Blending the fantastic and the realistic: an approach to Toni Morrison’s Beloved

Abstract

After exploring the complex blending of supernatural and realistic narratives in Toni Morrison’s Beloved it could be argued that the conflict of Beloved’s identity is ultimately an irresolvable one and that her nature cannot be reduced to a single explanation. Even though readers —unable to reconcile the fact that the novel brings together two opposing worlds in the character of Beloved— have often interpreted Beloved unilaterally as a mere ghost story, Morrison’s work actually allows various different readings for the title character. Despite the fact that the most widespread view of Beloved is that of the miraculously reincarnated daughter of Sethe, the novel offers textual evidence that suggests otherwise. Elizabeth B. House (1998) rightly points out the possible identity of Beloved as an escaped sex slave, but fails to reconcile it with the first option given. As has been argued, the novel offers enough evidence to support two main alternatives in the interpretation of Beloved, which therefore coexist simultaneously and, I would add, are mutually dependant thus complementing each other. As a consequence, and more significantly, by presenting a series of scenes that can be read either in a realistic or in a supernatural manner —or even both at the same time—, Beloved denies the possibility of privileging one interpretation over the other. Thus, and as has been argued through this work, a fully comprehensive reading of the book may incorporate at least these two basic readings of the novel if the textual evidence which the novel provides is taken into consideration