The Two Sides of the Supernatural

One blatantly obvious theme in Beloved is the supernatural. One of the first things we as readers are introduced to is the idea of a haunted house. The idea that an inanimate object can be imbued with a spirit is usually associated with the horror genre, voodoo, or other "scary" things. After reading the first few chapters of Beloved, I assumed that the house was haunted and that it represented something that would come back to bite the family someday. I was unable to recognize that the supernatural in Beloved not only represents pain but also rememory. We see that Beloved's appearance begins to unravel the painful memories repressed by Sethe, Paul D, and later Baby Suggs (Even though she is dead).
Among all these negative feelings, we also see the supernatural being associated with positive things, for Baby Suggs in particular. Throughout the most recent chapters, Baby Suggs has been painted as sort of a "holy" character, with magical healing abilities and several other strange quirks. One of the most upfront examples was when she puts her own spin on the "Jesus feeds the Five-Thousand" story by feeding her whole town. The magical ability for Baby Suggs' "three (maybe four) pies [to grow] to ten (maybe twelve)" (Morrison 161) seems supernatural in itself. We also see her healing Sethe's back after she reaches 124, using a "greased flannel" that isn't a proper medical procedure by today's standards. It seems throughout this novel that the supernatural is accepted, regardless of whether it's good or bad.
I'm sure we will see many more cases involving Beloved in the future, as we unravel more of Sethe's and Paul D's characters. It seems that the supernatural tends to spur on these rememory events, and with Beloved's increased involvement in the family's lives, we are sure to be exposed to new information.

Comments

  1. Anya Kaplan-HartnettNovember 20, 2019 at 12:03 PM

    The first thing I noticed about Beloved is that readers have to just accept the supernatural to understand the story. We have to assume that ghosts and hauntings are perfectly normal explanations for unexplained events. But by the end of the novel I was wondering -- is Beloved "real" or is she just an imagined representation of 124's trauma? Her existence hasn't been confirmed by many people outside of the house, so what if Beloved is even ghostier than we thought?

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  2. MitchellNovember 23, 2019 at 12:00 PM

    There's also the matter-of-fact way Sethe expects to have contact with Baby Suggs from the "other side," even though we don't even hear about Suggs "haunting" the house in any kind of way. But when she goes to the Clearing, Sethe fully expects that Baby Suggs's "fingers" will be able to rub her neck and soothe her. The fact that her spirit is in the Clearing waiting for her is taken for granted, and later the only questions are around "whose" fingers are doing the rubbing, ghost-Beloved's or ghost-Baby's?

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  3. MarianoNovember 25, 2019 at 8:19 PM

    You're completely right, the matter-of-fact style of the supernatural is very obvious, I feel it's something we didn't delve into as much in class. There's also a tie between motherhood and supernatural forces which are probably based off the fact that mothers know their children well. But the way it's presented in the book is pretty cool in my opinion. Baby Suggs can feel when she's lost her children. It's something that could be brushed off, but it's somehting in the way Baby says it that we know it's more than an incling.

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  4. Emi L.November 26, 2019 at 12:55 PM

    Interesting about beloved bringing rememory. I didn't make that association but you're right. A lot of the things I've heard that beloved brought are negative--guilt, shame, etc. in sethe, but you made the point that beloved also brings what's necessary for sethe to finally move on. If paul d really was the main reason for beloved to take human form and haunt sethe, then it makes sense because he offers a future and long awaited end to the mundane life sethe and denver are trapped in. Beloved also brings healing between denver and sethe, as denver finally stops fearing her mother and realizes she loves her. good stuff

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