Beloved | Beloved

At a glance:

Author: Chloe Anthony Wofford
First Published: 1987
Type of Work: Novel
Type of Plot: Historical realism
Time of Work: 1850-1874
Setting: Kentucky and Ohio
Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Ghost story
Subjects: African Americans, Family or family life, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Memory, Mothers, Parents and children, Racism, Blacks, Murder or homicide, South or Southerners, Gender roles, Supernatural, Escapes, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Abandoned children, Exorcism, Ghosts or apparitions, Guilt, Middle Passage, Midwest, Ohio, Underground railroad, Yards or backyards
Locales: Kentucky, Ohio

Sethe, a fugitive slave woman. She killed one of her four children eighteen years earlier, when she saw her former owner come to capture them. This happened a month after she escaped to Ohio, where her mother-in-law resided. After the incident, she alienated herself in the community while living with her youngest child in a house occupied by a ghost spirit. the dead daughter, Beloved, returns as a ghost. Sethe enjoys their reunion and responds to all of her demands. When Beloved’s demands increase, she exhausts herself physically and psychologically.

Beloved | Beloved

At a glance:

Characters Discussed

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