Beloved

Key Points 1. Beloved is a novel of fragments, and fragmented narratives, which makes it difficult to offer one cohesive reading of the novel 2. It is easy to overlook the murder of the child, in spite of the fact it is present from the outlook 3. The novel is a different book for different people: there is such a richness of narrative, relationship, and history, that each reader can take a different reading of Beloved from the text 4. Beloved engages with memory and a sense of loss. It asks what was lost in slavery, including: history, language, memory, family, culture, homeland and selfhood. 5. The novel is also concerned with melancholic heritage. For Morrison, it is integral that her community remembers the legacy of slavery.