f her own parents' past is fragmented. The African languages and cultures that form the heritage of the slaves in the United States are lost in large part to the descendants of first generation slaves. Baby Suggs knows little about her first seven children, and she knows little about herself because he has no knowledge of her family history. Slavery did not favor the development of family structures for slaves. Legal marriage was not permitted. Husbands and wives could be sold away from one another, and children were sold away from parents. The former slaves of Beloved face the task of defining their identities in the aftermath of a dehumanizing history. They cannot look to family histories for help because they are so fragmentary. Many of them do not want to look to their own histories because the events are so painful to remember. However, these histories are often the only narratives available. Much of the novel details the struggles of Sethe, Paul D, and others to come to terms with their histories. During slavery they were treated like animals. Wearing the bit is a punishment aimed at dehumanizing the slave. Finding the strength to narrate the unspeakable past often becomes a way to reclaim one's humanity. It denies power of the iron bit to gag. It denies the power of that history to rob the victim of her or her voice. It is no small task to forge a human identity from the former slave's past inhumane existence. Sethe's reaction to schoolteacher's arrival is wordless, spontaneous. He threatens to take her and her children back to the conditions she risked so much to escape. She succeeds in killing one child, and schoolteacher knows he will never make a slave out of her again. Sethe's actions haunt her for eighteen years. The return of her dead daughter and her budding relationship with Paul D prompt her to examine her actions in detail. She thinks back on her life in order to find an explanatio...
