Critical Lens Experts: Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural in Beloved - Chris Bartee

In Pamela E Barnett’s essay, “Figurations of Rape and Supernatural in Beloved”, she tells about how the book is riddled with history and rape throughout it and uses them to bring out people’s real personalities and secrets.  In Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”, Sethe kills her own baby to save her from the pain and struggles of slavery.  Barnett says that Sethe did this to save her own child from rape when she says, that Sethe kills her daughter to keep “a gang of whites” from “invading her private parts”.  This is exceptionally interesting because when Sethe kills beloved in the book, neither the narrator or characters made any connection between it and rape until later in the book when Sethe finally describes why she did it.

Rape is brought up several times during the novel, one of the first times is when Sethe offered sex with the cemetery groundskeeper just so she could have the name “Beloved” engraved onto the baby’s headstone.  This gives an early look for the reader on how the book is going to evolve as it goes through the story.  Because they show sex and rape so early in the story, Barnett was able to infer that this would be a big portion and a causation of a lot of problems in the book.  Beloved uses “rape” to help tarnish Sethe and Paul D’s relationship when she found Paul D in the building apart from the house and forced him to have relations with her.  By doing this, Paul D’s character changed completely and turned and left the house of the ghost of 124 soon after.

After Paul D left 124, Beloved took control and started bossing around Sethe and Denver, this is when Denver hears about Sethe’s past and how she killed her own child to save her from rape and physical abuse.  Barnett says that after Beloved disappears and Paul D returns, they had experienced Beloved as a “sexually menacing nightmare figure” this could be because of the experience between her and Paul D that happened in the coal house or the experiences that Sethe had to go through to deal with the “resurrected” ghost of Beloved.

In the story, Sethe is traumatized about the murder of her baby beloved, and because of this, the baby’s ghost returns to make her pay.  This could be karma for Sethe killing the baby or it could be the ghost being stuck on earth because it’s life was ended before it was supposed to.  There is a strong correlation between rape and the storyline.  In the article, Barnett says that “Beloved serves as a powerful reminder that rape was and often still is a racial issue.”  By this, Barnett is stating that there is a racial difference between the white men and black women.  This is a cause of Morrison showing the discourse of rape between black men and women during the 20th century.  In the book Beloved, a black woman “rapes” Paul D while also representing the memories of the whites assault on blacks.

Overall, Beloved has many queues that there is a recurring tone of rape throughout the novel.  This is shown through many different scenes in the book including Beloved’s rape on Paul D, Sethe killing her daughter to save her from rape and slavery, and even Sethe having relations with the graveyard owner to get Beloved’s name written on the tombstone.  It is also shown in hidden meanings behind the words, which ultimately all returns to the theme of rape.