Beloved and the Ties of Community
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved , community, and the lack thereof, play a significant role in the events of the story. Among freed slaves, community can be a fleeting and precious thing, seen first chronologically in the gathering at Baby Suggs celebrating Sethe and her children. While Baby Suggs initially intended for the gathering to be simply a celebratory matter, Stamp Paid gives it an almost religious meaning. Yet, in his and Baby Suggs’ acts of trying to bring together the community, they are rejected by their jealous neighbors. They are upset due to the things Baby Suggs never had to endure, for the fact that she was given this life while they had had to claim it for themselves. “It made them furious. They swallowed the baking soda, the morning after, to calm the stomach violence caused by the bounty, the reckless generosity on display at 124. Whispered to eachother about fat rats, doom, and uncalled for pride,” ( Beloved 162). Although this anger was not B...