Tormented Souls

Several months ago, I found myself stranded in a small out of the way southern airport with nothing to read. The newsstand did not appear promising. I decided to look out of sheer boredom. The selection was pretty much what I expected consisting of how to books and romance novels. Down near the floor was a single copy of Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”. The movie was generating a lot of negative publicity at the time so I picked it up. If I had been anywhere else, I probably would have put it back. The last thing I wanted to read was another novel about the horrors of slavery.

The checkout clerk did a double take when I presented my purchase. She was appalled at my choice and said in a loud voice “You won’t like it honey, save your money.” What an awkward situation. Here I was in a strange place with some woman judging me based solely on my taste in literature. Pocketing my change, I slunk away to a secluded corner to read.

According to the cover, “Beloved” had won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I felt confident that I had made a good choice in spite of the sales clerks reservations. The title page featured a winged deaths-head design like that seen on 19th century gravestones. I knew I was in for something dark.

“Beloved” is a compelling story of former slaves set in Cincinnati following the Civil War. There is harshness and brutality, but no attempt to make the characters sympathetic or portray them as helpless victims. It chronicles the effects of living disconnected from basic human emotions.

It was not what I expected. The structure is non-linear. It consists of sharply drawn isolated vignettes filled with powerful imagery. Taken as a whole, they are related and drive the plot forward, but on first reading, the story is hard to follow.

After about an hour of reading I was beginning to think, the sales clerk might have been right. I did not like this book, but I could not put it down. It is not a very long. The paperback version I bought had only 275 pages. By the time I reached home, I had read it cover to cover. My first impression was that it was readable, but not a very good story.

However, I could not get some of the images out of my mind. A couple of weeks later I reread it. This time, because I knew where it was going the story seemed clearer. I was beginning to like it. Never the less there was still something about “Beloved” that repulsed me. Then I realized what was missing. I could not identify with any of the characters on any level. Their experiences and behavior were totally alien to me.

Armed with this insight I read “Beloved” for the third and final time. Having discarded my preconceived ideas about where the story was going, I saw Sethe, the main character in a new light. The point of “Beloved” is this: The real horror of slavery is that it robs the soul of the ability to feel and relate to others. It creates a sort of living death that neither time or distance heals.

Reading “Beloved” was a strange experience. What started out as a routine attempt to fill some dead time with light reading ended up challenging my view of the world. Slavery is not just horrible it is intolerable.