Supernatural Presence in Beloved
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One aspect in the novel Beloved is the presence of a supernatural theme. The novel is haunted. The characters are haunted by the past, the choices made, by tree branches growing on backs, by infanticide, by slavery. Sethe, Denver and Paul D are haunted by the past that stretches and grasps them in 124 in its extended digits. A haunt, Beloved, encompasses another supernatural realm, that of a vampire. She sucks the soul, heart and mind of her mother while draining the relationships that exists between Denver and Sethe and Sethe and Paul D.
Sethe is the most dramatically haunted in the book. She is the one who was beaten so badly her back is permanently scarred. She is the one who lived and escaped slavery. She is the one who murdered her child rather than return it to slavery. So she is the one whose past is so horrible that it is inescapable. How can a person escape the past when it is physically apart of them? Sethe has scars left from being whipped that she calls a “tree”. She describes it as “A chokecherry tree. Trunk, branches, and even leaves. Tiny little chokecherry leaves. But that was eighteen years ago. Could have cherries too now for all I know” (16). It is apt that her past is represented on her back–something that is behind her, something she cannot see but knows that is there. Also it appeared eighteen years ago, but Sethe thinks that it may have grown cherries in those years. Therefore she knows that the past has attached itself to her but the haunting of it has not stopped growing. Paul D. enters Sethes life and discover a haunting of Sethe almost immediately. He walks into 124 and notices the spirit of the murdered baby: “It was sad. Walking through it, a wave of grief soaked him so thoroughly he wanted to cry” (9). The haunting by Beloved in its spirit form is stopped by Paul D. He screams “God damn it! Hush up! Leave the place alone! Get the Hell out!” (18). But Sethes infant daughter is her greatest haunt and it is when Beloved arrives in physical form that Sethe is forced to turn around and confront the past.
Beloved is the manifestation of a murdered two-year old in a 20-year old body. Her mind and actions speak as a child not an adult. She loves her mother and wants her all to herself like a typical two-year old child. She even loves Denver though she is jealous of her and the relationship Denver has had with her mother. She is also jealous that she survived. She claims Sethe “I am Beloved and she is mine” (210). Beloved “made demands. Anything she wanted she got, and when Sethe ran out of things to give her, Beloved invented desire” (240).
The reversal of power from Sethe to Beloved is when the vampiric nature of Beloved intensifies. In the novel the vampiric or parasitic aspect of motherhood is amplified. Like the fetus is a parasite to the mother whose uterus it is sucking life from and continues to nourish its body by gleaning the nutrients from the mothers body after birth by nursing; Beloved is the supernatural representation