Trauma and Forgiveness

Toni Morrison’s Beloved is told from various character perspectives, but one prominent character does not share his view with the audience. Although Halle is arguably a main character of the novel, the reader only knows about him from the “rememories” of Paul D. and Sethe. This may be, because he is dead, or likely to be dead as the reader, Sethe, and Baby Suggs presume. The deceased do not share their thoughts with the reader, although their actions might be interpreted, for example, Beloved certainly shares some of her emotions with the reader, through her actions while haunting 124. However, Beloved is a special case, as she has been reincarnated in some unimaginable way. “Rememory” is an incredibly important term and expression of this novel, as they not only provide vivid insights on the past but can also change in the present. Not only does Paul D. change the environment Sethe lives in, in the present, but he also changes her entire perspective on the past. In a sense, Paul D. is representing the past and present for Sethe and has shared information with her that has utterly transformed her understanding of events in her past.

Halle is first presented to the reader as a kind, unselfish, and incredibly hard-working individual. He makes the ultimate sacrifice as he gives up weekends to work so that he can buy, not his own freedom, but that of his aging mother. Baby Suggs is moved by this act of kindness, but at first doesn’t understand why he would buy her free as she was already so old, and did not have much time to enjoy the pleasures of freedom. However, once she has experienced the new sensation of being free, and can look at her own hands and call them her own, she realizes what a gift her son has given her. The story of Halle doesn’t end there, and the reader is exposed to the much darker history between him and Sethe, that even Sethe wasn’t aware of. The novel never tells a story outright, which is one of its unique aspects but also leaves the reader a bit clueless as to which people were involved and exact occurrences.

Interestingly, Paul D. is the one who figures it out, although he was in no way involved with the event. After hearing about Sethe’s traumatic experience, and piecing it together with his encounter with Halle smearing butter in his face, he realizes that not only was Sethe violated on that fateful day but that Halle finally cracked. Schoolmaster couldn’t break him and none of those many weekends offered up for his mother’s freedom ruined his will. Paul D. certainly defends him, but Sethe’s stance on Halle is almost more negative than it was initially. She is outraged that Halle would let that happen to her. Paul D. argues that a man is not an ax and that at some point even they will break.

“Breaking” a slave was a common term used by slave owners and men like Schoolteacher who were literally called slave-breakers. Astoundingly Halle’s spirit was not broken by Schoolteacher or the horrific brutality he must have witnessed on the plantation. But just looking at his experience from a psychological perspective, he must already have experienced an incredible amount of trauma, and now he sees this ultimate violation of his wife when they were so close to escaping. Several studies of areas with concentrated poverty and extremely high crime rates show that the children there experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress. If such environments are triggering, then slavery most certainly was. Freeing African Americans is not often discussed in this light, because the main goal was obviously to set them free, but the mental long-term effects weren’t addressed.

One example of this is Sethe’s reaction to Schoolteacher showing up to take them back to Sweet Home. Sethe’s immediate reaction is to kill her own children because death would be better than returning to Sweet Home. This is obviously not a mentally sound solution, to us, but in a way, she did save her family from returning back with Schoolteacher, an unimaginably cruel slave driver, and the place of her traumatic rememories. In the process, she killed one of her daughters and her sons left her, but she did accomplish her one goal. In this way, it is almost impossible for the reader to judge either Halle or Sethe for their decisions at these crucial points in their lives. How could they react normally if they didn’t have a single normal aspect to their lives? What would be a normal reaction? Is there one?

Sethe first worked as a slave, was tortured and had her back ripped open by Schoolteacher’s nephew, had several near-death experiences on her journey to freedom, and lost her husband. Evaluating her and Halle as if they had normal life experiences would be a mistake. I wonder how forgiveness will come to play a role in this novel, as we know that at least one character, specifically Beloved, has a personal vendetta. She has come back from the dead for some type of vengeance.