Exploring American Culture Through Literature : Beloved by Toni Morrison

I thought I'd take a deeper look into the culture of the country I'll be living in for a year and what better way to do that than reading?  American literature is such a vast and complex branch of literature but luckily for me, help was at hand in the shape of Dena, my resident American studies graduate!

I've got a list of books that I'm going to hopefully work my way through before Florida.  I've read a couple of the 'must-read' books about American culture like The Great Gatsby and On The Road (even though I didn't particularly enjoy either of those books!), I'm hoping I'll find some books that I love!

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The first book I have read is Beloved by Toni Morrison, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, so naturally, I had high hopes.  I really enjoyed this book, it wasn't a horrifically taxing read but you still feel that you can get your teeth into the dark and horrifying subject matter.  

Firstly, the story revolves around an escaped slave Sethe in Ohio, and although she has managed to escape the shackles of being a physical slave, there is something a lot darker holding her captive.  Morrison creates an incredibly complex and vivid character, who unfolds as you get further into the book.  Sethe is central to the story and the role of her family is to weave and interlink throughout society and indeed, the black community feel that was evident and important at that time.  

This book made me contemplate atrocities that I cannot begin to comprehend.  It was written so plainly and openly on the page that you cannot shy away from the words, you have to read, live and deal with them in the same way that our protagonists did.  The slaves were freed by the law, legal citizens, but they still dealt with the same prejudices, racism and treated as second class citizens.  One particular reference that shocked and stood out for me was where Sethe realises that white pupils were being asked to write down what animal characteristics black people had.  To think that real people lived through this kind of treatment, well, honestly, it makes the bile rise in the back of my throat.  

However, it wasn't all negative in this book.  Toni Morrison makes every word count; there are beautiful descriptions and imagery that jumps off the page into your mind, combining the supernatural and the physical world seamlessly.  I was whisked between scorching hot days in the Mid-West through to ice-skating on frozen lakes in the icy winter.  For me, the beauty of the language acted as a harsh contrast to the realities of slavery and the abuse and torture that black people went through at that time.  

I'd go so far as to say that this book could sit in the horror genre.  It is truly haunting, in both content and language.  It's spine-tingling and raised similar questions in my mind as The Turn of the Screw, you're almost left asking what's real and what's not.  

A quiet, understated novel that will make you question on pretty much every page.