Beloved and the Psychoanalytic Lens - Midway through the novel

When I was about halfway through the novel, I had already learned a great deal about the characters by reading through the psychoanalyic lens. There are many themes and subtle characteristics embedded within the text, allowing readers to understand the writing at a much deeper level if read closely.

One of the major things I began to realize throughout my reading was the real reason that Sethe tried to kill her children, and successfully killed one of her daughters. It was clear that Sethe didn't want the children to live in suffering and sadness, but it was initially unclear why she decided the best way to go about preventing that would be murdering them. What I realized is that Sethe wanted to kill her children because inside, she wished she had been killed of never been conceived. Her life at sweet home has been agonizing, almost not even qualifiable as a "life," and she decided that anything she could do to keep her children from that pain was necessary.

This decision weighs on her heavily, years later when she lives in 124. As phrased by one of my classmates, the murder affects her tangibly with the presence of the baby ghost, and inside with her timid and protective nature. It is clear that of everything that has happened in her life, this had the most significant and lasting effects on her life and state of mind. For this reason, Morrison centers much of the drama around this, and names the novel after the ghost of her deceased daughter.

There is much more to analyze in the novel on the psychoanalytic side, but these are just the first and most important things that I began to notice as I read. I also noticed that I could find psychoanalytic elements easier as the story went on, because I was more experienced with the lens. This may mean that I missed some elements in the beginning of the novel, and I may take a look back to see if I did.