For Sixty Million and More...

Banned Books Review #3
Written by Nicole_CoachellaV_90.

Toni Morrison's Novel, Beloved, is incredibly significant to American history because it addresses the real effects that slavery had on early Americans. She uses symbolic characters and simple writing that gives way to a complex story about the real mental horrors of slavery. The fact that it is a historical account of Americans oppressing other people is enough a reason for the novel to be banned. However, the other significance of the novel is the awareness of the 60 million and more people that died during the middle passage between Africa and America. These deaths were sadly forgotten in history and Morrison takes it upon herself to put a face on those 60 million in the form of Beloved.

The novel begins with the story of Sethe, an escaped slave living in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sethe lives alone with her daughter in a house haunted by the ghost of another of her children. The pair live in solitude until the arrival of Paul D., an old friend from Sethe's plantation. Forced out of the house as an entity the child must return to them in the flesh. Sethe must struggle against her own memories and insecurities of her past as they come back to haunt her. Beloved's spiral plot structure pieces together the stories and sufferings of slaves under the legal oppression of their white owners to display the realities of slavery.

This novel simply expresses the mental effects of slavery and how far a human can be pushed. Morrison's eloquent style creates a unique sense of reality for the reading and is an honest "must read". This novel is assigned in many high school literature courses but also should be read for personal enjoyment. I give this a big huge five and hope that everyone reads it, more than once.

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Beloved by Toni Morrison can be ordered for $10.17 new on Amazon.com.

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