SLAVE MENTALITY AND MOTHERHOOD IN TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED

Abstract

In her Pulitzer-Prize winning novel Toni Morrison reflects on the slave past and its effect on future generations, in the process she raises questions concerning female identity, mentality, motherhood, memory, and trauma among others. The experience of the world slave women had cannot be compared to the one of their white counterparts and men as a whole. Due to this fact since the publication of the novel this silent perspective has remained an interesting topic of discussion. We shall continue this discussion by tracing the effects of slavery on the human psyche and by examining motherhood in connection to the loss of self and to the female body. The relevance of the themes of the work continues to resonate with 21st – century society and offer new possibilities for understanding the world.