Image Study: A Visual Interpretation of Motifs in Beloved

The Chokecherry Tree:   

"A chokecherry tree. Trunk, branches, and even leaves.  Tiny little chokecherry leaves. But that was eighteen years ago. Could have cherries too now for all I know" (page 18).

The above image was taken from the movie adaptation of Beloved.  To the right, is a photograph of an actual chokecherry tree, taken from an online catalog.

Forever on Sethe's back are several scars in the formation of what appears to be a tree. These scars came from a beating Sethe underwent while she was six months pregnant with Denver. When Sethe told Mrs. Garner that boys had stolen her breast milk, the school teacher helping out with the farm she worked on ordered one of the boys to beat Sethe, leaving the patches of dead skin on her back.

Amy Denver is the first person to notice the shape of the scars left on Sethe's back. She remarks by first giving an awed description and then says "What God have in mind, I wonder" (page 93).When Paul D first comes to 124 he undresses Sethe and feels the chokecherry tree. While reexamining it after he and Sethe first became intimate, he thinks:

"And the wrought-iron maze he had explored in the kitchen like a gold miner pawning through pay dirt was in fact a revolting clump of scars. Not a tree, as she said. Maybe shaped like one; but nothing like any tree he knew because trees were inviting; things you could trust and be near" (page 25)...

I believe the chokecherry tree on Sethe's back symbolizes pain and the tribulations of her life. This pain is not something that Sethe can feel anymore, partly because she won't allow herself to and partly because it is physically impossible for her. She rarely lets herself feel the hurt she has experienced and only when Paul D touches the chokecherry tree does she self-inflict emotional pain and allow herself to trust and remember the details of her past. When people see her back, they see pain. Amy Denver imagines how awful the person who 'planted' the tree on Sethe must be, because even she, who has experienced several whippings as an indentured servant, has never dealt with a beating so severe. Some, like Paul D, are revolted by the ugliness, while others, like Amy, are simply awed by the beauty in pain.

Color: 

"Suspended between the nastiness of life and the meanness of death, she couldn't get interested in leaving life or living it, let alone the fright of two creeping-off boys. Her past had been like her present--intolerable--and since she knew death was anything but forgetfulness, she used the little energy left her for pondering color.
"Bring a little lavender in, if you got any. Pink, if you don't""(page 4).

The above picture is a lavender field and to the right is an African quilt. These two selected pictures represent the image of color in the novel.

Color is one of the motifs in Beloved. I believe it represents forgetfulness. Baby Suggs is able to use color as a means of forgetting her past. Likewise, Sethe does the same thing:

"Sethe looked at her hands, her bottle-green sleeves, and thought how little color there was in the house and how strange that she had not missed it the way Baby did. Deliberate, she though, it must be deliberate, because the last color she remembered was the pink chips in the headstone of her baby girl. After that she became as color conscious as a hen. Every dawn she worked at fruit pies, potato dishes and vegetables while the cook did the soup, meat and all the rest. And she could not remember remembering a molly apple or a yellow squash. Every dawn she saw the dawn, but never acknowledged or remarked its color. There was something wrong with that. It was though one day she saw red baby blood, another day the pink gravestone chips, and that was the last of it" (pages 46-47).

 The last color Sethe can remember was in such a strong scene that she is unable to remember anymore occurrences of color.  She needs more images to block out the mental image of her dead child and, just as Baby Suggs had, can use color as a way to block out the haunting past.

The quilt is used as a picture because, in the novel, it holds the only exception to a room ridden of color. This little bit of color amongst so much darkness is, in my view, an escape from Sethe's conscious. If she allows herself more pondering of color, she will be able to suppress the terror of her past.

Feet & Eyes:

"People I saw as a child," she said, "who'd had the bit always looked wild after that. Whatever they used it on them for, it couldn't have worked, because it put a wildness where there wasn't any. When I look at you, I don't see it. There ain't no wildness in your eye nowhere" (page 84).

The feet above are strange. They are shaped abnormally and also have two many toes. I used this image because the feet show something about the person they belong to. The eyes to the right provide a portal. You can take a long look into the eyes, because there is something intriguing that draws you in.

Morrison spends a lot of time talking about one's feet when they are introduced to the story. In the opening scene, Sethe is barefoot. When Beloved is brought into the story, Sethe notices her feet. When Sethe makes her journey to freedom, her feet are swollen and nearly dead.

I think feet represent life's journey. More specifically, they show the circumstances of one's past, such as where and how long he has traveled. This is important because it characterizes people as old and experienced versus new and innocent.

Morrison also takes note of people's eyes in the story. Whether the eyes be wild or express passion as they have done for Sethe and Paul D, they play an important role in character. Eyes are often regarded as the way to see into someone's soul. Morrison uses eyes to determine her characters' passions, fears, and hopes.

The River & Night:

"A fully dressed woman walked out of the water" (page 60).

"Who like him, had hidden in caves and fought for food; who like him, stole from pigs; who, like him,  had slept in trees in the day and walked by night" (page 78).

The river and night both symbolize a form of passage. Beloved emerges from the river from her dead life onto her new, living one. Also, Paul D can only travel at night from his enslaved life to his of freedom. These two images show the ways someone can change their lives, whether they emerge as living beings or as freed men.

Velvet:

"Boston. Get me some velvet. It's a store there called Wilson. I seen the pictures of it and they have the prettiest velvet. They don't believe I'm a get it, but I am" (page 40).

 When she discovers Sethe lying in the cold field, Amy Denver reveals she is on her way to Boston to find velvet. She also says that no one believed she would get it but is determined.

I think velvet represents desire and also extreme measures that one will get to achieve their dreams. It also shows hope. The characters describe velvet as such a wonderful thing, but none of them have ever seen it. However, they expect that they will sometime. This is important because by concentrating on an object, they can endure most of what life throws at them.