A bound Brotherhood: Beloved Analysis

Marisa Eng

Period 5

4/11/13

A Bound Brotherhood: Beloved Analysis

In Beloved, Paul D describes how he escaped from the prison with all of the prisoners working together after strong rainfall flooded the prison boxes -almost drowning Paul D and the other forty-six chained prisoners. Toni Morrison employs amicable language, short declarative sentences, an allusion and the symbolic image of the chain to illustrate the essential interdependence between an individual and their community. While prisoners dove blindly through mud, if one was lost, his or her “neighbors, feeling the confused pull of the chain, snatched them around” (130). By describing the people next to each prisoner as “neighbors” Morrison gives the friendly connotation of a community looking out for each other, displaying the unspoken fraternal bond created between each man from the connection of the chain. Furthermore, by saying one could feel “the confused pull of the chain,” Morrison personifies the chain as embodying the emotions of each prisoner, giving a sense that the chain is alive with the emotions of all the men, unifying their emotions as one. As each man ducks and dives the magnitude of focus and perseverance is heightened, “for one lost, all lost” (130). Morrison juxtaposes the words “one” and “all” in the same sentence to equate the contrasting words to the same outcome of death for all of the men if one dies, playing on the imagery of the connecting effect of each link in a chain. Also, this short, direct sentence focuses on the word “lost” through repetition and the omission of a verb, giving the sentencing a poetic tone and rhythm that flows together. The men, unable to speak, “talked through the chain like Sam Morse” (130). The allusion to “Sam Morse,” the inventor of Morse code, a nonverbal form of communication, describes the ability to understand what each prisoner felt though the chain without having to talk, giving the chain not the image of slavery but of fraternity. By emphasizing the strong unification of the bond between men created by the chain, Morrison illustrates the significant role the community plays in the survival of each individual and the dependence of one upon the other.