A Forest Sprang Up Between Her and the World

Abstract

Toni Morrison’s Beloved tells the tale of a family of former slaves, a maleficent spirit haunting a home, and the extreme lengths one goes to in search of a better life. While reading the text, I saw many characters stuck between two worlds in a place I coined “the in-between place.” For Lady Jones––an educator––being mixed race meant that she was neither accepted into the Black nor White community of Cincinnati. Instead, she struggles to accept her reality as a mixed-race woman in a significantly dichotomized culture and context. Likewise, Denver is caught between having a normal upbringing and the ghost of her mother’s past actions that have put a spotlight on her, her family, and her home for the entire town. In trying to understand where and how she is situated, Denver relies on Lady Jones to educate her in literacy, the Bible, and most importantly, self-examination. In order to showcase Denver’s progress in understanding who she is despite constant pressures from the world outside her home and the spectre haunting it to dampen her truth, I decided to retell Beloved with my literary analysis and connections to my own life woven throughout. As a result, I created an analytical retelling that harnessed the power of literature and language to share my insights in a much more engaging and eloquent manner than any traditional academic paper ever could. Overall, this story/analysis examines my own, Lady Jones’, and Denver’s existence in the in-between place and our journey to embrace it.