LITERATURE: Beloved – Narrative Structure

Morrison has played nicely with time, getting in backstory through the 3rd person multiple pov and flowing from related incidents seamlessly while jumping around in time.  However, I’ve come to a point in the story where I’m not really comfortable with the writing tactics.

One thing that bothered me was Sethe’s apparent obliviousness to the possibility that the returned Beloved was her murdered child returned.  First, the name should have been a giant tip-off, the fact that the young woman had no history, that she did seem to know some things about Sethe that should have been surprising, her oddness, and of course, her attachment to Sethe.  But finally:

Beloved, she my daughter.  She mine. See.   She come back to me of her own free will and I don’t have to explain a thing.  I didn’t have time to explain before because it had to be done quick.  Quick.  She had to be safe and I had to put her where she would be.  But my love was tough and she back now.  I knew she would be.  Paul D ran her off so she had no choice but to come back to me in the flesh.  (p. 200)

The switch to first person pov, particularly of this character (Sethe) whom she’s held at arm’s length and described as "iron-eyed," coupled with, from the horse’s mouth, the answer to the mystery of the child Beloved’s death, which we’ve just beeen given from another character, is so blatantly telling rather than showing that it jars.  I’d swear, after all the lovely language use and clever unfolding of story via non-linearity, that someone else had written this.  Again, a character that has been somewhat aloof, that has evoked empathy by bearing a painful secret, that I’d come to admire for her determination and loyalty even as we find out what she’s done, comes off here as rather dopey.

So I suppose I’m questioning the character development a bit.  Sethe is tough, she’s been through a lot, she’s seen and experienced beatings, murders, and worse.  And yet, here she is telling us the whole thing as if jeepers, ya know, I kinda thought that was Beloved but got distracted by Paul D, and now he’s gone but hey, that’s Beloved, and her and Denver and me, we’ll do just fine.

Between the change in pov, the telling, and the odd turnaround in character, this portion bugged me a lot.