Troubled and Traumatized Self: A Psychoanalytical Study of Toni Morrison’s Beloved

Dr Anju Mehra

doi:10.17762/turcomat.v12i3.1580

Abstract

An attempt has been made in the present paper to study and analyse the troubled and traumatized self of Sethe in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. A psychoanalytic thinker says “trauma places the relation between external reality and psychic reality in focus. A person’s personal experiences are represented in one’s own psyche and gets personalised. The internal world of wishes, conflicts and deficits, resulting from trauma, is negotiated in human interaction”. Here, Sethe felt affected both by physical and emotional trauma caused by the institution of slavery.The institution of slavery not only repressed the maternal bond betweenSethe and her children but alsoher own individualization and the development of her consciousness as a normal human being. Here, an attempt has also been made to explore how much she was affected by the repression of the memories of the trauma she had endured in her life and how much she was victimized and traumatized that she felt unable to nurture her own child Beloved. Under the oppressive conditions of slavery she found herself unable to form a maternal bond between herself and her beloved daughter. Morrison also tried to restore the historical record of the atrocities on the blacks during the period of slavery and give voice to the collective memory of Afro-Americans by depicting the trauma faced by Sethe

Highlights

Toni Morrison‟s Beloved (1987) is the novel that demonstrates the troubled and traumatized self of Sethe under the „peculiar institution‟ named American Slavery
It‟s as though I told you that your left hand is not part of your body” (258). Her characterization of racism as a trauma suggests a way to consider the project of her novel Beloved
Many Critics have raised the question of trauma in relation to Morrison‟s representations of slavery and its effects in Beloved

Summary

Introduction

Toni Morrison‟s Beloved (1987) is the novel that demonstrates the troubled and traumatized self of Sethe under the „peculiar institution‟ named American Slavery. Sethe‟s life can be compared with that of Garner as Morrison says, “ Garner chose death for both herself and her most beloved rather than accept being forced to return to slavery and have her children suffer an institutionalized dehumanization”(Conversation, 585). Her characterization of racism as a trauma suggests a way to consider the project of her novel Beloved.

Results

Conclusion