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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Motifs
Explanation and Analysis—Music:
Music is utilized as a means of survival, protest, expression, and community in Beloved. This motif often shows up in the form of allusions. For example, Paul D's work song that he sings as he fixes up 124 is an adaptation of a real railroad work song called "Sis Joe." The allusion reminds the reader that suffering like that in the novel reflects the reality of slavery. Furthermore, the song's beat aligns with the beat of Paul D's hammering, highlighting how songs were used to survive harsh working conditions.
Music is also shown as a survival response in the case of Sixo's final song as he is killed by Schoolteacher. Sixo uses singing to show Schoolteacher that his violence can't control Sixo. Sixo asserts his humanity by turning to words and music in the face of the Schoolmaster's animalistic violence. The novel doesn't record the words to Sixo's song. However, the reader can assume that like other songs in the novel, the words were "garbled" and "tricked" to hide their meaning from Schoolteacher and the other white men. Through song, Sixo and other enslaved people repurpose the language enforced and inflicted by white people to express themselves freely.
Music also builds community, such as when the women of Cincinnati banish Beloved from 124 by joining in song. Before Beloved's death, the community would gather in the Clearing to sing with Baby Suggs, so this return to song demonstrates that the community has healed the divide between them and the residents of 124. Music is likewise shown as a way to bridge the racial divide between white and black communities. The novel converts the poem "Lady Button Eyes" by Eugene Field into a song Amy learned from her mother and then sings for the pregnant Sethe. Although the song is rooted in white cultural tradition, it bridges the racial divide between Amy and Sethe through a shared recognition of the mother-child bond.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Hunger:
Beloved uses hunger as a motif to demonstrate the way that slavery deprived Black people of their physical and psychological needs, leaving them with an emptiness that needs healing. As such, the novel explores various types of hunger. For example, Beloved has a sweet tooth and a hunger for the past. In both cases, her hunger negatively affects Sethe, who starves herself to keep Beloved happy and becomes consumed by the past that Beloved makes her remember.
Characters also try to use Beloved to satiate their hunger. For example, Sethe's unfulfilled hunger for Beloved's forgiveness also contributes to Sethe's deteriorated state. Paul D claims that "life hunger" is what leads him to have sex with Beloved in the cold room. Through sex, he tries to regain the masculinity he feels that slavery deprived him of. Hunger was even used as a taunt when he and the other members of the chain gang were sexually assaulted. However, the longer he continues engaging with Beloved and is controlled by his past, the less he feels like a man. His experience reflects how enslavers deprived Black people of their humanity in a way that left lasting trauma. Denver is likewise described as hungry for Beloved, seeing her as a way of satiating the loneliness caused by her family's traumatic past. However, Beloved often ignores her, leaving her hungrier and lonelier than before.
The novel also uses the motif of hunger to describe the desire of both enslavers and the people enslaved for violence. The mossy teeth and appetite of Schoolteacher's pupils who stole Sethe's milk haunt her and lead to her hunger for retributive violence. For example, when Sethe thinks she is about to be found by a white boy when escaping Sweet Home in Chapter 3, her thoughts turn cannibalistic:
Suddenly she was eager for his eyes, to bite into them; to gnaw his cheek.
Sethe's hunger comes after she associates the white boy (who turns out to be Amy) with the teeth and appetite of the pupils, showing how slavery breeds a hunger for violence that only multiplies and spreads. However, the violence that Sethe resorts to (such as killing Beloved) in response to slavery's brutality only causes her more pain, consuming her as well.
Beloved suggests community as the remedy for all kinds of hunger, demonstrated by how food is central to community bonding in the novel. For example, the gathering at the Clearing leaves "[e]verybody stuffed" and the community bands together to help Denver feed her family. While seeking nourishment from the past only leads to more hunger, community healing can help people regain the humanity slavery took from them.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Three:
Beloved repeatedly uses the number three to draw attention to the dysfunctionality of various relationships in the novel. The motif draws from Biblical numerology, where the number represents completeness. In contrast, the novel uses threes to signal what is missing. For example, 124, Sethe's house number, is missing the "3" that goes between "2" and "4" when counting, representing how Beloved (the third child) is missing from the house.
The novel primarily applies the number three to the different possible family dynamics of the inhabitants of 124, who form various dysfunctional triads. The first triad is Sethe, Denver, and Baby Suggs, who represent three different generations of slavery. After the death of Beloved, the three are unable to reconnect with their community or each other. The trauma of slavery keeps them from building healthy mother-child bonds across each generation.
A new trio emerges with the arrival of Paul D, which Sethe is hopeful about in Chapter 4:
They were not holding hands, but their shadows were...all the time the three shadows that shot out of their feet to the left held hands. Nobody noticed but Sethe and she stopped looking after she decided that it was a good sign. A life. Could be.
Paul D, Sethe, and Denver form the family unit of father, mother, and child. Despite Sethe's hopes, this dynamic is relegated to the illusion of the shadows rather than reality. As a father figure, Paul D tries to dominate the house and further disrupts the mother-child bond by banishing Beloved and causing conflict with Denver. The healing relationship between the three at the end of the novel is rooted in their attempts to build individual and community identity rather than trying to fit into the roles of a typical family unit. Paul D encourages Sethe to value herself beyond her role as a mother in Chapter 28:
“You your best thing, Sethe. You are.” His holding fingers are holding hers.
“Me? Me?”
Sethe felt her identity was incomplete due to the loss of Beloved, so by valuing herself beyond being a mother, she can begin healing her relationship with others.
The primary trio explored within the novel is Sethe, Denver, and Beloved, referred to by Sethe as "us three." The three become so intertwined that they take on a shared identity in Chapter 23:
Beloved
You are my sister
You are my daughter
You are my face; you are me
I have found you again; you have come back to me
You are my Beloved
You are mine
You are mine
You are mine
This passage draws from the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, where the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit make up the one God. The invocation of the Trinity highlights how Sethe, Denver, and Beloved existed in perfect harmony in this short moment of happiness after they went ice skating. However, whereas the Trinity is meant to bring together the Christian community through the Godhead's unified nature, the three are entirely insular and become dysfunctional. Beloved's demand for control and alienation of Denver shows the danger of letting the past (as represented by Beloved) dominate, despite its importance.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 23
Explanation and Analysis—Three:
Beloved repeatedly uses the number three to draw attention to the dysfunctionality of various relationships in the novel. The motif draws from Biblical numerology, where the number represents completeness. In contrast, the novel uses threes to signal what is missing. For example, 124, Sethe's house number, is missing the "3" that goes between "2" and "4" when counting, representing how Beloved (the third child) is missing from the house.
The novel primarily applies the number three to the different possible family dynamics of the inhabitants of 124, who form various dysfunctional triads. The first triad is Sethe, Denver, and Baby Suggs, who represent three different generations of slavery. After the death of Beloved, the three are unable to reconnect with their community or each other. The trauma of slavery keeps them from building healthy mother-child bonds across each generation.
A new trio emerges with the arrival of Paul D, which Sethe is hopeful about in Chapter 4:
They were not holding hands, but their shadows were...all the time the three shadows that shot out of their feet to the left held hands. Nobody noticed but Sethe and she stopped looking after she decided that it was a good sign. A life. Could be.
Paul D, Sethe, and Denver form the family unit of father, mother, and child. Despite Sethe's hopes, this dynamic is relegated to the illusion of the shadows rather than reality. As a father figure, Paul D tries to dominate the house and further disrupts the mother-child bond by banishing Beloved and causing conflict with Denver. The healing relationship between the three at the end of the novel is rooted in their attempts to build individual and community identity rather than trying to fit into the roles of a typical family unit. Paul D encourages Sethe to value herself beyond her role as a mother in Chapter 28:
“You your best thing, Sethe. You are.” His holding fingers are holding hers.
“Me? Me?”
Sethe felt her identity was incomplete due to the loss of Beloved, so by valuing herself beyond being a mother, she can begin healing her relationship with others.
The primary trio explored within the novel is Sethe, Denver, and Beloved, referred to by Sethe as "us three." The three become so intertwined that they take on a shared identity in Chapter 23:
Beloved
You are my sister
You are my daughter
You are my face; you are me
I have found you again; you have come back to me
You are my Beloved
You are mine
You are mine
You are mine
This passage draws from the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, where the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit make up the one God. The invocation of the Trinity highlights how Sethe, Denver, and Beloved existed in perfect harmony in this short moment of happiness after they went ice skating. However, whereas the Trinity is meant to bring together the Christian community through the Godhead's unified nature, the three are entirely insular and become dysfunctional. Beloved's demand for control and alienation of Denver shows the danger of letting the past (as represented by Beloved) dominate, despite its importance.
Related Themes:
Part 3, Chapter 28
Explanation and Analysis—Three:
Beloved repeatedly uses the number three to draw attention to the dysfunctionality of various relationships in the novel. The motif draws from Biblical numerology, where the number represents completeness. In contrast, the novel uses threes to signal what is missing. For example, 124, Sethe's house number, is missing the "3" that goes between "2" and "4" when counting, representing how Beloved (the third child) is missing from the house.
The novel primarily applies the number three to the different possible family dynamics of the inhabitants of 124, who form various dysfunctional triads. The first triad is Sethe, Denver, and Baby Suggs, who represent three different generations of slavery. After the death of Beloved, the three are unable to reconnect with their community or each other. The trauma of slavery keeps them from building healthy mother-child bonds across each generation.
A new trio emerges with the arrival of Paul D, which Sethe is hopeful about in Chapter 4:
They were not holding hands, but their shadows were...all the time the three shadows that shot out of their feet to the left held hands. Nobody noticed but Sethe and she stopped looking after she decided that it was a good sign. A life. Could be.
Paul D, Sethe, and Denver form the family unit of father, mother, and child. Despite Sethe's hopes, this dynamic is relegated to the illusion of the shadows rather than reality. As a father figure, Paul D tries to dominate the house and further disrupts the mother-child bond by banishing Beloved and causing conflict with Denver. The healing relationship between the three at the end of the novel is rooted in their attempts to build individual and community identity rather than trying to fit into the roles of a typical family unit. Paul D encourages Sethe to value herself beyond her role as a mother in Chapter 28:
“You your best thing, Sethe. You are.” His holding fingers are holding hers.
“Me? Me?”
Sethe felt her identity was incomplete due to the loss of Beloved, so by valuing herself beyond being a mother, she can begin healing her relationship with others.
The primary trio explored within the novel is Sethe, Denver, and Beloved, referred to by Sethe as "us three." The three become so intertwined that they take on a shared identity in Chapter 23:
Beloved
You are my sister
You are my daughter
You are my face; you are me
I have found you again; you have come back to me
You are my Beloved
You are mine
You are mine
You are mine
This passage draws from the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, where the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit make up the one God. The invocation of the Trinity highlights how Sethe, Denver, and Beloved existed in perfect harmony in this short moment of happiness after they went ice skating. However, whereas the Trinity is meant to bring together the Christian community through the Godhead's unified nature, the three are entirely insular and become dysfunctional. Beloved's demand for control and alienation of Denver shows the danger of letting the past (as represented by Beloved) dominate, despite its importance.
Related Themes:
