethe and the lives of those closest to
her. Sethe lives in a house known only as 124 outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. Not
only is the house inhabited by Sethe and her eighteen-year-old daughter Denver,
but it is also haunted by a poltergeist. 124 had been a gathering place for the
area’s black community, led by the middle-aged Baby Suggs, another formerly
enslaved woman. Prior to their move to Ohio, she and Sethe were held captive on
the same Kentucky plantation called Sweet Home. Sethe was purchased for this
plantation after Baby Suggs had been bought out by her son Halle who outsourced
his labor in order to do so. Halle and Sethe were allowed to marry by the
owners of the plantation, resulting in the birth of three children—two boys and
a girl. In comparison to most other plantations, Sweet Home provided liberties rarely
afforded to enslaved people, including choice of marriage, use of guns, lack of
physical and humiliating punishment, input into work practices, and the
aforementioned buy-out of Baby Suggs.
Conditions change once Sweet Home’s owner
dies of a stroke and his widow brings in her brother-in-law and his young nephews
to help run Sweet Home; the small liberties granted to the enslaved people are
revoked by the new leadership, and cruelties ensue. The enslaved people,
including Halle and a man named Paul D, plot to escape north; however, Sethe
and her children are the only ones who succeed in doing so, only after she is
violated by the nephews and brutally whipped by the brother-in-law for informing
him of the assault. These events and Sethe’s flight are complicated by her
near-full-term pregnancy. Approaching death from exhaustion and exposure, she
is saved by a white girl who helps Sethe give birth. Her daughter is named
Denver after the contextually benevolent white girl.
Carrying her newborn, Sethe arrives at
124, greeted by her other three children, into the care of Baby Suggs. The
bittersweet happiness of her arrival without Halle is marred one month later by
the arrival of a team intending to reclaim Sethe and her kids for Sweet Home. Rather
than allow herself and her children to be forced back into slavery, Sethe
intends to commit infanticide and suicide, succeeding in the murder of her
older daughter. This action effectively prevents them from being taken, and Sethe
is exonerated of her charges. Despite this, her act of desperation crushes her
family, eventually leading to Baby Suggs’ death and to the flight of her sons
from the household. Eighteen years later, Paul D arrives at 124. He begins a
relationship with Sethe and manages to evict the poltergeist.
Soon thereafter, a strange woman arrives
by the name of Beloved, the word Sethe had engraved on her child’s tombstone. Sethe
is initially unaware of the stranger’s origins, and Paul D is effectively
forced out by the new arrival. Once Beloved’s identity as the deceased child is
understood, she, Sethe, and Denver become wrapped up in each other, blurring
the lines of their identity. Sethe loses her job, but Denver manages to
extricate herself to find work. Hearing of the family’s plight at the hands of
the “unholy” Beloved, thirty black women of the area band together to purge 124
of her presence. Beloved leaves without a trace. Paul D eventually returns to
124, and memories of Beloved slowly fade into oblivion.
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