Search This Blog

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

A Healing Figure: The Important Role Baby Suggs Plays within Beloved


In Beloved, Toni Morrison portrays Baby Suggs as a giver of both healing and comfort to those who have suffered enslavement. Morrison models Baby Suggs’ selflessness by first listing the physical and emotional abuse she endured on “her legs, back, head, eyes, hands, kidneys, womb, and tongue” while in slavery (102). By using connotative words within the list such as, “eyes,” “womb,” and “tongue,” one can imply several meanings such as that Baby Suggs was forced to witness gruesome events, was raped, and unable to speak her mind. In addition, Morrison employs asyndeton to create a feeling of endlessness of her abuse. These exhaustions, although leaving her with “nothing,” are all outweighed with Baby Sugg’s ability to overcome her hardships and start fresh by “mak[ing] a living with… her heart” spiritually. Morrison illustrates Baby Suggs compassion by stating how she “opened her great heart to those who could use it”(102). Baby Suggs’ ignorance towards her own needs elucidates the enduring nature of her character and why she is not only important in providing reassurance within the community, but specifically to Sethe who seems to associate happier memories with Baby Suggs.









1 comment:

  1. I like the ideas that you talked about in this, perhaps you could elaborate on Baby Suggs' ignorance of her own needs, as that could lead to a better argument. You could point out that although the text never specifically states that Baby Suggs places the needs of others before her own, there are many factors that point to this being true such as her heart, compassion, comforting persona.

    ReplyDelete