g it, let alone the fright of two creeping off boys. Her past had been like her present--intolerable--and since she knew death was anything but forgetfulness, she used the little energy left her for pondering color" (Morrison 3-4).
These words speak and reveal some indications of the life of a black of that era. Beloved describes black behavior in terms of social conditioning, as if listing atrocities explains the secret of human motivation and actions.
Morrison has organized her novel in a musical structure, adroitly using images as motifs. However, many of Morrison's characters seem to exist only for the purpose of delivering a message such as: "Seth believed it was a recovering body's need--after an illness--for quick strength. But it was a need that went on and on into glowing health because Beloved didn't go anywhere. She didn't mention one, or have much of an idea of what she was doing in that part of the country or where she had been. They believed the fever had caused her memory to fail just as it kept her slow-moving. A young woman, about nineteen or twenty, and slender, she moved like a heavier one or ran like an older one, holding on to furniture, resting her head in the palm of her hand as though it was too heavy for a neck alone" (Morrison 55-56).
SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE NOVEL
Some background information would be appropriate at this point. In 1855, a runaway slave from Kentucky named Margaret Garner was chased down by her owner t
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