Not a Story to Pass On
─Beloved
“Disremembered
and unaccounted for, she cannot be lost because no one is looking for her, and
even they were, how can they call her if they don’t know her name? Although she
has claim, she is not claimed.” (Chapter 28)
Toni Morrison concludes her
novel, Beloved, which is a book about a human child who comes back as a
spirit-woman, with the warning to the reader that this is not a story to pass
on. This forces the reader to ask questions such as, “If it should not be
passed on, then why is it written?” Or, “Why should it not be passed on?”
This essay is trying to
reach a clear understanding of Beloved by interpreting its closing
statement and the probable questions raised by it. More specifically, I will be
discussing how Morrison goes about making the shift from the unspeakable to
speakable.
By passing on that story
that “is not a story to pass on”, Morrison argues that repression is not the
answer. The answers are that Beloved is a story of the African American
historical experience, and therefore, must be written and witnessed; that the
story of the girl, Beloved, should not be passed on in terms of active
inheritance, for her cycle is done, and hers is an historical chapter that must
be witnessed in all its blood horror, and closed; yet for the story of Denver,
who represents the future of survivors, is the one that should be passed on.
Just as “everybody knew what
Beloved was called, but nobody anywhere knew her name” (Chapter 28), society
also knows about slavery, but no one knows how to approach its devastating
effects appropriately. Ella, a former slave who has crossed the river to Ohio
and a kind of freedom, advises Sethe, “If anybody was to ask, I’d say, ‘Don’t
love nothing.’” Freedom is almost unattainable for the characters in this book,
with their branded memories of slavery, lynching, and beatings. After getting
freedom, the whole community is in a lost, struggling to find some way to live
their free life with huge and heavy shadow. The absence of history inhibits the
construction of a stable identity.
Sethe, Paul D, and Denver,
are all in some state of conflict in the current circumstances of their lives
in the beginning of the novel. Although Beloved’s arrival to 124 initially
brings more upset to the lives, it eventually leads to resolution for the
family. Beloved embodies many of the secrets of the three’s past, which was
repressed and would not be passed on. Beloved, as Sethe’s repressed conscience,
resurrects from the dead to remind Sethe and reveal the unspeakable truth of
Sethe’s act, and the truth of history.
As Amy says in Chapter 3,
“Anything dead coming back to life hurts.” On a certain level, both Sethe and
Paul D realize that it is worth the pain to bring their memories back to life,
back into the open. In releasing these memories, they themselves can come back
to life and live again without fear.
Beloved is representative of
history or the past. Her actions seem to suggest that although the past has
power over us, it is also in a position of dependence. If we do not care for
it, acknowledge it, call it by name, it may fade and weaken, but it may also
resort to a state of spiteful vengeance, keeping us captive until we bow to its
demands. At last, the townswomen go to 124 and take action to stop Sethe from
doing something she will regret later. The individual and the community work
together to learn from the past mistakes and to heal themselves. Through
confrontation of a dehumanizing past, humanity can be affirmed.
“It was not a story to pass
on…It was not a story to pass on…This is not a story to pass on.” The result is
poetic: words rhyme and phrases repeat, affecting an almost trancelike state in
the reader. Morrison punctuates these mesmerizing, cadenced paragraphs,
describing how everyone gradually forgot Beloved, with the blunt explanation,
“It was not a story to pass on.” Enigmatically, this phrase evolves, by the
end, into a warning:”This is not a story to pass on.” And yet Beloved does pass
that story on.
The last chapter says they
forgot about Beloved, but no one did. Deep down, they all remember her. She is
always in the back of their minds. They can shove her into the furthest,
darkest corner, but she will remain there and not disappear, like the memory of
the slavery history.
“They forgot her like a bad
dream.”(Chapter 28) The words refer to Beloved as a bad dream. But in the
beginning of this book, Beloved is a blessing to Denver, a wonderful dream that
comes true. Once Denver is able to step out of her head, she realizes Beloved
is no good for anyone.
“Not the breath of the
disremembered…” (Chapter 28) Not forgotten, but disremembered. The memory was
forced out of the brains of the people who knew her, the memory reversed.
Beloved was not willingly forgotten. She was pushed roughly away. In the
beginning of this book, Beloved was remembered rather fondly. Perhaps the
remembering is what kept her able to come back to 124. After Beloved is gone
for the second time, Sethe says “I lost my best thing.” If Sethe continued to
dwell on the thoughts of Beloved, there would be a chance of Beloved to come back
again. So by forcing her out of everyone’s minds, the community would be saved
from her in the future. Sethe would have the opportunity to forgive and forget,
and hopefully move on. Forgetting Beloved is a necessity. The past must be
dealt in a healthy way.
For us, however, the story
has to be passed on if we are to understand the history that is embodied in Beloved.
The purpose is to restore a history to people whose history has been erased by
centuries of willed forgetfulness and forced silence. “It is not a story to
pass on.” The narrator’s warning is intended to remind us that it is not easy
to keep that history in our memory. Nor is it necessarily helpful for us to
remember that history if it is not conveyed with responsibility and
sensitivity. Resurrecting the past is a painful process, and Beloved is
an emotionally painful book to read. Like its characters, maybe we need to think about the past and the
present too.
This novel is dedicated to
“Sixty Million, and more” ─people who died during the transatlantic crossing.
By capitalizing “Sixty” and “Million”, Morrison is ascribing a little, a kind
of name, to the often forgotten and anonymous first victims of the slave trade.
We must learn to understand the past if we are to deal with its effects on the
present. Beloved is also our name. Beloved is a ghost of the past, but she is
named for the audience at her funeral, an audience that includes, through the
form of the novel, the readers of the book. Her name is ours; her legacy is one
that we share and must confront. However, the painful history is not a story
that needed to pass on; human beings are all being loved.
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