crimes? Are pain and punishment caused by their victims justified? In Beloved, the reader is unable to fully comprehend Sethes actions, but the pain she suffers over the years more than makes up for her crime. In addition, there is no justice in Beloveds attempt to destroy Sethe. It is the community lead by Ella, which had for so long condemned her that in the end saves Sethe from Beloved. They come to realize that regardless of the crime that Sethe committed eighteen years before, it is Beloveds intentions that are pure evil. Whatever Sethe had done, Ella didnt like the idea of past errors taking possession of the present. Sethes crime was staggering and her pride outstripped even that; but she could not countenance the possibility of sin moving on in the house, unleashed and sassy. Daily life took as much as she had. The future was sunset; the past something to leave behind. And if it didnt stay behind, well, you might have to stomp it out. (256) Beloved invades Sethes world at a time when eighteen years of painful rememories were just beginning to fade. Beloved drudges up the past and brings the nightmare to life. Beloved does not only bring forth the painful rememories of Sethe, but also the rememories of past women of slavery. Beloved conjures up all these images of painful rememories. It is these images that are passed on and remebered by the reader. It is these images that allow the reader to begin to understand the experience of slavery. The characters rememories are timeless; not only are the characters struck by a sense of no-time, or a sense of time flying, but the reader as well is struck by how strongly they are affected in their present by a past that is not even theirs. Morrison brings forth a novel that opens the experience of slavery to the reader. She makes the reader see the hopelessness, horrors, and realities of slavery. The reader is forced to contemplate and only try to understand. Beloved stands not as a story, ...
