Table Of ContentTONI MORRISON'S BELOVED: FROM THE MIDDLE REALM TO
APOCALYPTIC VISIONS
by
Natalie R. King
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of
The Schmidt College of the Arts and Humanities
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, Florida
August 1994
~ Copyright by Natalie R. King 1994
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TONI MORRISON'S BELOVED: FROM THE MIDDLE REALM TO
APOCALYPTIC VISIONS
by
Natalie R. King
This thesis was prepared under the direction of the
candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Priscilla Paton, Department
of English and Comparative Literature and has been approved
by the members her supervisory committee. It was submitted
to the faculty of the Schmidt College of Arts and Humanities
and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Arts.
SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE:
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Chairperson, Department of English
~ Comparative Literature
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D , Schmidt College of Arts and
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dies and Research
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge the following individuals
and groups for their patience, inspiration, assistance, and
support: The Goodman-King family (Susan, too!), the King
Mays family, Myrna, the Paton-Anderson family, Dr. William
Coyle, Dr. Ann Peyton, Acelo Pedroso, ''Father Martin,"
Rochelle Brock, Pearl Green, Cassandra Bayman, Faye
Williams, David Rothstein, the Antoine family, Dr. Theodore
Taylor, Dr. Louise Cowan, and the Dallas Institute of
Humanities and Culture.
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ABSTRACT
Author: Natalie R. King
Title: Toni Morrison's Beloved: From the
Middle Realm to Apocalyptic Visions
Institution: Florida Atlantic University
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Priscilla Paton
Degree: Master of Arts
Year: 1994
Toni Morrison's black characters in her novel Beloved
dwell in a middle realm between slavery and a life full of
responsibility. This middle realm or "safe" haven enables
them to "disremember" past injustices. However, it also
renders them disabled when trying to resolve moral issues,
and allows them to exist blindly within the confines of an
isolated illusion of almost pubescent security. In this
state, characters have the certainty of the horrors of
slavery behind them, but they have the uncertainty of the
future ahead. Morrison's characters require the motivation
of an apocalyptic upheaval (revelation or unveiling) as a
catalyst to move them from that area of stasis and emotional
impasse to the next level of their development and finally
toward a sense of community. This movement from the middle
realm to the apocalypse is conveyed by Morrison through
myths drawn from several cultures. Her ability to
manipulate and meld these myths provides the link to
humanity's quest for control in an illusory world, and
growth initiated by apocalyptic awakenings.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ............................................... 1
Chapter One: Melding of Cultural Myths ..................... 4
Chapter Two: The Big Sleep ... •••••••••••••• 23
Chapter Three: The Awakening or Apocalyptic Visions ....... 46
Conclusion . ............................................... 57
Notes .................................................... . 59
Works Cited . .............................................. 60
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To Hunter
Introduction
"Nothing could be counted on in a world where even when
you were a solution, you were a problem" (Morrison, Beloved
256) •
In a world that seems to be made of dichotomies, a
middle region exists--a region of neither life nor death, a
region where men acquire beastly attributes and a rooster
bears the name "Mister." It is a region of hate-induced
life and love-induced death. It is a region where in the
midst of sorrow and pestilence, the spirit of a wretched
young girl emerges. She awaits her chance on the bridge of
a ship (suggesting the Middle Passage and even a cocoon-like
womb) to be delivered from that hell to re-entry into the
world of mothers' houses and sisters' embraces.1
In this limbo or suggested middle realm, Morrison's
black characters in Beloved appear to dwell in a state of
arrested development. This "safe" haven between slavery and
a life full of responsibility enables them to "disremember"
past injustices. However, it also renders them disabled
when trying to resolve moral issues, and allows them to
exist "peaceably" within the confines of an isolated
illusion of almost pubescent security. In this state,
"Morrison shows how every natural instinct and emotion is in
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some way twisted or stunted by the experience of living in a
culture that measures individual worth by resale value and
the ability to reproduce oneself without cost" (Sitter 18).
While these characters have the certainty of the horrors of
slavery behind them, they have the uncertainty of the future
ahead which results not only in the fear of the unknown but
a fear of an impending sense of catastrophe or apocalypse.
These characters require the motivation of an apocalyptic
upheaval (revelation or unveiling) as a catalyst to move
them from that area of stasis and emotional and moral
impasse to the next level of their development and finally
toward a sense of community.
Toni Morrison's Beloved is based on the factual account
of an incident concerning Margaret Garner, a former slave,
who through the act of infanticide felt that she had
rendered her murdered child's life "free from all trouble
and sorrow" (Harris 11). The novel's subtle didacticism is
far more than just a memorial for the "Sixty million and
more'' eulogized on the acknowledgement page whose lives,
hopes, and dreams were lost during the crossing of the
Atlantic, but an often grim, yet hopeful and beautiful paean
to the human spirit and all who are on a quest toward self.
The novel is in tripartite form and begins in
retrospect. In 1873, only Sethe, the protagonist, and
Denver, her daughter, were left to contend with the wrath of
a dead baby's anger. The reader is left to gather
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