Beloved By Toni Morrison
"The baby's fury at having its throat cut, but those ten minutes she spent pressed up against dawn- colored stone studded with star chips, her knees wide open as the grave, were longer than life, more alive, more pulsating than the baby blood that soaked her fingers like oil" (6).
The characters in Toni Morrison's Beloved have been through multiple hardships and events no other could imagine. Sethe has gone through a hard life of slavery and rape and through this time has had four children, Howard, Buglar, Denver and Beloved. In the quote above, Sethe talks about the death of her child, Beloved. Toni Morrison uses multiple literary devices in Beloved, one of them being foreshadowing. Foreshadowing occurs most when Morrison is hinting off that the one who murdered Beloved is Sethe. Through the text she shares her internal feelings of guilt and regret, and how she deals with her baby haunting her.
You can only infer that “the baby’s fury” haunts Sethe because she killed Beloved. Beloved’s rage and horror is focused primarily on Sethe and how Beloved died. As a 2 year old baby Beloved was haunting her mother for a crime that was committed to save Beloved. But Beloved does not understand that it was out of Sethe’s best interest. Not because Sethe did not love or want her.
Morrison also explains the ten minutes when Sethe chose to have sex with the grave digger in order to get Beloved's grave stone engraved with her name, “ten minutes she spent pressed up against dawn-colored stone.. longer than life.. more alive.. more pulsating” this evidence is stating that Sethe enjoys the rush she feels during this moment. She describes this moment as more exciting and fulfilling than when she killed her own daughter. This can also symbolize the birth of her daughter Beloved. The “pulsating” that Morrison is describing is Sethe giving birth to Beloved. She is representing the rebirth of her baby girl.
When Morrison says “the baby blood that soaked her fingers like oil” she is talking about Sethe and how the blood of Beloved was sticking to her fingers when she was bleeding out and did not come off. This is implying that this memory will never leave her, she will always remember the moment her baby’s throat was slit.
This quote is reflecting on the moment that Sethe is remembering the murder of her baby and how it will stay with her for the rest of her life. The remorseful Sethe feels overwhelmed her to where she tried to use the pain of slavery to remember the birth of Beloved.
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