The Black Woman’s Tragic Triad: Morrison’s Beloved

Abstract

Toni Morrison is one of the African American writers who reflect the difficult situation of black Americans during the era of slavery and even after abolition. She focuses more on the black woman as she is dehumanized and oppressed by the white men, the white women and even by the black men. In her novel ‘Beloved’, Morrison draws beautiful though painful images of heroism, bravery and resistance that black women demonstrate in front of segregation and prejudice. It is Sethe’s story, a mother who kills her baby in order to protect her from having a miserable future, being a slave. In the light of Viktor Frankl’s ‘Tragic Triad’, the current paper explains the relation between the three poles of the triad ‘Death, Pain, Guilt’ and the way they meet at Sethe’s hiatus. Sethe’s reaction is to fly away mentally where she sticks to one single scene where death, pain and guilt intersect. The paper aims at clarifying the link between the triad pillars and Sethe’s decision to be cowered within her past murder. It also aims at clarifying how she strives to find meaning within her trauma despite the feelings of pain and guilt so that she can remain alive.