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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of the most complex and haunting reads I’ve experienced yet. Beloved centers around several former slaves who are still haunted by their experiences. It is essentially a ghost story where the scary aspect of the story doesn’t stem from the ghost itself but rather the horrors of slavery that created the ghost.
As a white person who can’t even fathom to horrors of slavery, a of the themes hit me hard. Sethe was described as “property that reproduces it self” implying that her children are not her own. Paul D talks about how learned to love only partially to avoid the hurt of loss. White slave owners did everything they could to control the speech of enslaved people because speech is what most separates human from animal. Denver’s monologue suggests that even in freedom the black family still suffers from fragmentation and destruction.
Toni Morrisons writing is impressively poetic and lyrical. She continuously switched between timelines and revisited a few events to build the tension and add more clarity. Beloved is written with a rhythm that was magical when I was able to follow it but often times I found myself losing the beat and having to re-read. As much as I loved her poetic prose, there were moments where it was hard to decipher what exactly she was trying to say.
Beloved is definitely not a light read and takes a lot of analyzing to fully appreciate the gravity of this work.
Deze eerst gelezen toen ik veel te jong was, wat een prachtig boek!
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
I’m not sure how Toni Morrison can write how she does. There are four chapters in this book that I think are some of the best writing I’ve ever read. This is a reread but it’s been long enough that it feels like the first time I’ve read this book and boy, what a book.
The narrative of Beloved is both gripping and emotional but, above all, it's real. Morrison's use of varying perspectives throughout the novel gives the reader a full description of both the horrors of slavery, and the strain this has on the relationships of the characters involved. All in all, a great, insightful read, offering a complicated but excellent narrative, and a novel I'd fully recommend.
slow-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes