Essay on The Supernatural in Toni Morrisons Beloved :: Toni Morrison Beloved Essays

Supernatural in Beloved Elements of the supernatural pervade Toni Morrisons novel, Beloved. These elements include evidence of African-American folklore and tradition in the everyday lives of the inhabitants of 124 Bluestone Road. Beloveds character is another(prenominal) obvious use of the supernatural shes a ghost for part of the novel and a ghost-in-the-flesh for the major part of the book. In Beloved, Morrison extracts African folklore from history in dictate to enrich the authenticity of an account of the lives of ex-slaves during the late 19th century. Her extractions include medicinal, religious, and superstitious components from African life. As doctors were not available to most blacks during this time -- slave or free -- they were forced to depend upon their intuitive nature and upbringing. For instance, spiderweb is used as first aid for cuts, while grease is spread liberally over these resembling cuts as a long-term ointment of sorts. For slaves, church was simply ano ther segregated part of life which forced them to develop their own way of practicing their faith. African roots are very visible in Baby Suggs sermons in the Clearing. White men go to church, sit down in wooden pews, and get back in for a lengthy dissertation on their sins. On the other hand, Baby Suggs calls her people into Nature to dance, cry, and finally, to laugh. Her version of a sermon is actually an campaign of the vast contents of her heart. Superstitions are a natural part of any cultures make-up. However, some superstitions are firmly rooted in one specific culture. This is manifest in Baby Suggs statement to Sethe where she says, Not a house in the country aint packed to its rafters with some dead negros grief (Morrison 5). Similarly, Ella comments to Stamp Paid, You know as well as I do that people who die bad dont stay in the ground (188). Morrisons style embodies an additional aspect of African philosophy. fit to John S. Mbiti, it emphasizes that the spiritual u niverse is a unit with the physical, and that these two intermingle and dovetail into each other so much that it is not easy, or steady necessary, at times to draw distinctions or separate them (Samuels 138). One can see how Morrison fits this definition with her constant interweaving of the spiritual world along with the physical world. conventional thinking says that a fine line exists between the spiritual world and the natural world.