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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
Beloved primarily works within the historical fiction genre. This genre allows Morrison to engage with the past while still having the freedom afforded by the story's fictional nature to explore the setting through the lens of and in dialogue with the present. For example, the novel draws from the true story of Margaret Garner, a historical woman who fled from slavery and killed one of her children so that the girl would not be enslaved again, but develops its narrative in order to offer commentary about the entirety of slavery's legacy. Beloved endeavors to add the Black perspectives and humanizing details missing from stories like Margaret Garner's (which was primarily told through white newspapers). The novel also engages with the slave narrative genre by rejecting the genre's tendency to center on a white audience.
Furthermore, Beloved employs gothic and horror elements, such as a focus on isolation, the supernatural, and the past. The novel uses the haunting of 124 to capture the horrors of slavery and its resulting psychological turmoil. The trauma of slavery manifests as an otherworldly and frightening power through Beloved. Through her, the past physically haunts the present. The mysterious portrayal of Beloved and her supernatural existence emphasize the complex nature of memories and how helpless the inhabitants of 124 feel in the face of their formidable trauma.
Related Themes:
