Beloved

Toni Morrison’s Beloved was published in 1987. It is inspired by the real story of an African American woman named Margaret Garner, who, while attempting to liberate herself and her children from enslavement, killed her own daughter to prevent her capture and enslavement. It tells the story of Sethe, a self-liberated, formerly enslaved woman who kills her daughter in the same manner. This daughter later returns to haunt the family. The novel is widely classified as magical realism and incorporates many gothic elements.

The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Morrison won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for Beloved and her other works, including The Bluest Eye (1970) and Song of Solomon (1977). In 1998, Beloved was adapted into a film starring Oprah Winfrey.

Content warning: The source text and this guide discuss racism, enslavement, rape, sexual violence, suicide, torture, and child loss. This study guide quotes and obscures the author’s use of the n-word.

Plot Summary

The novel begins in 1873, eight years after slavery was abolished in the USA.